Narrative inquiry

Whilst there are a range of theoretical assumptions and approaches associated with narrative inquiry, there is, according to Stanley and Temple (2008: 276) "little shared sense of core concerns, of approach, and even of what narrative is seen as." This chapter aims to provide some coherence and practical guidance when engaging in narrative inquiry in language education. The chapter begins by providing an overview of narrative inquiry and its characteristics. A specific type of narrative inquiry, autoethnography - i.e., a form of narrative research that is conducted and represented from the point of view of the self with the objective of surfacing how culture shapes and is shaped by the personal and perceived as socially constructed knowledge and experiences (Canagarajah, 2012) - is explained and advocated by the authors for use in the field of English language learning (ELL) in this chapter. The steps of narrative inquiry are presented and considerations and challenges are discussed.