Life story and narrative approaches in the study of family lives

The chapter examines life story and narrative approaches and their application in the study of family lives. It begins with a brief history of some key figures in biographical research followed by an examination of some of the distinctions between the two approaches. The second part of the chapter presents and discusses a case of a grandfather and son drawn from an intergenerational study of fatherhood. The study’s method (the biographic-narrative interpretive method) demonstrates change and continuity in family life by situating lives in historical context and examining the cultural transmissions that are accepted and resisted by the younger generation. The chapter discusses the benefits of paying attention to the narrative form of life stories. In these ways biographical and narrative approaches produce a multi-layered analysis

“Let Me Do What I Please With It.. Don’t Decide My Identity For Me”: LGBTQ+ Youth Experiences of Social Media in Narrative Identity Development

Social media provides Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Queer Plus (LGBTQ+) youth with daily access to a broader sociocultural dialogue that may shape narrative identity development. Through in-depth narrative interviews, this study sought to understand the lived experiences of 11 LGBTQ+ undergraduates (age range = 19-23) building narrative identities in the cultural context of social media and the role of social media within this process. Interviews were analyzed using an interpretative, individual analysis of personal stories. These experiences were then compared and contrasted through thematic analysis to identify four shared narrative themes. Narratives of merging safe spaces highlight how LGBTQ+ youth now have regular access to safe environments online/offline which facilitate more secure identity development. Narratives of external identity alignment describe social media as a tool for LGBTQ+ youth to seek out identities that match their preexisting sense of self. Narratives of multiple context-based identities encapsulate how adolescents’ identity markers are multiple and invoked in a context-dependent manner. Finally, narratives of individuality and autonomy characterize how LGBTQ+ youth perceive themselves as highly individualized members of a wider community. These findings highlight the complex role social media plays within LGBTQ+ youth identity development. The implications are discussed within

'You were quiet - I did all the marching': Research processes involved in hearing the voices of South Asian girls

This article is available open access through the publisher’s website at the link below. Copyright @ 2011 A B Academic Publishers.This article provides insights into the outcomes of reflection following two interview approaches used to explore narratives of the lived, individual experiences of South-Asian girls living in West London. In attempting to illuminate and re-present the cultural experiences as told by these girls, the choice of interview approach became critical in allowing the voices to be effectively heard (Rogers, 2005). This article therefore considers how a semi-structured interview approach offered valuable insights into the girls' experiences but became constraining for both researcher and participant in unveiling the complexity and depth of their lives. These constraints emerged through reflection by both participants and researcher. As a result of reflexivity during the research process, the researcher moved towards the use of research conversations during the second phase of the study. Ultimately the study revealed how the girls felt empowered by the opportunity to narrate their individual experiences and tell of their lives. In narrating their reflections on being part of the research, there was a clear recognition that the process facilitated the articulation of new voices and ‘multi-voicedness’ (Moen, 2006

Am I just not good enough? The creation, development and questioning of a high performance coaching identity

While the career experiences and trajectories of various sports workers have received increased scholarly attention, those of professional coaches have, in comparison, received scant consideration. This paper focuses on the career experiences of Maeve (a pseudonym), a high performance coach, and the critical incidents related to the creation, development, and, ultimately, questioning of her professional identity. Data were collected through a series of narrative-biographical interviews and were subject to a process of iterative data analysis. The results indicated that her significant investment into her coaching self, combined with the vagaries and uncertain nature of work in high performance coaching, led her to experience a biographical disruption that interrupted the narrative coherence of her coaching life. The findings add further credence to recent critiques of only understanding and representing coaching careers in a linear and chronically staged fashion

The retirement experiences of elite female gymnasts: Self identity and the physical self

This study explored experiences of retirement from elite sport among a sample of retired female gymnasts. Given the young age at which female gymnasts begin and end their sport careers, particular attention was afforded to the role of identity and the physical self in the process of adaptation. Retrospective, semi-structured interviews were conducted and interview transcripts analyzed using interpretative phenomenological analysis. Analysis indicated that retirement from gymnastics engendered adjustment difficulties for six of the seven participants. Identity loss was particularly salient, and for two gymnasts, physical changes associated with retirement were a further source of distress. The challenge of athletic retirement was intensified because the gymnasts had heavily invested in sport during adolescence, a period demarcated for the pursuit of an identity. Furthermore, their retirement coincided with a time when adolescents typically undergo profound changes physiologically. Practical suggestions to facilitate athletes' disengagement from sport are discussed

Rethinking journalism practice through innovative approaches to post conflict reporting

Journalism has a long history of interviewing vulnerable people caught up in natural disasters, conflict or tragedy. While it is widely recognised that journalists have an important role to play in telling the stories of those traumatised by such events, the concepts of ‘peace journalism’ or ‘journalism of attachment’ have often elicited a negative reaction in traditional journalistic circles. Drawing on the authors’ research project working with young people embroiled in Colombia’s civil conflict, this paper sets out an alternative and innovative approach to the retelling of the stories of others. It outlines how the research team engaged with the young people, some of whom had operated as child soldiers before Colombia’s peace accord with FARC rebels, and encouraged them to narrate their own stories in their own style. Through a series of workshops, the team experimented with oral and visual representations of their experiences, staying close to their accounts, enabling their voices to be heard. The participants combined traditional narrative with animation to produce a short documentary setting out their hopes for peace and reconciliation. This project, with its focus on immersion and listening, offers an alternative approach for journalists trying to relay the experiences of traumatised individuals marginalised in society as a result of their participation in the armed conflict. While the project was located in the specific context of Colombia, the paper argues that the journalistic approaches used could be applied more widely to the reporting of trauma in post conflict or marginalised communities

Engaging with arts-based research: A story in three parts

Qualitative psychology researchers of today face numerous practical, ethical, political and theoretical challenges. We have often asked ourselves how we might respond to these multiple and complex challenges. On our evolving research journeys, we have found that arts-based methodologies offer one effective response. We explore here our experiences of doing arts-based research in psychological contexts, by sharing and reflecting on three short stories. The stories illustrate how each arts-based project has required of us three distinct waves of engagement: interdependent engagement with people and place, aesthetic engagement with sense making processes, and emotional engagement with – and of – audiences. We use the story form to evoke each wave of engagement because it allows us to communicate the qualities of that engagement without finalising, foreclosing or restricting the variety of ways arts-based research might be conducted