Narrative Research

Narrative research in curriculum studies is a relatively new social science methodology and grew out of F. Michael Connelly and D. Jean Clandinin's curriculum studies work on teacher knowledge. They called the method narrative inquiry. The terms narrative research and narrative inquiry are synonyms. Different Individuals outside of curriculum studies may use and interpret the terms differently. Narrative inquiry is commonly used in curriculum studies and is used in this entry.

Narrative inquiry is an experiential methodology for studying curricular experience. The key phrase is experiencing experience. Narrative inquiry is a comprehensive research methodology referring both to a method of inquiry and to the phenomena studied. In narrative inquiry, that is, in experiencing (method) the experience (phenomena), narrative is the phenomena of curriculum inquiry because teachers, students, and others experience curriculum narratively. Narrative is the method of inquiry because the inquiry process is an experiential and collaborative process for the researcher. Narrative inquiry is the experiential study of curriculum experience.

The significance of narrative inquiry for curriculum studies is that researchers participate in the curriculum experience under study. Narrative inquiry in curriculum studies is a holistic experiential study of all aspects of curriculum (learner, teacher, subject matter, and milieu), both in and out of classrooms and schools.