COMING TO NARRATIVE INQUIRY IN THE CONTEXTS OF OUR LIVES: A CONVERSATION ABOUT OUR WORK AS NARRATIVE INQUIRERS

The text reports our experiences as narrative researchers to highlight aspects of narrative research that often create difficulties for new researchers in this relational form of research. We begin by reminding readers that narrative inquiry is the study of the experience understood in the narrative. Thus, we draw attention to narrative research as a phenomenon under study and methodology for the study. This by itself often creates confusion for those who are new to narrative inquiry. We highlight three particular tensions that often cause difficulties for researchers. Engaging at the beginning of the autobiographical narrative, shifting from field texts to research texts and conducting narrative investigations made purposive for personal, theoretical/practical and social justifications were the three tensions we selected. Drawing on ongoing and recently completed narrative investigations, Dilma, Shaun and Jean have made explicit the ways in which they have moved from interim field texts to final research texts