Using Narrative Research and Portraiture To Inform Design Research

Using Narrative Research and Portraiture to Inform Design
Research
Connie Golsteijn, Serena Wright
2013
Abstract
Employing an interdisciplinary perspective, this paper addresses how narrative research and
portraiture - methods originating from, and commonly used in social sciences - can be
beneficial for HCI and design research communities. Narrative research takes stories as a
basis for data collection and analysis, while portraiture can be used to create written
narratives about interview participants. Drawing on this knowledge, we show how a focus
on narrative data, and analysis of such data through portraiture, can be adopted for the
specific purpose of enhancing design processes. We hope to encourage design and HCI
researchers to consider adopting these methods. By drawing on an illustrative example, we
show how these methods served to inform design ideas for digital crafting. Based on our
experiences, we present guidelines for using narrative research and portraiture for design
research, as well as discussing opportunities and strengths, and limitations and risks.
Introduction
1. The use of qualitative research methods originating from social sciences – for
example, interviews, ethnography, and data coding – is well established in HCI and
design research communities. In practice, however, there is still a significant gap
between disciplines, because social science methods adopted in HCI do not always
provide a close fit to the method’s original ethos, often ‘fail[ing] to do justice’ to the
kinds of insights that such methods can provide [1, p.549]. There is still plenty of
discussion about the role of the social sciences and humanities in the inherently
‘interventionary’ world of HCI, which was again illustrated by a vivid panel discussion
about this topic at CHI 2012 [2]. This interdisciplinary paper aims to contribute to the
discussion on how HCI may learn and benefit from closer investigation,
appropriation, and collaboration with the humanities and social sciences, and enable
the diversity of human life to come to life through our research. This paper is aimed
particularly at researchers in interaction design who seek to generate qualitative
person-centered data to aid both the design process and the understanding of the
users, but who do not have an extensive social science background. As such,
researchers familiar with social science methods may already be aware of some of
the points made in this paper, although we hope that they may still benefit from the
discussion around the adoption of such methods in a design process. Specifically, we
address how the HCI field can benefit from adopting the practices of narrative
research and portraiture from the social sciences, and we illustrate how these
practices can be used together in a design research process, firstly, to gather,
analyze and present data, and secondly, to inform idea generation activities.
Narrative research and portraiture methods provide means to engage creatively and
holistically with research participant data. As we will illustrate, this approach is
beneficial for increasing understanding in users, their diverse motivations and
behaviors, and the context of use. In addition, these insights can then be actively
utilized in the design process to create novel and appropriate design solutions which
are sensitive to these diversities.
2. This paper is aimed at researchers in interaction design who seek to generate
qualitative person-centered data to aid both the design process and the
understanding of the users, but who do not have an extensive social science
background
3. Instead of focusing on ‘implications for design’, the approach we are advocating in
this paper aims to increase the importance of ethnographic data, by importing
narrative data, integrity intact, into the ideation phase
4. The ways in which the words and meaning of the research participants are
represented is a contentious issue, and researchers must be wary around claims to
‘give voice’, when the reality is that the main aim of the research is to help the
interviewer, not the interviewee [42]
Discussion
5. Drawing on our experiences using narrative research and portraiture approaches in
a design research process, we will critically assess the opportunities and strengths,
and limitations and risks of these methods. Being highly qualitative in nature, and
resulting in different findings for each participant, it is difficult to validate the
method presented in this paper in any traditional sense, since its efficacy cannot
objectively be measured. Further, because of the unique dialogue created between
researcher and each researched individual, replicating any such study would be
‘exceedingly difficult’ [37, p.55]. However, we believe the strength of this method
goes beyond the success of any individual idea generated, or the level of increased
empathy for the user. Its strength extends to the possibilities of studying and
designing for topics which are broad and undefined, and which require a great deal
of attention to diversity within the topic area and the target group throughout the
design process, as we have aimed to illustrate. Moreover, employing a narrative and
portraiture approach in the ways we have described allows for retaining the
accounts of the individual users throughout ideation phases while generalizing and
summarizing afterwards, as opposed to other methods, such as personas, which do
so earlier in the process and thus increase the risk of oversimplifying and loosing
interesting design opportunities.
Related work
6. 2.1 Narrative Research, and Related Methods within HCISome twenty-five years ago,
Bruner [3] posited the concept of ‘life as narrative’, arguing that human beings
construct meaning, make sense, and engage in ‘world making’ [3, p.11] through
‘narrative’ – that is, through creating, telling, hearing, recording, and reading stories.
Relatedly, the field of narrative research seeks to engage analytically with the storied
ways in which we make sense of meaning and experiences, within the wider context
of our social world and those social others within it [3, 4]. As such, narrative research
is particularly useful for exploratory research projects, which seek to engage with
experience and meaning-making processes of diverse individuals or groups, with
such approaches being utilized across a range of subjects in the social sciences,
including education [e.g. 5], health [e.g. 6] and crime [e.g. 7], as well as representing
a primary staple of ethnographic research in any field [8].The use of ‘narrative’ data
has long been established and recognized as crucial in the attempt to understand
users’ needs within the HCI research community. In the main, however, we would
argue – as Dourish did with reference to ethnographies [1] – that narrative-based
research methods have been read too narrowly within the HCI and design field. For
example, narratives and story-telling have featured primarily as an outcome or goal
of design research [e.g. 9, 10, 11] rather than being fully embraced as a research
approach across the entire process. Narrative research approaches appear almost
exclusively within experience-centered design, which ‘aims to understand and design
digital technologies that support rich, social and meaningful experiences in our
everyday lives’ [12, p.1506, 13], rather than engaging in depth with the stories and
lives of the research subjects. Here, the concept of ‘narratives’ has, for example,
been adapted as a conversational interview technique, through the use of cultural
probes [14], whilst other uses of ‘narrative’ in HCI research focus more on
possessions and technologies than on individual lives, e.g. ‘deep narratives’ [15] and
technology biographies [16]. Moreover, whilst some HCI methods share some
common ground with narrative research – e.g. contextual inquiry’s commitment to
increasing understanding of users and their actions ‘in situ’ [17] – they lack other
crucial aspects (that is, CI focuses solely on the user in relation to their work, whilst
most narrative studies within the social sciences go beyond the phenomenon of
interest, engaging with the personal, social, and cultural life history of users).
Similarly, whilst ethnographic approaches to design research [e.g. 1, 18] share some
key aims with the narrative research and portraiture methods that we adopted for
our research (e.g. deep understanding of individuals; rich descriptions of subjects
and their environments; positive bias towards subjects’ perceptions), they have been
read ‘too narrowly’, with an over-emphasis on ‘implications for design’ [1]. In
contrast, instead of focusing on ‘implications for design’, the approach we are
advocating in this paper aims to increase the importance of ethnographic data, by
importing narrative data, integrity intact, into the ideation phase. Despite the
presence of some common goals more broadly speaking, however, this does not
render ethnography and narrative research methods synonymous; as noted by
Lawrence-Lightfoot, ‘key contrasts’ exist between the two [19].
Conclusion
7. In conclusion, whilst there is clearly a tradition of utilizing storied and
narrativecentered approaches within the field of HCI research, currently this appears
to be primarily limited to the area of experience-centered design. Furthermore,
methods designed within the social sciences have not always been adapted in a way
that remains faithful to their original ethos.
8. As we have shown in this paper, the holistic incorporation of the portraiture
approach to data analysis into idea generation processes can offer some additional
benefits compared to existing methods within HCI and design research which utilize
narratives and storied data. For us, the portraiture method comes into its own within
the realm of design research, since it has the potential for dual functionality within
this field. Firstly, it represents a deeply holistic and contextual means for analyzing
and disseminating findings, thereby facilitating rich understanding of the users and
their design needs. Secondly, in doing so, it can act as an active catalyst for
innovative ideation, informing, shaping, and enhancing the subsequent design
process. We have illustrated the use of narrative and portraiture methods for design
research with an illustrative example from our research on digital crafting, and have
provided transparent documentation as to the ways in which we achieved this. We
have critically discussed the opportunities and strengths offered by the incorporation
of these methods in our own study, as well as addressed its limitations and risks. We
hope we have not only indicated the benefits these specific analytical methods hold
for HCI and design communities, as part of the wider trend towards narrative-
centered research in these disciplines, but also the ways in which – as methods
which hold at their core a commitment to maintaining participants’ voices and a
sense of their various individual needs – these represent key methods in the
important endeavor of ‘designing for diversity’.
Participants and statistics

9. Because in this paper we merely aim to illustrate the use of the method through the
example of our craft study (and not so much to discuss the topic of craft itself), a
literature review of what constitutes ‘craft’, and related HCI and design work, lie
beyond the scope of this paper. In total we interviewed eight individuals who were
involved in crafting/making things with physical materials in a diverse range of
settings. In order to explore the breadth of everyday crafting, we recruited
individuals with varying levels of expertise, and included professionals, semi-
professionals, and amateurs, hoping to cover all types of crafters from the ‘certified
[...] genius’, to those individuals who just ‘seem[ed] to like making things [...] in
everyday life’ [34, p.75]
Re-conceptualizing Teachers’ Narrative Inquiry as Professional
Development
Paula R. Golombek, Karen E. Johnson
2017
Abstract
We offer a more nuanced characterization of teachers’ narrative inquiry as professional
development (Johnson & Golombek, 2002) by grounding our definition of and
empirical research on teachers’ narrative inquiry from a Vygotskian sociocultural theoretical
perspective. Our goal is to reaffirm our belief in the educational value of teachers’ narrative
inquiry as “systematic exploration that is conducted by teachers and for teachers through
their own stories and language” (p. 6), while empirically documenting the crucial role of
teacher educators in creating mediational spaces, dialogic interactions, and pedagogical
tools for teachers’ narrative inquiry to flourish as professional development. It is also our
goal to re-conceptualize teachers’ narrative inquiry as unbounded by time and place, and as
a more fluid and emerging process.
Introduction
10. Paula R. Golombek published by the press syndicate of the university of cambridge
The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge, United Kingdom cambridge
university press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 2RU, UK 40 West 20th
Street, New York, NY 10011-4211, USA 477 Williamstown Road, Port Melbourne, VIC
3207, Australia Ruiz de Alarcon 13, 28014 Madrid, Spain Dock House, The
Waterfront, Cape Town 8001, South Africa http://www.cambridge.org
11. This book is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of
relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place
without the written permission of Cambridge University Press.
12. Bob Gibson, Keio University, Japan Paula R. Golombek, The Pennsylvania State
University, University Park Lynne Doherty Herndon, The Manhattan International
School, New York Suzanne House, Lakeland College, Sheboygan, Wisconsin Pauline
A. G. Johansen, Principal, Richmond School District, British Columbia Karen E.
Johnson, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park Kimberly A. Johnson,
University of Minnesota, Minneapolis Ling Shi, University of British Columbia,
Vancouver Steve Mann, Language Studies Unit, Aston University, England Tobie
Robison, Boone High School, Orlando, Florida Patricia Sackville, British Columbia
Institute of Technology, Burnaby Kazuyoshi Sato, Nagoya University of Foreign
Studies, Aichi, Japan Laurie Soltman, Florida Marlins Baseball Club, Florida Linda
Winston, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park vii
13. What is knowledge, and who holds it? The answers to these deceptively simple
questions reside at the heart of debates in teaching and learning, and in teacher
education in particular. Unfortunately, the traditional answer has been unsatisfying
for many teachers. For more than a hundred years, teacher education has been
based on the notion that knowledge about teaching and learning can be
“transmitted” to teachers by others. In the knowledge transmission model,
educational researchers, positioned as outsiders to classroom life, seek to quantify
generalizable knowledge about what good teaching is and what good teachers do.
Teachers have been viewed as objects of study rather than as knowing professionals
or agents of change. Researchers have been privileged in that they create the
knowledge, hold it, and bestow it upon teachers. Teachers have been marginalized in
that they are told what they should know and how they should use that knowledge.
Even though many teachers personally reject this model, most of them continue to
work and learn under its powerful hold in teacher education programs and the
schools where they teach.
14. Critics of the knowledge transmission model, although not new (Counts, 1935,
reprint 1965), have argued that such a view of knowledge and knower is paternalistic
(Goodson & Dowbiggin, 1991; Knoblauch & Brannon, 1988; Schon, 1983),
decontextualized (Connelly & Clandinin, 1988; Elbaz, 1983), and, hence, ineffectual
(Woods, 1987). Since the early 1980s, ethnographic and second-order investigations
of teachers practicing their work in actual classrooms have revealed teachers as
constructing their own explanations of teaching and highlighted the messiness that is
inherent in the ways in which teachers think about and carry out their work (Elbaz,
1983; Lampert, 1985). The bulk of this research argues that what teachers know
about teaching is largely socially constructed out of the experiences and classrooms
from which teachers have come. Furthermore, it argues that how teachers actually
use their knowledge in classrooms is highly
Conclusion
15. In this book, teachers’ stories of inquiry are a journey of how they know as well as
what they know. Yet, in language teacher education, there are few professional
forums that make teachers’ ways of knowing public. The intent of this collection is to
bring teachers’ ways of knowing into our professional conversations so as to
transform our understandings of language teachers and language teaching. By
making teachers’ ways of knowing public, open to review by others, and accessible
to others in the profession, we hope to validate language teachers and the activity of
language teaching in ways afforded to other forms of scholarly work. We hope that
this collection will transcend the traditional theory-practice dichotomy that has
denied teachers’ role as theorizers – in essence, allowing teachers to reclaim their
own professional development. By making teachers’ stories of inquiry public,
narrative inquiry stands to become a legitimate and, we hope, a common means of
professional development in language teacher education.
Narrative as resource for the display of self and identity: The
narrative construction of an oppositional identity*
Received: June 6th 2011/ accepted: October 29th2011
2011
Introduction
16. Locating NarrativeThe study of narrative does not fit within the boundaries of any
single discipline. For the past two decades, many disciplines in the social sciences
and humanities have incorporated the study of narrative as the organizing principle
for human action. This interest in narrative has entered history (White, 1981),
folklore (Behar, 1993), psychology (Bruner, 1990; Davies & Harré, 1990; Mishler,
1991; Polkinghorne, 1988; Schiffrin, 1996; Wortham, 2000), sociology and
sociolinguistic (Labov and Waletzky, 1997; Gee, 1986; Linde, 1993; Ochs & Capps,
1996) as well as anthropology (Tannen, 1997).Narrative is a system of understanding
that we use to construct and express meaning in our daily lives. White (1981) argues
that narrative is an innate human ability; he emphasizes the naturalness of
narrativity through which people endow experience with meaning. Similarly, Bruner
(1990) asserts that narrative is “a system by which people organize their experience
in, knowledge about, and transactions with the social world” (p.35). Polkinghorne
(1988) adds that narrative is “the primary scheme by means of which human
existence is rendered meaningful” (p.11), he adds “we live immersed in narrative,
recounting and reassessing the meanings of our past actions, anticipating the
outcomes of our future projects, situating ourselves at the intersection of several
stories not yet completed”. Similarly, Ochs & Capps (1996) claim, “Narrative activity
provides tellers with an opportunity to impose order on otherwise disconnected
events, and to create continuity between past, present, and imagined worlds” (p.
19). Shortly, it is through narrative that we represent and restructure our world in
our daily lives.
17. The goals of the research are critical in determining the appropriate level and scope
of transcription (Ochs, 1979)
Conclusion
18. Conclusions and Implications forFuture ResearchAs I have briefly illustrated in this
paper, narrative analysis offers an array of analytic possibilities for working with
interview responses. Although it is not possible to cover all the existent approaches
to narrative in a single review, the preceding discussion has illustrated the value of
narrative as a tool for the discursive construction and for the display of identity as
emergent from actions and experiences (Schiffrin, 1996). From the analysis of
Mario’s interview, I conclude that the structure, the content, and the context of the
narrative, are all resources that provide, in varying degrees, ways to understand
students personal selves and their social and cultural identities. Despite the
differences in these approaches, narrative appears as a suited means in
understanding how students construct what they do, according to which ideologies
and values, which historical trajectories, as well as what kind of self-presentation or
identity work they are currently engaged in.The stories are not just resources for the
development and presentation of the individual self; they allow us to see how this
identity is constructed within a social and cultural world (Bruner, 1990; Guerrero &
Tinkler, 2010). Schools as institutions play a powerful role in shaping students
identities; the ways in which stories are told and the identities they create are
influenced by the environment in which they take place. According to Rymes (2001)
“adolescent identity and attitudes toward school are not only created by individuals,
but are also facilitated, coauthored by society, policymakers, institutions, peers, and
teachers, through interaction” (p.162).
Narrative frames for investigating the experiences of language
teachers
Gary Barkhuizen, Rosemary Wette
2008
Abstract
Narrative inquiry in language teacher education aims to understand the experiences of
teachers in the particular contexts in which they teach. This article reports on the use of
narrative frames as a means of investigating the teaching experiences of university English
teachers in China. This study used four specifically designed narrative frames to collect data
from a large group of teachers who participated in a summer teacher education program.
Eighty-three complete sets of the four frames were collected and then analyzed using a
paradigmatic approach typical of qualitative content analysis to explore commonalities
among the teachers’ experiences. One frame, relating to the Research Methodology course,
is used to illustrate the effectiveness of this approach. The researchers suggest that the
frames are useful for collecting a large amount of data from a large number of participants,
and that they provide a means of entry into an unfamiliar research context. At the same
time, they caution that using the frames in this way has the potential to de-personalize the
experiences of teachers, an outcome atypical of narrative inquiry. Ó 2008 Elsevier Ltd.
Introduction
19. This article reports on a method of data collection used to investigate the
experiences of university English teachers in China. The focus of the article,
therefore, is not so much on what we discovered about these experiences as it is on
the way in which we went about the investigation. Because of our own very limited
experience of working in China, we wanted to hear about these experiences from
the teachers themselves. We both have an interest in English teaching at university
level; particularly, the practices of teachers and the social contexts in which teaching
and learning take place. Since we were to be participating, as lecturers, in a summer
teacher education program for English teachers from colleges and universities across
China, we thought it would be an excellent opportunity for us to learn about English
university teaching in a context very different from our own, and then to apply this
knowledge to our work as teachers and teacher educators in our more familiar
university context. The implications of such findings would also be useful to the
participants as well as organizers of the program.
20. The aim of our project was to learn about English teaching in Chinese universities
Methods
21. Language curriculum and materials developmentPsycholinguisticsAssessment in the
language curriculum
22. 9. I remember once in my classroom I had a very difficult time trying to... 10. The
main reason for this problem was that... 11. I tried to solve the problem by... 12. It
would have been very helpful if... 13. In relation to this difficulty, the type of
research I’d like to do would... 14. The aim of the research would be to... 15. A major
constraint, though, might be that...
Conclusion
23. In this article we described how we used a set of four narrative frame templates to
collect data on the teaching experiences of a large group of university English
teachers in China. We presented selected findings of the content analysis of the
data, those elicited by the Research Methodology frame. We presented our
perceptions of the strengths and limitations of a narrative frames approach, and
finally we discussed some implications of their use. We believe that narrative frames
provide a valuable and viable way of collecting data on teachers’ working lives,
either in the format we have used in this project or in any number of alternative
arrangements. If used in the paradigmatic way that we have done in this study (i.e.
searching for commonalities among a large number of teachers), narrative frames
are especially useful for gaining an initial broad overview of a particular area of
study. We hope that this article will engender further exploration of the construction
and use of narrative frames, and do so without sacrificing the spirit of narrative
inquiry, that is, inquiry based on the discursively-constructed, storied experiences of
the teacher participants.

24. Typically, however, narrative inquiry involves small numbers of participants
(Riessman, 1993), sometimes only one in the case of life histories, and often extends
over a long period of time, with multiple, in-depth data collection episodes (Lyons
and LaBoskey, 2002; Polkinghorne, 1995). We, however, were in a very different
research situation; there were over 200 teachers participating in the program, which
lasted only 10 days. We decided, therefore, to design a series of what we call
narrative frames to capture the narrative data in the limited circumstances just
described
25. The teacher education program. In the summer of 2006, a 10-day teacher education
program was held in Beijing for over 200 English teachers from 130 universities and
colleges across China. The overall aim of the program was to update teachers on
recent trends and developments in the field of second language teaching and
learning
26. Another aim of the frames design was to limit the quantity of writing (see Appendix
A for the formatting of the Research Methodology template). This was important for
a number of reasons (to be discussed in the strengths and limitations sections
below), but the most important was that with over 200 teachers writing the
narratives, a more open-ended approach would have resulted in data overload. The
narrative frames were distributed to the teachers during a workshop on the last day
of the relevant course
27. Teacher #22. I remember once in my classroom I had a very difficult time trying to
organize a students’ self-teaching activity in which 40 students were divided into five
groups and each group had a representative to act as a teacher, teaching part of a
text in their coursebook. But things didn’t go on smoothly as I had wished
28. 3. In our study, the frames were distributed to a very large group (over 200
teachers) and so there was little opportunity to explain what was intended by each
sentence-starter prompt, or what the purpose was of each of the four course-related
templates. Tutors may have done so in the small-group workshops, but there were
still instances where prompts were misinterpreted
From narratives to portraits: methodology and methods to portray
leadership
Joanne Waterhouse
2007
Introduction
29. This article outlines the planning towards a research design to learn about
leadership as it is constructed, experienced and developed in schools. It is intended
that the research would go beyond an individual’s account to gain an insight into the
relationships and social dynamic within the organization. The hypothesis is that the
degree of distributive leadership that exists within a school is a measure of the trust
and respect between individuals. In particular, the issues of reflexivity and voice in
research are considered. The author proposes that a study of leadership narratives
can be developed into a layered, textured portrait.
30. Context Leadership is a problematic term. It can evoke images of power and
oppression. It is often perceived as the domain of the few, those in formal and
ascribed positions of authority. It resonates with people variously according to their
lived experiences and sense of self. I am interested in leadership as an activity, as
behaviour and as something often realized in relation with others. My professional
work in schools has been varied. I have worked as a teacher, principal, local authority
adviser and inspector. My previous research has centred on the narratives of
principals and the development of distributed leadership in schools. I am particularly
interested in the ways in which individuals and groups in schools experience
leadership. I want to extend my research beyond an individual’s account to gain an
insight into the relationships and social dynamic within the organization because my
hypothesis would be that the degree of distributive leadership that exists within a
school is a measure of the trust and respect between individuals. There is
considerable discourse in the literature about the imperative for more complex and
dynamic structures for leadership in a more complex and dynamic world, a world in
which schools can be
31. 272 J. Waterhouse characterized as ‘self-organizing, complex, emergent, non-linear
organizations’ (Morrison, 2002, p. 35). I am seeking to learn about the culture that
exists in schools and the ways in which leadership can be seen and understood as
extending beyond a particular role or individual. Relationships, history, tradition and
environment are all significant. Context is fundamental to leadership as it is enacted
and experienced in schools.
32. I want to listen to stories of leadership as it is experienced and understood by
individuals in schools. I am interested in authentic stories that illuminate the lived
experiences of leadership. Much is made currently in UK national policy of the idea
of distributed leadership and the sense that all teachers are leaders of learning and
are thus well placed to become leaders beyond the classroom and to play an active
part in the development of the school as an organization. I want to hear testimonies
about how that is understood and managed by individuals in schools in order to
move beyond the rhetoric and learn about the lived realities for leaders. In this way I
hope to be able to write portraits of leadership that illuminate the developing
practice in schools.
33. . What are the current leadership narratives in schools? . What forms of leadership
for learning are developing in schools? . What forces or elements in a school culture
encourage or hinder the development of leadership practice? . How is national policy
affecting leadership practice at all levels within a school setting?

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35. They both worked in the school previously but Julia appointed them during the term
prior to her starting two years ago. Three assistant head teachers who are all long
serving at the school complete the Senior Leadership Team (SLT). Alert to national
issues, Julia is focused on leadership development for her staff and the school
Positioning: The Discursive Production of Selves
BRONWYN DAVIES and ROM HARRE
2006
Abstract
The idea for this paper emerged out ofa discussion about the problems inherent in the use
of the concept of role in developing a social psychology of selfliood. We explore the idea
that the concept of ‘positioning’ can be used to facilitate the thinking of linguistically
oriented social analysts in ways that the use of the concept of ‘role’ prevented. I n particular
the new concept helps focus attention on dynamic aspects of encounters in contrast to the
way in which the use of ‘role’ serves to highlight static, formal and ritualistic aspects. The
view of language in which positioning is to be understood is the immanentist view
expounded by Harris (1982),in which language exists only as concrete occasions of language
in use. La langue is an intellectualizing myth - only la parole is psychologically and socially
real. This position is developed in contrast to the linguistic tradition in which ‘syntax’,
‘semantics’ and ‘pragmatics’ are used in a way that implies an abstract realm of causally
potent entities shaping actual speech. In our analysis and our explanation, we invoke
concepts such as ‘speech act’, ‘indexicality’ and ‘context’, that is the concepts central to
ethogenic or new paradigm psychology (Harri:, 1979; Harri: and Secord, I 973; Davies,
1982).Feminist poststructuralist theory has interesting parallels with this position. The
recognition of the force of ‘discursive practices’, the ways in which people are ‘positioned’
through those practices and the way in which the individual’s ‘subjectivity’ is generated
through the learning and use of certain discursive practices are commensurate with the
‘new psychosocio-linguistics’ (Davies, I 989; Henriques el d., I 984; Potter and Wetherall, I
988; Weedon, I 987).
Key points
1. The idea for this paper emerged out ofa discussion about the problems inherent in
the use of the concept of role in developing a social psychology of selfliood
2. Once having taken up a particular position as one’s own, a person inevitably sees
the world from the vantage point of that position and in terms of the particular
images, metaphors, story lines and concepts which are made relevant within the
particular discursive practice in which they are positioned
3. In moving from the use of role to position as the central organising concept for
analysing how it is that people do being a person, we have moved to another
conception of the relation between people and their conversations
4. In roletheory the person is always separable from the various roles that they take
up; any particular conversation is understood in terms of someone taking on a
certain role
5. The words that are spoken are to some extent dictated by the role and are to be
interpreted in these terms
6. A subject position is a possibility in known forms of talk; position is what is created
in and through talk as the speakers and hearers take themselves up as persons
Summary
the use of the concept of role in developing a social psychology of selfliood.
37. Once having taken up a particular position as one’s own, a person inevitably sees
the world from the vantage point of that position and in terms of the particular
images, metaphors, story lines and concepts which are made relevant within the
particular discursive practice in which they are positioned.
38. Positioning, as the authors will use it is the discursive process whereby selves are
located in conversations as observably and subjectively coherent participants in
jointly produced story lines.
39. If the authors are to come close to understanding how it is that people interact in
everyday life the authors need the metaphor of an unfolding narrative, in which the
authors are constituted in one position or another within the course of one story, or
even come to stand in multiple or contradictory positions, or to negotiate a new
position by ‘refusing’ the position that the opening rounds of a conversation have
made available to us.
40. In making choices between contradictory demands there is a complex weaving
together of the positions that are available within any number of discourses; the
emotional meaning attached to each of those positions which have developed as a
result of personal experiences of being located in each position, or of relating to
someone in that position; the stories through which those categories and emotions
are being made sense oc and the moral system that links and legitimates the choices
that are being made.
41. The sense ofcontinuity that the authors have in relation to being a particular person
is compounded out of continued embodiment and so ofspatio-temporal continuity
and shared interpretations of the subject positions and story lines available within
them.
42. The children’s responses to this story illustrate many of the points the authors have
been making: in particular the multiple possible interpretations of any speech action,
the interactive nature of the move from words spoken to the social act that is taken
to have occurred, and the intimate relation between perception of the positions in
which the various characters find themselves and perception of story lines.
43. It shows that though the story can in one reading present Elizabeth as acting
agentically, in another she can be seen to behave foolishly.The discursive production
ofoneself or another as an agent requires the appropriate story line, and for women
caught up in traditional roles the availability ofdiscursive practices which allow them
to be seen as other than in a fixed role.
44. This way of thinking explains discontinuities in the production ofselfwith reference
to the fact ofmultiple and contradictory discursive practices and the interpretations
ofthose practices that can be brought into being by speakers and hearers as they
engage in conversations
Introduction
the use of the concept of role in developing a social psychology of selfliood. We
explore the idea that the concept of ‘positioning’ can be used to facilitate the
thinking of linguistically oriented social analysts in ways that the use of the concept
of ‘role’ prevented. I n particular the new concept helps focus attention on dynamic
aspects of encounters in contrast to the way in which the use of ‘role’ serves to
highlight static, formal and ritualistic aspects. The view of language in which
positioning is to be understood is the immanentist view expounded by Harris
(1982),in which language exists only as concrete occasions of language in use. La
langue is an intellectualizing myth - only la parole is psychologically and socially real.
This position is developed in contrast to the linguistic tradition in which ‘syntax’,
‘semantics’ and ‘pragmatics’ are used in a way that implies an abstract realm of
causally potent entities shaping actual speech. In our analysis and our explanation,
we invoke concepts such as ‘speech act’, ‘indexicality’ and ‘context’, that is the
concepts central to ethogenic or new paradigm psychology (Harri:, 1979; Harri: and
Secord, I 973; Davies, 1982).Feminist poststructuralist theory has interesting
parallels with this position. The recognition of the force of ‘discursive practices’, the
ways in which people are ‘positioned’ through those practices and the way in which
the individual’s ‘subjectivity’ is generated through the learning and use of certain
discursive practices are commensurate with the ‘new psychosocio-linguistics’
(Davies, I 989; Henriques el d., I 984; Potter and Wetherall, I 988; Weedon, I 987).
Conclusion
46. In moving from the use of role to position as the central organising concept for
analysing how it is that people do being a person, we have moved to another
conception of the relation between people and their conversations. In roletheory the
person is always separable from the various roles that they take up; any particular
conversation is understood in terms of someone taking on a certain role. The words
that are spoken are to some extent dictated by the role and are to be interpreted in
these terms. With positioning, the focus is on the way in which the discursive
practices constitute the speakers and hearers in certain ways and yet at the same
time is a resource through which speakers and hearers can negotiate new positions.
A subject position is a possibility in known forms of talk; position is what is created in
and through talk as the speakers and hearers take themselves up as persons. This
way of thinking explains discontinuities in the production ofselfwith reference to the
fact ofmultiple and contradictory discursive practices and the interpretations ofthose
practices that can be brought into being by speakers and hearers as they engage in
conversations.
Narrative Inquiry in Language Teaching
and Learning Research
Gary Barkhuizen, Phil Benson, Alice Chik
2014
Abstract
Key points
7. 6.2 From Data to Research Reports6.2.1 The Participant(s)6.2.2 The
Researcher(s)6.2.3 The Audience 6.2.4 The Purpose of the Research 6.2.5 The
Research Topic 6.2.6 The Form of the Report 6.3 Reporting Thematic Analysis 6.4
Reporting on Narrative Interaction 6.5 Reporting in Narrative Form 6.6 Reporting
Crafted Narratives 6.7 Conclusion
8. The driving force behind this book is the belief that there is a “critical mass” of
narrative research in the field of language teaching xii Introduction and learning itself
on which to build a manual of narrative research methodology that is specific to this
field.This is not to say that we encourage readers to ignore work in other fields, but
rather that we encourage exploration of the ways in which this work has been
contextualized within and is exemplified by research on language teaching and
learning
9. A third distinction that we find helpful concerns the focus of narrative inquiry: Are
we interested in narrative itself or are we more interested in the content of
narratives? There is a great deal of research on the language, discourse, structure,
and sociolinguistics of narratives, which is less concerned with what narrators say
than with how they say it (e.g., De Fina and Georgakopoulou, 2012; Ochs and Capps,
2001; Norrick, 2000; Thornborrow and Coates, 2005; Toolan, 2001)
10. In each case the data as well as the data-collection procedures are described.The
chapter ends with a discussion of some of the challenges and ethical issues
researchers face when working with oral narrative data (2.4)
11. To illustrate the content and writing style of the language learning histories (LLHs)
we present a few short excerpts.The thematic analysis conducted by the researchers
revealed varying degrees of student identification with imagined communities
12. 5.1 Introduction 5.1.1 Narrative Inquiry and Qualitative Research Because narrative
inquiry is a form of qualitative research, narrative studies often employ the same
approaches to data analysis that are used in other types of qualitative research
Summary
47. Introduction: 6.2 From Data to Research Reports6.2.1 The Participant(s)6.2.2 The
Crafted Narratives 6.7 Conclusion.
48. As Lincoln (1997: 38) says, “even before we have completed a significant period of
time in the field, we have already begun contemplating the written work it will
produce—a book, several articles, one or more conference presentations.” This
chapter looks at a range of ways in which narrative inquiry projects are reported
49. Some of these will be fairly familiar, following as they do the reporting procedures
and formats found in qualitative research generally.
50. Her report promises and turns out to be rich in contextual detail.
51. Objectives: This study aimed to facilitate dialogue between students from different
cultural and educational contexts and to promote reflection on their language
learning pathways and development.
52. Am the author clears about what the purpose of this report is? 2
53. Methods: In the published studies discussed in this chapter, interviews are
conducted with a wide range of language learners and teachers and in different
contexts, by researchers who frequently interview and transcribe themselves with or
without the help of translators.
54. The authors have learners learning English in nonEnglish-speaking countries (Benson
and Gao, 2008; Chen, 2002; Chik, 2007, 2008, 2011; Gao, et al, 2002; Malcolm, 2004;
Murray, 2008), learning French in French-speaking regions (Kinginger, 2004),
learning Chinese in higher education (Lam, 2002), and learning Japanese in Japan
(Casanave, 2012; Murray, 2004)
55. The participants in these studies are usually adults who have a number of years of
experience of language learning
56. Results: Findings in Narrative Inquiry5.5.1 Rigor5.5.2 Trustworthiness5.5.3
Generalizability.
57. Conclusion: 4.3 Hosting Multimodal Language Learning Narratives4.4 Problems and
Ethical Issues. Discussion was conducted through theFacebook group (Figure 4.7 and
4.8). 4.
58. 4. Two Skype video conferencing sessions were arranged through the Facebook
group discussion.
59. The participants came from two different
60. Another direction of the discussion in the study focuses on the adoption of Web 2.0
social media for narrative research purposes, especially in terms of logistics and
online privacy.The use of Web 2.0 social media tools may entail the disclosure of
personal information.
61. In the Hong Kong LLHs, students were happy to contribute personal and family
photographs to demonstrate their out-of-class English learning experiences, but the
German students appeared to be more sensitive about the issue, and were reluctant
to post personal photographs.Drawing conclusions and producing implications
Introduction
62. 6.2 From Data to Research Reports6.2.1 The Participant(s)6.2.2 The
Crafted Narratives 6.7 Conclusion
63. The use of narratives in research is nothing new.In the field of psychology,Sigmund
Freud, who is said to have been an enthusiastic reader of Sherlock Holmes detective
stories, used narrative case studies extensively in his work (Brooks, 1979). In the field
of sociology, the Chicago School announced its presence in 1919 with a volume that
begins with a powerful argument for the use of individual biographies in the
investigation of social conditions, followed by an individual biography of a Polish
peasant (Thomas and Znaniecki, 1919). Towards the end of the 20th century,
however, when language teaching and learning research began to incorporate
psychological and sociological approaches, these fields had come under the sway of
experimental and statistical survey methodologies. It is only very recently, therefore,
following a resurgence of interest in narrative in the social sciences that narrative
inquiry began to take its place in the panoply of approaches to research that are now
available to language teaching and learning researchers.Our interests in narrative
inquiry developed separately from each other at a time when few narrative studies
of language teaching and learning had been published. We drew on psychological
and sociological research, as well as emerging research in the field of education,
both for our basic understanding of narrative inquiry and for our detailed
understanding of methods of data collection and analysis. Although we were not
aware of it at the time, others were doing much the same thing and we welcomed
each new study with enthusiasm as it appeared. Eventually, we began to explore
issues in narrative inquiry for language teaching and learning together through
several collaborations. At the same time, the rate at which new narrative studies
were published began to accelerate to the point where narrative inquiry could be
considered an established approach to qualitative research in our field. The driving
force behind this book is the belief that there is now a “critical mass” of narrative
research in the field of language teaching xii Introduction and learning itself on which
to build a manual of narrative research methodology that is specific to this field.This
is not to say that we encourage readers to ignore work in other fields, but rather that
we encourage exploration of the ways in which this work has been contextualized
within and is exemplified by research on language teaching and learning.
64. Introduction InChapters 2–4, we introduce different forms of narrative data,
including oral narratives (Chapter 2), written narratives (Chapter 3), and multimodal
narratives (Chapter 4). In narrative inquiry, interviews are mainly used to elicit oral
accounts of language learning and teaching experiences. In this chapter, we look at
the use of open and semi-structured interviews, and processing and transcription of
oral accounts.The chapter first describes the kinds of narrative inquiry studies in
which interviews are used (2.2). Second, featured studies that exemplify interview
styles are discussed in some detail, and related research is also drawn on to present
variations and extensions of interview techniques (2.3). In each case the data as well
as the data-collection procedures are described.The chapter ends with a discussion
of some of the challenges and ethical issues researchers face when working with oral
narrative data (2.4).
65. Written narrative data produced by language teachers and learners take many
different forms. In this chapter we look at a range of these, including diaries,
language learning histories (LLHs), reflective teacher journals, and narrative frames.
The first part of the chapter describes the various contexts in which such narratives
are written for the purposes of inquiry. Featured studies which exemplify the
narrative data types constructed in different contexts are discussed in some detail,
and related research is also drawn on to present variations and extensions of these
data. In each case the data, as well as the data-collection procedures, are described.
The chapter ends with a discussion of some of the challenges and ethical issues
researchers face when working with written narrative data.
66. Using multimodal narratives as data is a growing trend in narrative inquiry. In
narrative research, researchers tend to use primarily a single source of narrative
data, for example, oral (Chapter 2) and written (Chapter 3). In this chapter, we are
concerned with the use of additional text types, other than oral or written, as
narratives. We will first look at two examples from literacy studies.American
cartoonist Lynda Barry published her literacy autobiography, One Hundred Demons
(2002), as a way to address personal and social issues.The form that she chose was
the graphic novel. In Barry’s work, different objects (e.g., origami, newspaper
cuttings, pressed flowers, etc.) are used to supplement cartoons.The result is a
graphic novel, containing colorful collages and Zen Ink paintings, that tells the story
of her literacy development from childhood to adulthood. Since its publication,
Barry’s work has been used as teaching and learning material in both literacy classes
and teacher education in North America. Barry is a professional cartoonist, thus in
her literacy autobiography, drawing and visual texts are centrally positioned in her
work.
67. 5.1.1 Narrative Inquiry and Qualitative Research Because narrative inquiry is a form
of qualitative research, narrative studies often employ the same approaches to data
analysis that are used in other types of qualitative research. Much of what we have
to say about these approaches, therefore, is covered in detail in books on qualitative
research methodology. In this chapter we discuss these qualitative approaches
briefly and then turn to approaches that are specific to narrative inquiry.We begin
with a brief discussion of three key terms— “iterative,” “emergent,” and
“interpretive”—as they are used in Dörnyei’s (2007) chapter on qualitative research
in order to establish a broad framework for the data analysis strategies outlined
later.Iterative: Dörnyei (2007: 243) contrasts the “orderly” patterns of quantitative
research, where there is a clear break between data collection and data analysis,
with the iterative, or “zigzag,” patterns of qualitative research, where researchers
often “move back and forth between data collection, data analysis and data
interpretation.” Iterative data analysis stops at the point of “saturation,” when
further data collection, analysis, or interpretation is unlikely to yield additional
insight or, more practically, when a piece of work needs to be completed and written
up.Emergent: Iteration implies an emergent research design, in which “a study is
kept open and fluid so that it can respond in a flexible way to new details or
openings” (Dörnyei, 2007: 37).This often means that research findings are teased out
during repeated rounds of data analysis. Qualitative research may also begin with
open-ended aims and objectives, so that research questions, as well as the answers
to them, may emerge during data analysis.
68. Although in many cases the “write-up” of a research project begins after the analysis
(e.g., in the form of a term paper, a journal article, or a dissertation), it is probably
true that planning for the reporting begins right at the start of the research process.
In other words, it is built into the design of the study.We see this clearly in studies
which follow traditional social science conventions. Table 6.1 illustrates the typical
steps involved in both conducting such studies and reporting their findings.The
processes involved in conducting narrative studies are not always so straightforward.
As we saw in the previous chapter, the iterative, emergent, and interpretive nature
of these studies makes following the conventional sequence of research stages
difficult.The same applies to the reporting of the research outcomes. Nonetheless, as
Lincoln (1997: 38) says, “even before we have completed a significant period of time
in the field, we have already begun contemplating the written work it will produce—
a book, several articles, one or more conference presentations.” This chapter looks
at a range of ways in which narrative inquiry projects are reported. Some of these
will be fairly familiar, following as they do the reporting procedures and formats
found in qualitative research generally. Others have heeded the call to generate
research reports that align more appropriately with a narrative epistemology (i.e.,
knowing the world and ourselves in it narratively) and a narrative methodology (i.e.,
approaches to doing narrative inquiry). Smith (2007: 392) says that “narrative
researchers have available to them a range of ways in which we might represent our
‘findings’,” and Polkinghorne (1997: 3) encourages researchers to “experiment” with
more appropriate narrative formats in reporting their studies. In this chapter we
draw on published narrative inquiry reports to explore some of these formats.
69. This section provides a useful and brief background to the aims and context of the
study and describes the structure of the article.
70. Details of Casanave’s language learning history are presented in this section, and
she also introduces the term dabbling: a “nonintensive engagement” (p. 644) with
language learning.What Kind of Study is This?Casanave describes her study as a diary
study (see Chapter 3), but with some differences to those published previously: Her
study is longitudinal, covering a period of eight years; it accounts for learning outside
the classroom; it is a tale of an “ordinary person”—a language teacher living in a
foreign country; and it takes an ecological approach to analysis and
presentation.Commentary on Research from an Ecological PerspectiveHere
Casanave briefly reviews literature on motivation, the ecology of language
development, and the power of narrative research. She makes the very important
point that context is “the focal milieu, including the physical and emotional . . .
within which all experience happens and is given meaning” (p. 646). Her report
promises and turns out to be rich in contextual detail.The Japan Journals
71. This study aimed to facilitate dialogue between students from different cultural and
educational contexts and to promote reflection on their language learning pathways
and development
72. Am I clear about what the purpose of this report is? 2
Results
73. Findings in Narrative Inquiry5.5.1 Rigor5.5.2 Trustworthiness5.5.3 Generalizability
Discussion
74. 4.3 Hosting Multimodal Language Learning Narratives4.4 Problems and Ethical
Issues
75. Discussion was conducted through theFacebook group (Figure 4.7 and 4.8). 4. Two
Skype video conferencing sessions were arranged through the Facebook group
discussion. Chik and Breidbach (2011b) comment on two dimensions of the projects:
the content of the LLHs, and the technical aspects of using multimedia LLHs and Web
2.0 tools for intercultural exchange. The participants came from two
differentAnother direction of the discussion in the study focuses on the adoption of
Web 2.0 social media for narrative research purposes, especially in terms of logistics
and online privacy.The use of Web 2.0 social media tools may entail the disclosure of
personal information (e.g., details of a Facebook account). Some participants did not
feel comfortable joining and withdrew from the project. The use of a common
project login might have provided a solution, but the traditional wisdom of research
anonymity did not fit well with the Web 2.0 environment. The demand for privacy
may also partially explain the sparse visual materials in the German LLHs. In the
Hong Kong LLHs, students were happy to contribute personal and family
photographs to demonstrate their out-of-class English learning experiences (e.g.,
travel photographs), but the German students appeared to be more sensitive about
the issue, and were reluctant to post personal photographs.
Conclusion
76. Drawing conclusions and producing implicationsIntroduction
77. 4.1 Introduction4.2 Contexts in which Multimodal Narrative Texts are Used 534.2.1
Visual Elicitation4.2.2 Multimedia Language Learning Histories4.2.3 Online Language
Learning Histories and Group
78. 5.1 Introduction5.1.1 Narrative Inquiry and Qualitative Research5.1.2 Narrative and
Non-narrative Data5.2 Analyzing Narrative Data:Thematic Analysis5.2.1 Thematic
AnalysisSingle Case Studies5.2.2 Thematic AnalysisMultiple Case Studies5.3
Analyzing Narrative Discourse 5.3.1 Metaphors5.3.2 Narrative Structure
79. This chapter has presented four examples of studies based on oral narrative data.
The first part of the chapter outlined various contexts in which such narratives are
produced or elicited for the purposes of inquiry. The four featured studies illustrated
variations in approaches to interviewing for oral narratives, and also highlighted
issues relevant to data collection and handling. We concluded the chapter with a
brief discussion of some of the ethical issues specifically related to the elicitation and
handling of oral narrative data, and provided a checklist for conducting interviews. In
Chapter 3, we will discuss different methods of eliciting written narratives.WRITTEN
NARRATIVES
80. This chapter has discussed some of the important variables, among many others,
which are commonly considered when constructing narrative research reports: the
participant(s), the topic of the research, the researcher(s), the audience, the purpose
of the research, and the form of the report. What has become clear is that there is
no single or agreed upon way of reporting the various kinds of narrative inquiry. As
we have mentioned earlier, this applies also more generally to doing narrative
inquiry. For some, this fluidity of approach or lack of definitive methodological
guidelines may be the cause of some concern or even anxiety: How do we do
narrative inquiry? What are its methods? Why narrative inquiry and not other
methods? For others, the situation is more comforting because, first, they do not
feel the pressure to master a body of knowledge they may be unfamiliar with or
need to understand in order to make progress, and second, it allows them an
opportunity to explore new methodological territory and to locate themselves within
it. This book has opened up this narrative inquiry landscape in the field of language
teaching and learning by providing a broad overview or a map of the terrain within
which we hope readers will begin to locate their (proposed) work.One way we did
this was to present throughout the book numerous featured studies to illustrate
ways in which data for narrative inquiry projects have been collected and analyzed,
and to show how the findings from these studies have been reported. Our main
reason for using this strategy was to show readers research that has already been
screened by a critical eye, be it an article reviewer or a dissertation examiner. These
illustrative narrative studies, therefore, serve as exemplars for those planning their
own research projects.

81. The aim of this book is to offer advice on data collection and analysis to researchers
who are interested in experimenting with narrative research. In this respect, this is a
conventional “research manual.” At the same time, we have adopted an innovative
approach in basing this advice on a database of more than 175 published studies,
from which we draw examples of how language teaching and learning researchers
have used narrative inquiry to address specific issues in specific contexts of
research.This means that, instead of beginning from general principles, we begin
from concrete examples in an attempt to show how narratives are actually used,
rather than explain how they should be used, to address issues of language teaching
and learning.While we do offer general advice from time to time, we also encourage
a situated and experimental approach to narrative research, which is, in fact, the
approach that is most characteristic of published research to date. A narrative
research journey is not a matter of following a set of cut and dried directions, but of
feeling one’s way through a project with the guidance of those who have gone
before
82. 1.4 Narrative Inquiry in Language Teaching and Learning Research. The advice on
narrative research methodology offered in this book is based on analysis of a
database of more than 175 papers on language teaching and learning in which
narrative plays an important part. These papers were drawn from several collections
focused on narrative inquiry (Barkhuizen, 2011; Benson and Nunan, 2002, 2004;
Casanave and Schechter, 1997; Johnson and Golombek, 2002; Kalaja, Barcelos and
Menezes, 2008) and also include numerous journal articles and book chapters that
have been published elsewhere over the last ten years or so
83. In this context, it is worth noting the emergence of a possible sixth category,
consisting of studies using a “small story” approach to explore issues of second
language teaching, learning, and use through analysis of narratives (Barkhuizen,
2010; Holmes and Marra, 2011; Rugen, 2010; Simpson, 2011).These could be
included in the “biographical case studies” category, although an important feature
of them is that the narratives are not elicited, but collected from naturally occurring
conversations (“small stories” being short excerpts of these conversations). In the
four studies cited, there is also a focus on the content of the narratives, but more
important is the focus on the ways in which the participants use narratives in
particular contexts of interaction, such as the classroom or the multilingual
workplace. In addition to the narrative inquiry studies that form the basis of this
book, there are many other language teaching and learning studies in which
narratives play a role
84. Their study aimed to provide a space for adult heritage language learners to discuss
their lived experiences of learning Spanish in online settings. Data for the project
consisted of face-to-face interviews and follow-up conversations with seven female
learners. A thematic constant-comparison method was carried out to extract the
narratives that highlighted the participants’ reflections about Spanish in their online
learning and home contexts
85. However, Coryell and her colleagues believe this form of “True Spanish” is only a
cultural fantasy. Coryell, et al (2010) recruited seven female adult Spanish learners
from two tertiary institutions in Texas.The study was conducted following these
steps: 1. A call for participants was posted at two Texan institutions; 2
86. A call for participants was posted at two Texan institutions; 2. Seven female adult
Spanish learners responded; 3. An initial semi-structured interview was conducted
either through a face-toface meeting in a community center office or via phone, and
each interview lasted between one and a half and two hours; 4
87. For instance, Coryell, et al (2010) indicated that their English-Spanish bilingual
participants “each chose to communicate in the one-to-one interviews primarily in
English, although they periodically used Spanish to clarify their examples and
illustrate certain points” (p. 457). In a study on learner self-identity construction
among Chinese learners (Gao, et al, 2002) the three participants chose to be
interviewed in Chinese.The interviews were recorded and transcribed, and then the
transcripts were coded. Extracts were translated into English to be included in the
final manuscript.The English translations were “the informants’ exact words, with
some shortening and omission at the discourse level to avoid redundancy” (p. 99)
88. 2.5 Conclusion. This chapter has presented four examples of studies based on oral
narrative data. The first part of the chapter outlined various contexts in which such
narratives are produced or elicited for the purposes of inquiry
89. The first part of the chapter outlined various contexts in which such narratives are
produced or elicited for the purposes of inquiry. The four featured studies illustrated
variations in approaches to interviewing for oral narratives, and also highlighted
issues relevant to data collection and handling. We concluded the chapter with a
brief discussion of some of the ethical issues specifically related to the elicitation and
handling of oral narrative data, and provided a checklist for conducting interviews
90. Data for the project consisted of learners’ first-person narratives of their learning:
i.e., their language learning histories. The students came from one university in
Japan (84 students) and another in Taiwan (58 students). A thematic analysis was
carried out on the written LLH data
91. To discover whether it is possible to employ action research as a means of
professional development in the rapidly changing educational context of Hong Kong.
Three primary school teachers with no subject-specific (i.e., English) training or
qualifications. Minfang’s journals were personal reflective diaries that he shared and
discussed with the researcher over a period of six months.Their collaboration meant
that the diaries were shaped and re-shaped as their dialogue continued
92. • Pre- and postlesson conferences. • Pre- and post-study interviews with three
students. Liu and Xu (2011)
93. They were interested in learning about the teaching and research experiences of the
teachers in these particular regional and institutional contexts (see also Barkhuizen,
2009; Wette and Barkhuizen, 2009). Four narrative frames templates were designed
and distributed to the more than 200 teachers at regular intervals during the two-
week program. The topics covered by the frames included their language teaching
background, research engagement, experience with curriculum development, and
assessment practices
94. The analysis shows that for these youth, everyday practices are “personally
meaningful sites for informal learning,” so much so that these practices are not
viewed as learning. Seven Finnish teenagers (four females and three males) in grades
eight and nine joined the project on investigating the role of English in their everyday
life and social practices.The participants were instructed to “take any number of
photographs of situations, places and activities in their everyday surroundings where
English in their view has some significance” (Nikula and Pitkänen-Huhta, 2008: 174).
Each participant took a set of about ten photographs, amounting to about seventy
photographs in total
95. The photographs were broadly categorized into five types: travelling,
entertainment, print media, computers, and hobbies. Nikula and Pitkänen-Huhta
argued that these five categories represented the participants’ encounters with and
uses of English.They viewed photographs that included textbooks and dictionaries,
indexing the social relevance and importance of English learning in Finnish
society.This indexing also reflected the teenagers’ identity construction as English
language learners and users. In the report of the study, only four photographs were
reprinted.These four photographs were divided into two sets: textbooks and
dictionaries, and skateboarding and snowboarding
96. Menezes concludes her study by suggesting that the use of multimedia materials in
these LLHs provides further value for readers to understand the complexity of the
language learning process. By using multimedia texts, Menezes (2008: 201) argues
that “pictures and sounds not only illustrate written texts, but also make up a larger
network of meanings.” In her study, thirty-eight prospective Brazilian language
teachers from an online course on computer literacy and English language skills
enhancement composed multimedia LLHs as their final assignment. The students
were told “to describe how they had learned English and to include hyperlinks,
images and sounds” (p. 204)
97. The LLHs were presented as Microsoft Word files with embedded photographs or
graphics or hyperlinks, and were then circulated among students in a Yahoo Group.
After the students circulated, commented on, and edited the LLHs, thirty-seven
students gave their permission for publishing them on a project website
(http://www.veramenezes.com/ amfale/narmult.html). Menezes also interviewed
one student via email to understand her choices of hyperlinks
98. 4. At mid-course, a call for participation was announced and twelve students
responded. The LLHs written by these twelve students were transferred to another
project wiki site for sharing with the German participants
99. At mid-course, a call for participation was announced and twelve students
responded. The LLHs written by these twelve students were transferred to another
project wiki site for sharing with the German participants. 5
100. This chapter has presented three examples of producing and using multimedia
narrative data, including photographs, digital LLHs, and online LLHs. The first part of
the chapter outlined various contexts in which such narratives are produced or
elicited for the purposes of inquiry.The three featured studies illustrate the narrative
data types and uses. In each case the data collection process has been described in
detail in the hope that this serves an instructive purpose for readers.We concluded
the chapter with a brief discussion of some of the ethical issues specifically related to
the elicitation, use, and archiving of multimedia narrative data
101. The main themes identified were (1) precollege language-learning orientation, (2)
interaction between college input and personal effort, (3) identity conflicts, (4)
future direction of development, and (5) a stable ‘core identity’ or identities. In this
study, comparison was used not to contrast different positions, but to demonstrate
diversity in the relationship between English language learning and identity
construction among the participants.These themes identified were helpful in this
respect, because they provided a structure in which to explore differences among
the three participants’ narratives. Another approach to analyzing a small number of
narratives from participants who are judged to share certain social and psychological
experiences is to combine elements from the narratives into a single, collective
“metanarrative.” Coryell, Clark, and Pomerantz (2010, see Chapter 2), for example,
drew on narratives produced during interviews by adult learners of Spanish as a
heritage language in the United States to produce what they call a “cultural fantasy
metanarrative.” In order to do this, they used the words and phrases that the
participants used to talk about “proper Spanish” and “Tex-Mex” to code narrative
data related to their opinions about varieties of Spanish and develop subthemes
through which the women made sense of their identities
102. Some of the texts were also coded by a second researcher. Murphey and Carpenter
(2008) also used a more systematic approach to an analysis of twenty university
students’ LLHs, in which extracts were coded for “factors that learners reported as
useful, helpful, or encouraging, and instances in which learner agency was evident”
(p. 22). Extracts were also coded for the phase of education, positive or negative
influence, and learning context
103. An example is Hacker’s (2008) doctoral thesis, which aimed to understand the
process of language teacher education learning, i.e., how and what language teacher
educators learn in the process of doing their teacher educator work. Her narrative
inquiry explored through in-depth narrative interviews the experiences of fifteen
teacher educators working in New Zealand tertiary institutions, with varying ages,
genders, and levels of teacher education experience. Hacker organized her findings
into two chapters
104. In a relatively lengthy concluding section, Barkhuizen makes conceptual connections
between identity, social inclusion, and language maintenance. What these three
studies show is that reports on discourse analyses of interactional narratives can be
organized in a variety of ways, usually dependent on the length and number of data
extracts chosen for analysis and included in the report. Always of central
importance, however, is the focused attention paid to the text itself
105. She assumed many of them would not have engaged with her other research
reports, such as her books and journal articles. In crafting the playscript, Nelson used
her data to develop five main composite characters from the 110 actual research
participants.The following excerpt (Nelson, 2011a: 475–6) is based on an actual
classroom discussion. Note, the script is not an exact reproduction of the discussion,
but was “edited for conciseness, clarity, and dramatic momentum” (p. 479)
106. [object Object]
Narrative Inquiry: A Methodology for
Studying Lived Experience
D. Jean Clandinin
2012
Abstract
The paper briefly outlines the history and development of the methodology of narrative
inquiry. It draws attention to the need for careful delineation of terms and assumptions. A
Deweyan view of experience is central to narrative inquiry methodology and is used to
frame a metaphorical three-dimensional narrative inquiry space. An illustration from a
recent narrative inquiry into curriculum making is used to show what narrative inquirers do.
Issues of social significance, purpose and ethics are also outlined.
Key points
13. Thomas King, a professor of English at the University of Guelph in Canada, whose
father was Cherokee and whose mother was Greek, wrote in his book The Truth
about Stories that...once a story is told, it cannot be called back
14. Narrative inquiry is an old practice that may feel new for a variety of reasons
15. And Clandinin (1990, 2006) observed that arguments for the development and use
of narrative inquiry are inspired by a view of human experience in which humans,
individually and socially, lead storied lives
16. Josh’s stories of community bumped against Kristi’s story and the mandated
curriculum. This bumping created a tension as she dismissed his work as either an
expression of his not understanding the task or not understanding the concept of
community. It was Vera, working alongside the children, who stayed with the visual
narrative inquiry and with seeing the possibilities to negotiate a curriculum of lives
17. What is not in the story as represented in the interim research text was that some
weeks later at a school wide open house for children, parents, and visitors, Kristi
displayed the children’s visual narrative inquiry books of community
18. As I wandered through the carnival, chatting with teachers and parents and
members of the research group, three other staff members independently
approached me and told me to go and look at the amazing visual narrative inquiry
books created by the boys in the learning strategies classroom
Summary
about Stories that...once a story is told, it cannot be called back.
108. Connelly and Clandinin (1990, 2006) observed that arguments for the development
and use of narrative inquiry are inspired by a view of human experience in which
humans, individually and socially, lead storied lives.
109. Clandinin and Rosiek (2006) built on earlier work by Connelly and Clandinin (1990)
as they wrote that while the starting point for narrative inquiry is an individual’s
experience it is an exploration of the social, cultural and institutional narratives
within which individual’s experiences are constituted, shaped, expressed and
enacted - but in a way that begins and ends that inquiry in the storied lives of the
people involved.
110. Narrative inquirers, working within the three-dimensional narrative inquiry space,
can begin their inquiries either with engaging with participants through telling
stories or through coming alongside participants in the living out of stories (Connelly
& Clandinin, 2006).
111. Vera was trying out her ideas about a visual narrative inquiry methodology and
wanted to work in a collaborative way with the boys as they composed field texts of
their experiences together.
112. It was Vera, working alongside the children, who stayed with the visual narrative
inquiry and with seeing the possibilities to negotiate a curriculum of lives.
113. What is not in the story as represented in the interim research text was that some
weeks later at a school wide open house for children, parents, and visitors, Kristi
displayed the children’s visual narrative inquiry books of community.
114. As the author wandered through the carnival, chatting with teachers and parents
and members of the research group, three other staff members independently
approached me and told the author to go and look at the amazing visual narrative
inquiry books created by the boys in the learning strategies classroom.
115. This short illustration of an interim research text of a moment of curriculum making
in which lives are intertwined helps them see something of narrative inquiry.
116. In the interim research text written out of the narrative inquiry into the experiences
of Josh, Vera and Kristi in curriculum making the author sees how narrative inquiry
allows the possibility for understanding how the personal and social are entwined
over time in their lives.
117. Ethical concerns permeate narrative inquiry from one’s own narrative beginnings
through negotiations of relationships to writing and sharing research texts (Clandinin
& Connelly, 2000; Huber & Clandinin, 2002).
118. I, too, write out of passion and a deep hope that engaging in narrative inquiry will
help the author change the world, at least in some small way, a way that might help
schools become more educative places for all children, teachers, families and
administrators.
Introduction
about Stories that...once a story is told, it cannot be called back. Once told, it is loose
in the world. So you have to be careful with the stories that you tell. And you have to
watch out for the stories that you are told. (King, 2003, p. 10)Narrative inquiry is an
old practice that may feel new for a variety of reasons. It is a commonplace to note
that human beings both live and tell stories about their living. These lived and told
stories and talk about those stories are ways we create meaning in our lives as well
as ways we enlist each other’s help in building our lives and communities. What does
feel new is the emergence of narrative methodologies in social science research.
With this emergence has come intensified talk about our stories, their function in
our lives, and their place in composing our collective affairs.

120. The story is situated in the context of an urban multicultural school, Ravine
Elementary School, where a group of researchers, including me, worked with some
children, parents, teachers and school administrators for almost two years. The
following story involves the work of Vera Caine and her work alongside Kristi and 14
boys in a year 3 - 4 learning strategies special education class. Vera had a particular
interest in visual narrative inquiry (Bach, 1997; Caine, 2002)
121. Later, after Vera talked with each boy, I asked her what Josh said about the two
photographs. Vera said he described the three children on the sofa as his younger
sister and her two small cousins. Sometimes his mother’s sister comes over and the
three children play together
122. Vera said he described the three children on the sofa as his younger sister and her
two small cousins. Sometimes his mother’s sister comes over and the three children
play together. He spoke of the three guitars as being a community because “one
belongs to my dad, one to my uncle, and one is mine, and sometimes we play
together.” (Interim research text, November, 2002)
Challenges in Working with Portraiture
Katherine Hampsten
2015
Abstract
Key points
19. Portraiture is a method that analyzes facets of a theme through in-depth narratives
20. As defined by its creator, Lawrence-Lightfoot (2005), the qualitative method of
portraiture is “this dialogue between science and art, this pursuit of truths, insight,
and knowledge projected by the imagination, this ‘people’s scholarship’” (p. 14)
21. My path began with a project in which I explored the paradoxes that women
experience in trying to manage cultural norms of feminine perfection (Hampsten,
2012)
22. I reflect on the challenges and opportunities that are involved in the planning,
doing, and writing of portraiture
23. While researchers in other disciplines have employed the method of portraiture,
communication researchers have seldom used it
24. Portraiture offers a rich opportunity for scholarly exploration
Summary
123. Portraiture is a method that analyzes facets of a theme through in-depth narratives.
124. These challenges include (1) introducing a method new to the communication
discipline, (2) creating the portraits, and (3) finding a readership.
125. Portraiture offers valuable insight for communication research.
126. Portraiture is a method that explores lived, everyday experiences of participants
through the creation and presentation of in-depth narratives.
127. The path to creating and sharing these portraits presents challenges that require
exploration.
128. Portraiture offers an opportunity to capture the paradoxes and individual
complexities of these lived experiences.
129. The author reflects on the challenges and opportunities that are involved in the
planning, doing, and writing of portraiture.
130. The author examines the challenge of introducing a method that is new to the field
of communication.
communication researchers have seldom used it.
132. Portraiture, seeks to uncover the “goodness” within a research participant or site;
the method highlights “strengths, competencies, and insights” (Lawrence-Lightfoot &
Davis, 1997, p.
133. Portraiture provides the field of communication studies an alternative approach for
research that makes a difference.
134. Research that uses portraiture looks different from other qualitative studies.
135. The limited sample size provided as much data than typical qualitative studies,
because the participants and the author worked together across several interviews
and conversations.
136. Creating the portrait presented other challenges, as well.
137. These challenges emerged in collecting data and writing up the portraits.
138. Participant confidentiality is typically not employed in the method.
139. Selecting participants for this project presented challenges.
140. This process can be intensive for both the researcher and the participant in terms of
time and emotion.
141. The relationship between the two individuals may evolve into a relationship beyond
researcher/participant.
142. As a result of this trust, the researcher is careful to treat the participant with respect
and consideration.
143. In addition to conducting interviews, researchers using portraiture may wish to
include data from sources that make sense for the particular research project.
144. The writing process presented its own challenging journey.
145. Portraiture requires the researcher to channel the spirit of the individual.
146. Sharing portraits in formats other than longer books presents a challenge.
147. The art and science of portraiture capture the nuances, emotions, paradoxes, and
complexities of a lived experience in a way that other methods may not.
148. After reading the finished portrait of his wife, he wrote that the portrait did “a
wonderful job in bringing to life the essence of who she is.” This statement highlights
how portraits can animate the lives of participants, illuminating the lessons of their
lives in a powerful way
Introduction
149. Portraiture is a method that analyzes facets of a theme through in-depth narratives.
This brief essay examines the challenges the author encountered when employing
this method. Specifically, these challenges include (1) introducing a method new to
the communication discipline, (2) creating the portraits, and (3) finding a readership.
Despite these challenges, portraiture offers valuable insight for communication
research.
150. As defined by its creator, Lawrence-Lightfoot (2005), the qualitative method of
portraiture is “this dialogue between science and art, this pursuit of truths, insight,
and knowledge projected by the imagination, this ‘people’s scholarship’” (p. 14). This
“people’s scholarship” is compelling to me as a researcher who is devoted to
engaged scholarship that makes a difference. Portraiture is a method that explores
lived, everyday experiences of participants through the creation and presentation of
in-depth narratives. The end result is scholarship that is compelling, empathetic, and
accessible. However, the path to creating and sharing these portraits presents
challenges that require exploration.
151. My path began with a project in which I explored the paradoxes that women
experience in trying to manage cultural norms of feminine perfection (Hampsten,
2012). I hoped to capture the lived experiences and sense-making strategies women
employ when they are caught between the dueling identities of being ideal workers
and ideal mothers (see Hays, 1996; Williams, 2000). Portraiture offers an opportunity
to capture the paradoxes and individual complexities of these lived experiences. My
ultimate goal was to paint a cohesive narrative, blended from unique stories, that
would reach readers on a personal level.
152. In this essay, I reflect on the challenges and opportunities that are involved in the
planning, doing, and writing of portraiture. Specifically, I examine the challenge of
introducing a method that is new to the field of communication. Next, I highlight the
issues I encountered in crafting the portrait. Finally, I discuss opportunities and
challenges in seeking a readership for this method.
communication researchers have seldom used it. One possible reason is that much
of social science research tends to critique. Portraiture, however, seeks to uncover
the “goodness” within a research participant or site; the method highlights
“strengths, competencies, and insights” (Lawrence-Lightfoot & Davis, 1997, p. 141).
While this approach is not the creation of an “idealized portrayal of human
experience” or a “focus only on good things” (Lawrence-Lightfoot & Davis, 1997), it
does focus on success over failure. This emphasis on the presence, rather than
absence, of virtues runs counter to “the more typical social science preoccupation
with documenting pathology and suggesting remedies” (Lawrence-Lightfoot & Davis,
1997). It highlights the enactment of a virtue or a particular quality, such as respect
(Lawrence-Lightfoot, 1999). As such, portraiture provides the field of communication
studies an alternative approach for research that makes a difference.
Conclusion
154. Portraiture offers a rich opportunity for scholarly exploration. The art and science of
portraiture capture the nuances, emotions, paradoxes, and complexities of a lived
experience in a way that other methods may not. Certainly, portraiture brings many
challenges, but I have found the results to be worth the effort. One of the best
rewards I received was an unsolicited note from the husband of one of my
participants. After reading the finished portrait of his wife, he wrote that the portrait
did “a wonderful job in bringing to life the essence of who she is.” This statement
highlights how portraits can animate the lives of participants, illuminating the
lessons of their lives in a powerful way.

155. Published online: 02 Oct 2015. Submit your article to this journal Article views: 378
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156. Beyond this different scope, research that uses portraiture also looks different from
other qualitative studies. For my project, I worked with five participants. The limited
sample size provided as much (if not more) data than typical qualitative studies,
because the participants and I worked together across several interviews and
conversations
A Conceptual Framework to
Understand Language Teacher
Identities
SEE PROFILE
2018
Abstract
Language teacher identity (LTI) has recently become a prominent theme in the second
language teacher education (SLTE) research because teacher identities play a major role in
teachers’ learning-to-teach processes and instructional practices. Teacher identity refers to
teachers’ dynamic self-conception and imagination of themselves as teachers, which shifts
as they participate in varying communities, interact with other individuals, and position
themselves (and are positioned by others) in social contexts. Therefore, it casts an influence
upon a wide array of matters, ranging from how language teachers learn to perform their
profession, how they practice theory and theorize their practice, how they educate their
students, and how they interact and collaborate with their colleagues in their social setting.
This paper offers a conceptual framework for LTI that explicates the interrelationships
between teacher identity and these core constructs: teacher learning, teacher cognition,
teachers’ participation in communities of practice, contextual factors, teacher biographies,
and teacher emotions.
Key points
25. Language teacher identity (LTI) has recently received a lot of attention from second
language teacher education (SLTE) researchers (De Costa & Norton, 2017; Kanno &
Stuart, 2011; Varghese, Motha, Park, Reeves, & Trent, 2016)
26. Conceived “as an integral part of teacher learning” (Tsui, 2011, p. 33), teacher
identity development has become a major theme of research in teacher education
27. This view is aligned with the novel sociocultural orientations in the field of SLTE
which seeks “to portray teacher knowledge not as an isolated set of cognitive
abilities but as fundamentally linked to matters such as teacher identity and teacher
development” (Johnston, Pawan, & Mahan-Taylor, 2005, pp. 53-54)
28. “the way that teachers, both individually and collectively, view and understand
themselves as teachers [and it] is understood to be formed within, but out of, the
narratives and stories that form the ‘fabric’ of teachers’ lives”. Comparing these
definitions coming from various scholars of teacher education, I identified five main
commonalities regarding the conceptualization of teacher identity: (a) Teacher
identity includes teachers’ conceptions and beliefs about themselves as teachers
(Bullough, 1997; Cohen, 2010; Kelchtermans, 1993; Lasky, 2005; Mockler, 2011); (b)
Teacher identity involves others’ expectations and social positioning (Akkerman &
Meijer, 2011; Beijaard et al, 2004; Olsen, 2008; Urzúa & Vásquez, 2008); (c) Teacher
identity is dynamic and evolves constantly (Akkerman & Meijer, 2011; Olsen, 2008);
(e) Teacher identity is constructed and reconstructed in social contexts and
interactions (Cohen, 2010; Lasky, 2005; Olsen, 2008); (e) Teacher identity develops
through teachers’ commitment to, participation, and investment in the profession
(Akkerman & Meijer, 2011; Hsieh, 2010)
29. Understanding and investigating teacher identity in relation to those dimensions
entails a multifaceted approach that comprises the constructs to help capture the
complexity of teacher identity
30. It is my hope that researchers in to speakers of other languages (TESOL) will benefit
from this approach and they make contributions to further streamline it as they
investigate LTI in various contexts with differing research foci
Summary
Stuart, 2011; Varghese, Motha, Park, Reeves, & Trent, 2016).
158. Recent research in the field of teaching English to speakers of other languages
(TESOL) has explored various aspects of teachers’ negotiation and development of
professional identities in the contexts of L2 teaching and teacher education.
159. Comparing these definitions coming from various scholars of teacher education, the
author identified five main commonalities regarding the conceptualization of teacher
identity: (a) Teacher identity includes teachers’ conceptions and beliefs about
themselves as teachers (Bullough, 1997; Cohen, 2010; Kelchtermans, 1993; Lasky,
2005; Mockler, 2011); (b) Teacher identity involves others’ expectations and social
positioning (Akkerman & Meijer, 2011; Beijaard et al, 2004; Olsen, 2008; Urzúa &
Vásquez, 2008); (c) Teacher identity is dynamic and evolves constantly (Akkerman &
Meijer, 2011; Olsen, 2008); (e) Teacher identity is constructed and reconstructed in
social contexts and interactions (Cohen, 2010; Lasky, 2005; Olsen, 2008); (e) Teacher
identity develops through teachers’ commitment to, participation, and investment in
the profession (Akkerman & Meijer, 2011; Hsieh, 2010).
160. This section draws a conceptual framework for LTI by defining and explaining the
following relevant factors and constructs: (a) teacher learning, (b) teacher cognition,
(c) teachers’ participation in communities of practice, (d) contextual factors, (e)
teacher biographies, and (f) teacher emotions.
161. Teacher educators in TESOL have started to understand the learning to teach
process “as socially negotiated and contingent on knowledge of self, students,
subject matter, curricula, and setting” (Johnson, 2009b, p.
162. That is, learning to teach occurs when TCs construct theoretical and practical
knowledge to guide their L2 teaching throughparticipation in social contexts and
engagement in certain kinds of activities by means of coursework and the teaching
practica (Burns & Richards, 2009; Freeman & Johnson, 1998; Yazan, 2017).
163. It is imperative to critically examine the sociocultural contexts in which L2 TCs’
learning to teach processes take place if the authors want to better document and
understand how TCs develop professional knowledge and grow as teachers.
164. The value-laden cultural setting of the SLTE course room receives utmost
importance in TCs’ identity construction processes because L2 TCs forge and enact
their identities in connection with “socially organized and complex ecological
spheres of activity” which are nested in teacher education classrooms (Singh &
Richards, 2006, p.
165. Research on the interaction between teachers’ biographical trajectories and their
current self-images illuminates the understanding of how L2 teachers develop and
enact their identities as they traverse the activities of initial teacher education
(Yazan, 2017).
166. It is the author's hope that researchers in TESOL will benefit from this approach and
they make contributions to further streamline it as they investigate LTI in various
contexts with differing research foci
Introduction
Stuart, 2011; Varghese, Motha, Park, Reeves, & Trent, 2016). Conceived “as an
integral part of teacher learning” (Tsui, 2011, p. 33), teacher identity development
has become a major theme of research in teacher education. LTI is a central part of
language teachers’ reiterative (re)construction of knowledge base and competences
(Morgan B. Yazan& Clarke, 2011). This view is aligned with the novel sociocultural
orientations in the field of SLTE which seeks “to portray teacher knowledge not as an
isolated set of cognitive abilities but as fundamentally linked to matters such as
teacher identity and teacher development” (Johnston, Pawan, & Mahan-Taylor,
2005, pp. 53-54). From this orientation, the investigation of teachers’ identity
construction can shine light on the way language teachers develop as professionals
while transitioning from a graduate or undergraduate student self to a teacher self.
Conclusion
168. As a highly complicated concept in educational research, teacher identity pertains to
many dimensions of teachers’ growth, professional life, and classroom practices and
it is impossible to focus merely on teacher identity without including into the
equation other related dimensions of being and becoming a teacher. Understanding
and investigating teacher identity in relation to those dimensions entails a
multifaceted approach that comprises the constructs to help capture the complexity
of teacher identity. This paper is an attempt to present such an approach by critically
synthesizing the existing empirical and theoretical research in TESOL and teacher
education. It is my hope that researchers in TESOL will benefit from this approach
and they make contributions to further streamline it as they investigate LTI in various
contexts with differing research foci.

169. Knowles (1992) defines biography in teacher education contexts as “those formative
[prior] experiences of preservice and beginning teachers which have influenced”
their conceptions about teaching and learning and, later, their teaching practice in
the classroom (p. 99). Through their schooling process, that is, approximately 13,000
hours of observations as learners (Lortie, 1975) or 3,060 days of learner experiences
(Kennedy, 1990), TCs “play a role of opposite teachers for a large part of [their] lives”
(Britzman, 1986, p. 443) as “apprentices of observation” (Lortie, 1975, p. 61). As a
result, they construct stronglyheld views about teaching and learning before
entering the preservice teacher education

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