Tell Me About That Time When... : When Stories and Observations Become Data

Narrative research methods allow researchers to consider the characters, settings, events, and themes prevalent across participants\u27 learning experiences, allowing them to show, not tell the data. However, it is only in the context of participants\u27 present action in the world that these stories offer the most insights into how they make meaning around their stories. In this study, I describe the role of stories in a case study of an adult, expert video gamer. I used narrative think scenes to extract data from interviews and reconstruct fictionalized stories of what key moments in his gaming history might have been like. I further linked these think scenes with my observations of his game play, further locating tacit understandings and practices in his learning and mastery of video games. The narratives offered powerful platforms for data analysis, member checking, and relationship building