Personal Narratives and Policy: Never the Twain? (original) (raw)

Abstract

sparkles

AI

This paper examines the extent to which stories and personal narratives can inform education policy. It investigates various forms of narrative research, emphasizing the importance of auto/biography in understanding social contexts and individual experiences. The authors argue that personal narratives provide valuable insights for policy makers, highlighting both their relevance and the complexities involved in integrating these narratives into educational policy.

Loading...

Loading Preview

Sorry, preview is currently unavailable. You can download the paper by clicking the button above.

References (125)

  1. Altheide, D and Johnson, J (1998) 'Criteria for assessing interpretive validity in qualitative research' in Denzin, N and Lincoln, Y (eds) Collecting and Interpreting Qualitative Materials, (London, Sage)
  2. Arad, B. D. and Leichtentritt, R. D. (2005) Young male street workers: life histories and current experiences, British Journal of Social Work 35 (4) pp. 483-509
  3. Arendt, H. (1958) The Human Condition, (London and Chicago, University of Chicago Press)
  4. Arendt, H. (1963) On Revolution, (London, Faber & Faber)
  5. Atkinson, R. (1998) The life story interview Thousand Oaks, CA, Sage Publications Austin, J.L. (1979) Philosophical Papers, (Third edition) Oxford University Press Avramidis, E. and Norwich, B. (2002) Teachers' attitudes towards integration/inclusion: a review of the literature, European Journal of Special Needs Education 17 (2) pp. 129-47
  6. Biesta, G. (2007) Why 'what works' won't work. Evidence-based practice and the democratic deficit of educational research, Educational Theory 57(1) pp. 1-22
  7. Bolton, G. (2006) Narrative writing: reflective enquiry into professional practice, Educational Action Research 14 (2) pp. 203-218
  8. Booth, T. and Both, W. (2006) The uncelebrated parent: stories of mothers with learning difficulties caught in the child protection trap, British Journal of Learning Disabilities 34, pp. 94-102
  9. Brannen, J., Stratham, J., Mooney, A. and Brockmann, M. (2007) Care Careers: The Work and Family Lives of Workers Caring for Vulnerable Children, Research Brief available online at http://www.dfes.gov.uk/research/data/uploadfiles/TCRU-02-07.pdf [accessed 25/7/7]
  10. Bridges, D (2003) Fiction written under oath? (London, Kluwer Academic Publishers)
  11. Bruner, J. (1986) Actual Minds, possible worlds (Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press)
  12. Bullough, R. V. (1998). Musings on life writing: Biography and case studies in teacher education. In C. Kridel (ed.), Writing educational biography: Explorations in qualitative research (pp. 19-32) (New York, Garland)
  13. Burdell, P. and Swadener, B. B. (1999) Critical personal narrative and autoethnography: Reflections on a genre, Educational Researcher 28(6) pp. 21- 26
  14. Butler, J. (1990) Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity, (New York, Routledge)
  15. Cameron, C., Bennert, K., Simon, A. and Wigfall, V. (2007) Using Health, Education, housing and Other Services: A Study of Care Leavers and Young People in Difficulty, Research Brief available online at http://www.dfes.gov.uk/research/data/uploadfiles/TCRU-01-07.pdf [accessed 25th July 2007]
  16. Carroll, Lewis, (1974) The Annotated Snark -(ed. and intro. M Gardner), Harmondsworth, Penguin
  17. Casey, K. (1995/6) The New Narrative Research in Education, Review of Research in Education 21, pp. 211-253
  18. Cavarero, A. (2000) Relating Narratives: Storytelling and Selfhood (trans. Paul A. Kottmann) (London and New York, Routledge)
  19. Cavarero, A. (2002) Politicizing theory, Political Theory 30 (4) pp. 506-532
  20. Chaitin, J. (2004) My Story, My Life, My Identity, The International Journal of Qualitative Methods 3 (4) pp. 1-17
  21. Clough, P. (1996) 'Again Fathers and Sons': the mutual construction of self, story and special educational needs, Disability & Society, 11 (1) pp. 71-81
  22. Clough, P. (2002) Narratives and Fictions in Educational Research, (Buckingham, Open University Press)
  23. Connelly, F. M., and Clandinin, D. J. (1990) Stories of Experience and Narrative Enquiry, Educational Researcher 19 (5) pp. 2 -14
  24. Convery, A. (1999) Listening to teachers' stories: are we sitting too comfortably? Qualitative Studies in Education, 12 (2) pp. 131-146
  25. Couser, G. T. (2002) 'Signifying Bodies: Life Writing and Disability Studies' in Snyder, S. L., Brueggemann, B. J., and Garland-Thomson, R. (eds) Disability Studies: Enabling the Humanities, (New York; Modern Language Association of America)
  26. Cunningham, M. and Hargreaves, L. (2007) Minority Ethnic Teachers' Professional Experiences: Evidence From the Teacher Status Project, Research Brief No RB853, (London, Department for Education and Skills)
  27. Curtis, K. (2002) Review essay of Cavarero and Riley, Political Theory 30 (6) pp. 852-857
  28. Czarniawska, B. (2004) Narratives in Social Science Research, London, Sage Deneulin, S. and Hodgett, S. (2006) 'On the use of narratives for assessing development policy', paper presented at the International Conference of the Human Development and Capability Association August 29-Sept 1, Groningen Netherlands available online at http://www.capabilityapproach.com/pubs/5\_4\_DeneulinHodgett.pdf?PHPSESSI D=5ebc1eae10b1ec6dcef1664ae68bdb45 (Accessed 30th May 2007)
  29. Dennett, D. (1995) Darwin's Dangerous Idea, (London, Allen Lane)
  30. Doyle, W. (1997) Heard any really good stories lately? A critique of the critics of narrative in educational research, Teaching and Teacher Education 13 (1) pp. 93-99
  31. Dunne, J. (1993) Back to the Rough Ground: Practical Judgement and the Lure of Technique, (University of Notre Dame Press)
  32. Dunne, J. and Pendlebury, S. (2003)"Practical Reason," in The Blackwell Guide to the Philosophy of Education eds. N. Blake, P. Smeyers, R. Smith and P. Standish, (Oxford, Blackwell Publishing)
  33. Eick, C. J. (2002) Studying Career Science Teachers' Personal Histories: A Methodology for Understanding Intrinsic Reasons for Career Choice and Retention, Research in Science Education 32 (3) pp. 353-72
  34. Elbaz-Luwisch, F. (1997) Narrative research: political issues and implications, Teaching and Teacher Education, 13 (1) pp. 75-83
  35. Evans, R., Pinnock, K., Beirens, H. and Edwards, A. (2006) Developing Preventative Practices: the Experiences of Children, young People and their Families in the Children's Fund, Research Brief RB735; Department for Education and Skills Ezzy, D. (1998) Lived experience and interpretation in narrative theory: experiences of living with HIV/AIDS, Qualitative Sociology 21 (2) pp. 169-179
  36. Feldman, A (2007) Validity and quality in action research Educational Action Research 15 (1) pp. 21-32
  37. Fischer-Rosenthal, W. (1995) The Problem with Identity: Biography as Solution to Some (Post)-Modernist Dilemmas, Comenius' 15 (3) pp. 250-265
  38. Franzosi, R. (1998) Narrative Analysis -or Why (and How) Sociologists Should Be Interested in Narrative, Annual Review of Sociology 24
  39. Fraser, H. (2004) Doing Narrative Research: Analysing personal stories line by line, Qualitative Social Work 3 (2) pp. 179-201
  40. Frid, I., Ohlen, J. and Bergbom, I. (2000) On the use of narratives in nursing research, Journal of Advanced Nursing 32 (3) pp. 695-703
  41. Frogget, L. and Chamberlayne, P. (2004) Narratives of Social Enterprise: From biography to practice and policy critique, Qualitative Social Work 3 (1) pp. 61- 77
  42. Foucault, M. (1984) What is Enlightenment? In Paul Rabinow (ed.) The Foucault Reader (London, Penguin) pp. 32-50
  43. Gaita, R. (1998) A Common Humanity, (London, Routledge)
  44. Glasby, J. and Lester, H. (2005) On the Inside: A narrative review of mental health inpatient services, British Journal of Social Work 35, pp. 863-879
  45. Gitlin, A. and Russell, R. (1994) Alternative Methodologies and the Research Context in Gitlin, A. (ed) Power and Method: Political Activism and Educational Research (New York, Routledge)
  46. Goodson, I.F. (1997) Representing teachers, Teaching and Teacher Education, 13 (1) pp. 111-117
  47. Gow, L. and McPherson, A. (eds.) (1980) Tell Them from Me, (Aberdeen University Press)
  48. Griffiths, M. (1995a) Feminisms and the Self: The Web of Identity (London and New York, Routledge)
  49. Griffiths, M. (1995b) (Auto)biography and Epistemology, Educational Review 47 (1) pp. 75-88
  50. Griffiths, M. (1998) Educational Research for Social Justice: Getting off the Fence, (Buckingham, Open University Press)
  51. Griffiths, M. (2003) Action for social justice in education: fairly different, (Maidenhead, Open University Press)
  52. Griffiths, M. and Barr, J. (2007) 'Training the imagination to "go visiting"' in M. Walker and J. Nixon (eds.) Reclaiming Universities from a Runaway World (Buckingham, Open University Press)
  53. Gudmundsdottir, S. (1997) Introduction to the theme issue of 'narrative perspectives on research on teaching and teacher education, Teaching and Teacher Education 13 (1) pp. 1-3
  54. Hammersley, M. (2002) Educational Research: Policymaking and Practice, (London, Paul Chapman)
  55. Heikkinen, H.L.T., Huttunen, R. and Kakkori, L. (2000) 'And this story is true': On the problem of narrative truth, Paper presented to ECER, Edinburgh, September, www.leeds.ac.uk/educol/documents/00002351.htm (Accessed 28 February, 2007)
  56. Heikkinen, H., Kakkori, L. and Huttenen, R. (2001) This is my truth, tell me yours: Some aspects of action research quality in the light of truth theories, Educational Action Research 9(1) pp. 9-24
  57. Heikkinen, H.L.T., Huttunen, R. and Syrjälä, L (2007) Action research as narrative: five principles for validation, Educational Action Research 15 (1) pp. 5-19
  58. Hitchcock, g. and Hughes, D. (1995) Research and the Teacher (second edition) (London, Routledge)
  59. Hogan, P. (2000) Virtue, vice and vacancy in educational policy and practice, British Journal of Educational Studies 48 (4). pp. 371-390
  60. Jolly, M. (2001) (ed) Encyclopedia of Life Writing:Autobiographical and Biographical Forms, (Chicago, Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers)
  61. Jones, G., O'Sullivan, A. and Rouse, J. (2004) "Because It's Worth It?": Education Beliefs Among Young People and Their Parents in the United Kingdom, Youth & Society 36 (2) pp. 203-226
  62. Jordens, C. F. C. and Little, M. (2004) 'In This Scenario, I Do This, for These Reasons': Narrative, Genre and Ethical Reasoning in the Clinic, Social Science & Medicine 58 (9) pp. 1635-1645
  63. Krog, A. (1998) Country of My Skull, (London, Cape)
  64. Kvernbekk, T. (2003) On identifying narratives, Studies in Philosophy and Education 22, pp. 267-279
  65. Lather, P. (1994) Fertile Obsession: Validity after Poststructuralism in Gitlin, A, (ed) Power and Method: Political Activism and Educational Research, (New York, Routledge)
  66. Lawson, H., Parker, M. and Sikes, P. (2006) Seeking Stories: reflections on a narrative approach to researching understanding of inclusion, European Journal of Special Needs Education 21 (1) pp. 55-68
  67. Lewis, C. S. (1996) The Hunting of the Snark,( Harmonsworth, Penguin)
  68. Lugones, M. (1989) 'Playfulness, "world"-traveling and loving perception' in Ann Garry and Marilyn Pearsall (eds.) Women, Knowledge and Reality, (Boston, Unwin Hyman)
  69. Lyotard, J-F. (1984) The Postmodern Condition: a Report on Knowledge, (Manchester University Press)
  70. Lyotard, J-F (1989) The Differend: Phrases in Dispute, Trans. George Van Den Abbeele, (Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press)
  71. MacLure, M. (2003) Discourse in Educational and Social Research, (Buckingham, Open University Press)
  72. Mauthner, M. (2000) Snippets and silences: ethics and reflexivity in narratives of sistering, International Journal of Social Research Methodology 3 (4) pp. 287- 306
  73. McCrone, D. (2001) (second edition) Understanding Scotland: the Sociology of a Nation, (London, Routledge)
  74. McCloskey, D. N. (1990) Storytelling in Economics. In Nash, C (Ed.) Narrative in Culture: The Uses of Storytelling in the Sciences, Philosophy, and Literature, pp. 5-22 (London, Routledge)
  75. McDowell, L. (2001) 'It's that Linda again': Ethical, Practical and Political Issues Involved in Longitudinal Research with Young Men, Ethics, Place and Environment 4 (2) pp. 87-100
  76. McNulty, M. A. (2003) Dyslexia and the Life Course Journal of Learning Disabilities 36 (4) pp. 363-81
  77. McPherson, A. (1983) 'An Angle on the Geist: Persistence and Change in the Scottish Educational tradition' in Humes, W. H. and Paterson, H. M. (eds) Scottish Culture and Scottish Education 1800-1980, Edinburgh, John Donald Publishers Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary (2006-7) valid, http://www.m- w.com/dictionary/valid (Accessed 3 August, 2007)
  78. Moen, T. (2006) Reflections on the narrative research approach, International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 5 (4)
  79. Moon, C. (2006) Narrating Political Reconciliation: Truth and Reconciliation in South Africa, Social and Legal Studies 15 (2) pp. 257 -275
  80. Muller-Merback (2006) Three kinds of knowledge, reflecting Kant's three kinds of action, Knowledge management research and practice 4, pp. 73-74
  81. Munn, P. (2005) Researching Policy and Policy Research, Scottish Educational Review 37(1)
  82. Munn, P., Riddell, S., Lloyd, G., Macleod, G., Stead, J., Kane, J. and Fairley, J. (2005) Evaluation of the Discipline Task Group Recommendations: The Deployment of Additional Staff to Promote Positive School Discipline. Research Report to the Scottish Executive Education Department, available at www.scotland.gov.uk/Home
  83. Nutley, S. M., Walter, I. and Davies, H.T.O. (2007) Using Evidence: How research can inform public services (Bristol, Policy Press)
  84. Oakley, A. (1984) Taking it Like a Woman, (London, Cape)
  85. O'Neill, O. (1996) Towards Justice and Virtue: A Constructive Account of Practical Reasoning, (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press)
  86. Ozga, J. (2004) From research to policy and practice: some issues in knowledge transfer CES Briefing No.31 Centre for Educational Sociology University of Edinburgh available online at www/ces.ed.ac.uk/PDF%20Files/Brief031.pdf (Accessed 8th May 2007)
  87. Ozga, J. and Jones, R. (2006) Travelling and embedded policy: the case of knowledge transfer Journal of Education Policy 21 (1) pp. 1-17
  88. Paterson, L. (2003) Scottish Education in the Twentieth Century, (Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press)
  89. Peters, M. and Besley, T. (2006) The narrative turn: Critical educational studies and the poetics of resistance, Paper presented at PESGB, Oxford
  90. Phillips, D.C. (1997) Telling the truth about stories, Teaching and Teacher Education, 13 (1) pp. 101-109
  91. Pirrie, A. and Macleod, G. (2007) Tracking pupils excluded from PRUs and special schools: some methodological concerns paper presented at Work With Young People Conference Leicester 14th-15th June 2007
  92. Pollard, A. (2005) Explorations in Teaching and Learning: A Biographical Narrative and Some Enduring Issues International Studies in Sociology of Education 15 (1) pp. 87-105
  93. Polkinghorne, D. E. (1995). Narrative configuration in qualitative analysis In Hatch, J. A. & Wisniewski, R. (eds) Life History and Narrative (pp5-23) (London, The Falmer Press)
  94. Raffe, D. (2003) 'How Distinctive is Scottish Education? Five Perspectives on Distinctiveness' paper presented to Scottish Educational Research Association, Annual Conference, Perth 27-29 November 2003
  95. Reissman, C. K. (1993) Narrative Analysis, (California, Sage)
  96. Richardson, L. (1992) 'The Poetic Representation of Lives: Writing a Postmodern Sociology'; Studies in Symbolic Interaction 13, pp. 19-29
  97. Sanders, J. and Munford, R. (2005) Activity and Reflection: Research and Change with Diverse Groups of Young People, Qualitative Social Work 4 (2) pp. 197- 209
  98. Santoro, N., Kamler, B., and Reid, J.(2001) Teachers Talking Difference: teacher education and the poetics of anti-racism, Teaching Education 12 (2) pp. 191- 212
  99. Sartre, Jean-Paul (1958) Being and Nothingness (Trans. Hazel Barnes) (London, Methuen)
  100. Saunders, L. (2003) On flying, writing poetry and doing educational research, British Educational Research Journal, 29 (2) pp. 175-187
  101. Scottish Parliament (2002) http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/business/committees/historic/education/or- 02/ed02-1902.htm (Accessed 2nd May 2007)
  102. Searle, J. R. (1964) How to dervive an 'ought' from an 'is', The Philosophical Review 73(1) pp. 43-58
  103. Smeyers, P. (2007) The Hidden Homogenisation of Educational Research: on opening up the sphere of educational responsiveness, in Smeyers, P., & Depaepe, M. (Eds.) Educational Research / Networks and Technologies (Dordrecht, Springer)
  104. Smeyers, P. and Verhesschen, P. (2001) Narrative analysis as philosophical research: bridging the gap between the empirical and the conceptual, International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 14 (1) 71084
  105. Smith, S. and Watson, J. (2001) Reading Autobiography: A Guide for Interpreting Life Narratives (Minnesota, University of Minnesota Press)
  106. Stanley, L. (1993) On Auto/Biography in Sociology, Sociology 27 (1) pp. 41-52
  107. Stroobants V. (2005) Stories about learning in narrative biographical research, International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 18 (1) pp. 47-61
  108. Symes, R. and Ridgers, B. (1995) The educative 'I' in 19th-century women's autobiographies, in Julia Swindells ed. The Uses of Autobiography (London, Taylor and Francis)
  109. Thompson, P. (2004) Pioneering the Life-Story Method, International Journal of Social Research Methodology 7 (1) pp. 81-84
  110. Townsend, Lucy and Weiner, Gaby, Deconstructing and Reconstructing Lives: Using Autobiography in Educational Settings, (Althouse Press, in preparation)
  111. Ungar, M. (2004) Nurturing Hidden Resilience in Troubled Youth, (Toronto, University of Toronto Press)
  112. Ungar, M. (2006) 'Too Ambitious': What Happens when Funders Misunderstand the Strengths of Qualitative Research Design, Qualitative Social Work, 5(2) pp. 261-277
  113. Vithal, Renuka. (2002) Crucial Descriptions: Talking back to theory and practice in mathematics education through research in the Proceedings of the Third International Mathematics Education and Society Conference, pp 501-511.
  114. Helsingor, Denmark. http://www.mes3.learning.aau.dk/Papers/Vithal.pdf (Accessed January, 2008)
  115. Walker, M. and Unterhalter, E. (2004) Knowledge, narrative and national reconciliation: storied reflections on the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education 25 (2) pp. 279-297
  116. Watts, M. and Bridges, D. (2004) Whose Aspirations? What Achievement: an investigation of the life and lifestyle aspirations of 16-19 year olds outside the formal educational system, (Cambridge, East of England Development Agency)
  117. Wells, B. and Cunningham, P. (1995) Autobiography and educational change, in Julia Swindells ed. The Uses of Autobiography (
  118. Wetle, T., Shield, R., Teno, J., Miller, S. C. and Welch, L. (2005) Family Perspectives on End-of-Life Care Experiences in Nursing Homes, Gerontologist 45 (5) pp. 642 -650
  119. Whitehead, J. (1993) The Growth of Educational Knowledge, (Hyde, http://people.bath.ac.uk/edsajw/writings/jwgek93.htm
  120. Williams, B. (2002) Truth and Truthfulness: An essay in genealogy, (Princeton and Oxford, Princeton University Press)
  121. Wright Mills, C. (1959) The Sociological Imagination, (Oxford, Oxford University Press) ENDNOTES
  122. Of course, with space limited we omit much more than we include. The decisions about what to leave out should not in any way be taken as a judgement of their importance or potential contribution to the question at hand, simply that the issues that we do take up are those which we judge most germane to the focus of this article. For example it is not within the remit of this paper to conduct a detailed examination of the defining features of narrative research, e.g. Ricouer's work on the relationship between temporality and narrative; the notion of human life as 'storied'; the rhetorical power of narrative; conceptualisations of the 'self'; developmental aspects of narrative; the general philosophical discussion of epistemology and 'testimony'; psycho-social approaches to narrative and memory; etc.
  123. There is much more that could be added here about the phenomenology of human presence. For instance, see Sartre's (1958) influential discussion of the Look and how it cuts through the attempt to make the Other into an object. (See especially pp. 258-9.) Similarly Gaita (1998) discusses the zense of the preciousness of each human being which he distinguishes from concepts such as inalienable human rights, or persons as ends in themselves. There is also something to be said about how we can lose that sense or have it brought into our attention. He quotes Weil: if you want to become invisible, there is no surer way than to become poor` (Gaita, 1998, p. 10).
  124. In a number of publications Griffiths has argued for the view that reliable knowledge is always provisional and revisable (Griffiths 1995a, 1995b, 1998, 2003).
  125. For more on facts and their interpretation, see Griffiths, 1998, Chapter 4.