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To summarise, I reflected on whether storytelling can be used in research by considering its role in Narrative Inquiry. I examined my own biases and assumptions about research, such as that trustworthy research studies should be objective. I have also reflected on the shift in my perspective as I analyzed Dan’s story. In this group's “saved” section, I have saved other moving stories that further demonstrate the power of narratives in providing a multi-faceted perspective on experience. Being inspired by Dan’s story, I related it to my experiences and arrived at the conclusion that, yes, storytelling should be used in research. Using narratives in research allows participants to share their experiences in the most holistic way and collaborate with researchers to share their stories with respective stakeholders that are often inaccessible to them due to power dynamics. This activity has helped me understand the course content (which is obviously essential!) and myself from a perspective I have never looked at before.

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As of now, I reflected on how I came to regard storytelling as a valuable tool in research since it can give voice to those whose voice is not commonly heard, considering the unique contexts of their experiences. A fundamental bias of mine still needs to be discussed: how can a study be trustworthy if stories are so subjective to interpretation? Bell (2002) also points out that it is an ethical challenge for researchers to avoid imposing meaning on participants’ lived experiences when conducting a Narrative Inquiry study.

Clandinin and Connelly started addressing this concern in one of their earliest works when they proposed that participants should act as collaborative researchers:

“Collaborative research constitutes a relationship. In everyday life, the idea of friendship implies a sharing, an interpretation of two or more persons’ spheres of experiences. Mere contact is acquaintanceship, not friendship. The same way be said for collaborative research, which requires a close relationship akin to friendship. Relationships are joined, as McIntyre implies, by the narrative unities of our lives” (1988, p.281).

I believe that it is a unique characteristic of Narrative Inquiry that stories are co-constructed in close collaboration with participants, allowing for prolonged engagement and constant member checking (even though Connelly and Clandinin do not specifically use this term). Being open to multiple interpretations and engaging in reflexivity throughout each step of the study also protects study findings from the researcher’s influence (Clandinin, 2023). As a result, researchers collect a number of field texts that provide a thick description of the studied experience that they analyze together with their participants, making the study findings trustworthy.

However, I also wonder whether such close collaboration is unproblematic. One of the most apparent limitations would be feasibility, as it is a time-consuming process that might not apply to some research puzzles. Moreover, a friendship-like collaboration might impose another ethical challenge as the study comes to an end, and researchers and participants, after being so immersed in each other’s lives, must separate, potentially impacting their emotional state. Nevertheless, no research methodology is entirely unproblematic. I am convinced that the foundational philosophy of Narrative Inquiry creates a space where storytelling can be utilized in a trustworthy research study.

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At this point, I encourage the reader to explore ‘The Mighty’ platform. It was created in 2014 by Mike Porath to support individuals with health conditions, such as chronic disabilities or mental health issues, by providing relevant resources, creating a safe space for communication, and encouraging them to share their personal narratives. I invite you to read the post by Dan Dillenback (2024), a caregiver to his young wife affected by trigeminal neuralgia, whose story supports the idea that narratives can provide a rich and detailed account of one’s experience:

'Am I a Good Husband or Bad Caregiver?' When You Become Care...

While reading this story, I came to understand Clandinin's (2023) idea that attending to an experience involves considering all three commonplaces: temporality, sociality, and place. Dan’s experience is in a temporal transition between the past, the present, and the future. Twelve years ago, he was scared and could not understand his wife’s perspective when she wanted to keep living life the same way as before her diagnosis. Now, he is in the midst of uncertainty, questioning whether he is making the right choices by defending his wife’s decision to pursue her regular activities despite the risks to her health. But at the same, he sees himself continuing to support this decision in the future, hopeful for a “joyful, fulfilling, and longer life together.” Looking at this story from a sociality commonplace allows us to view social and personal contexts shaping one’s experiences. Dan is both a husband and a caregiver to his wife; he is a dad for two school-age children, carrying out financial obligations for his family; he is experiencing guilt and hopefulness while trying to manage multiple responsibilities. The third commonplace—place—considers the physical context of experience. While readers do not know Dan’s geographical location, we can consider ‘The Mighty’ platform as a digital place for his experience. This digital place may be as impactful as a physical setting, showing that Dan is seeking support and information by turning to an online community of people with similar experiences.

From this brief analysis of Dan’s story, we can gather numerous details about the experience of caregivers for their spouses. Attending to all three commonplaces allows us to consider the various contexts impacting one’s story, providing a rich description. I have chosen ‘The Mighty’ platform because it contains many stories, drawings, and pictures, each telling a multi-faceted story of someone’s health-related experience. But the question remains: why would we use narratives in research?

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Clandinin (2023) highlights that both researchers and participants enter the inquiry in the midst, meaning that their experiences are not isolated but co-occur in many contexts. Clandinin (2023) believes that any Narrative Inquiry study should start from an intensive autobiographical narrative inquiry endeavour in order to:

1. Engage in self-reflection and uncover how the researcher’s own experiences are “also shaped by past, present, and future unfolding social, cultural, institutional, linguistic, and familial narratives (p.26);

2. Frame their research puzzle;

3. Start justifying their inquiries on personal, practical, and social levels of justification.

That is why I would like to introduce my background first to demonstrate the context that shaped my assumptions about storytelling in Narrative Inquiry. I am a young white female of Ukrainian origin. Historically, my nation has been affected by inter-generational trauma due to wars, displacements, and political repressions that, unfortunately, continue to this day. Until 16 years old, I lived and studied in my home country, which shaped many of my fundamental beliefs. For example, the Ukrainian health system still favors a biomedical approach to healthcare, overlooking the importance of non-biological factors. I was also educated that health-related research needs to be quantifiable to be trustworthy, so it is not affected by biases and individual assumptions. Being raised with such beliefs, I could not imagine the use of storytelling in rigorous research studies, as I only saw it fit in English classes and some social sciences. But what changed my perspective on storytelling in research?

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My familiarization with the Narrative Inquiry method began with one of the oldest works on this topic by its pioneers, Connelly and Clandinin (1990), who situated this methodology within educational research. Narrative Inquiry is a qualitative methodology in which a researcher attempts to gain a deep and nuanced understanding of the participants’ experiences through the analysis of their narratives in a collaborative and reflective process of knowledge co-construction (Clandinin, 2023). In this methodology, field texts (which is what Connelly and Clandinin called data) are collected in a number of ways, including field notes, transcripts of interviews, photographs, paintings, writings, and other sorts of artifacts (Clandinin, 2023). Therefore, stories or narratives can be collected through numerous mediums, which, combined together, represent a holistic account of the studied experience. As Clandinin (2023) points out, field texts are subjective and representative of the experiences of both researchers and participants.

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Word while so easily spoken. Many don't weigh the true weight these words may have. A few simple words can so easily change the day of someone for the better or worse.

Words spoken in the negative can alter the self-esteem of someone or drive their mental height.

The funny thing about negative words is they often on carry a weight for the person they are spoken to or about, and rarely any weight for the person that has spoken the words.

While words in the positive may carry a lesser metaphoric weight, their weight not only carries to the person they are spoken to or about, but they also produce a weight for the person speaking the words. Research has shown with a simple concept of gratitude, the person showing the gratitude receive a positive impact to their own mental health and happiness. So, lets image something we do so much throughout the day, communicate, could have if it was down in a positive manner. You may just increase your own mental health and happiness.

Checkout my latest blog post for a more in depth discussion on words both in a positive and negative manner.

September 1, 2022: Words..... The negative and the positive ...

#MentalHealth #BipolarDisorder #takebackthenarrative #SuicidePrevention #Positivity #words #Blog