TITLE:
Narrative Texts in Narrative Inquiry: Interpretive Voices to Better Understand Experiences in Given Space and Time
AUTHORS:
Sudhir Kumar Jha
KEYWORDS:
Narrative Inquiry, Narrative Texts, Interpretive Voices, Time and Space
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Leadership,
Vol.7 No.4,
December
21,
2018
ABSTRACT: Narrative inquiry has often been regarded as a methodology evolved through
human cultures of storytelling. Oftentimes, researchers espousing narrative
inquiry face with the challenges of integrating meaning and perspectives into
narrative texts. One group of scholars argues that narrative texts themselves
are interpretations so a separate analysis is not needed. Other group goes on
in favor of separating narratives from interpretation. In this context, based on
my PhD field experiences with narrative inquiry on team leadership experiences
of “larger size” private school principals of Kathmandu, Nepal, here I
argue how narrative texts become interpretive voices open to many interpretations;
and therefore, so as to make better understanding of the narratives, it
is the role of researcher to make perspectival analysis of the field texts, position
them to the given time and space of temporality, sociality, and place
(Connelly & Clandinin, 2016) and share the researcher’s standpoints with the
readers.