Engaging in Narrative Inquiries with Children and Youth

Book excerpt: Renowned scholar and founder of the practice of narrative inquiry, D. Jean Clandinin, and her coauthors provide researchers with the theoretical underpinnings and processes for conducting narrative inquiry with children and youth. Exploring the unique ability of narratives to elucidate the worldview of research subjects, the authors highlight the unique steps and issues of working with these special populations. The authors address key ethical issues of anonymity and confidentiality, the relational issues of co-composing field and research texts with subjects, and working within the familial contexts of children and youth; include numerous examples from the authors’ studies and others – many from indigenous communities-- to show narrative inquiry in action; should be invaluable to researchers in education, family relations, child development, and children’s health and services.