45: Narrative Inquiry in Educational Research

In this paper we discuss narrative inquiry in educational research. We focus on two research programs: a school-based program on multicultural education and a life-based program on cultural identity. We position narrative in the social sciences and examine its theoretical roots in education. For narrative inquirers, research, education, and life experience are intertwined. We explore this connected experience by being in the midst of life, thinking narratively, and making meaning of experience in relationship with participants. We situate experience in historical, temporal, and physical contexts, rather than categorize experience according to fixed, preexisting, theoretical typologies. We discuss potentials of narrative inquiry and concerns that need to be addressed.