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Article published In:
Narrative Inquiry
Vol. 30:2 (2020) ► pp.316–342

Exploring the boundary between narrative research and narrative intervention

Implications of participating in narrative inquiry for young people with refugee backgrounds

| Griffith University
| The University of Queensland
| Queensland University of Technology
| Queensland University of Technology

Researchers need to be cautious and reflective about the boundaries between narrative research and narrative intervention. Pursuing the ethics of care and the responsive and responsible practice of narrative inquiry obliges qualitative researchers to remain sensitive about the implications of engaging participants in narrative inquiry. This is accentuated with narrative inquiry into the life experiences of marginalised or disempowered populations. This study explored the implications of engaging recently resettled young African participants in narrative inquiry interviews. Thematic analysis uncovered four themes and 11 subthemes from the interviews. The Future Career Autobiography (FCA; Rehfuss, 2009, 2015) was used to understand these participants’ narrative themes and explore the possibility of narrative change as a result of participating in narrative inquiry interviews. The findings illustrate the transformative function of narrative inquiry as uncovered by the FCA, and how narrative inquiry could potentially cross a boundary with narrative interventions such as narrative career counselling.

Keywords: narrative inquiry, qualitative research, narrative intervention, career counselling, career development, future career, refugee, youth, ethics of care, migration
Article outline
  • Introduction
    • Qualitative research
      • Narrative inquiry
      • Narrative career counselling as a form of narrative intervention
      • Narrative inquiry with young people with refugee backgrounds
  • Method
    • Participants
    • Measures
      • Semi-structured narrative inquiry interviews
      • Future Career Autobiography
    • Procedures
      • The first encounter
        • The first FCA
        • Semi-structured interview one
        • Transcription
      • The second encounter
        • Semi-structured interview two
        • Second FCA and farewell
    • Analysis
      • The thematic analysis of the semi-structured interview excerpts
      • The comparative narrative analysis of FCA paragraphs
  • Discussion
  • Implications for research
    • Narrative inquiry
    • Future Career Autobiography
  • Limitations of the research
  • Future research
  • Conclusion
  • References
Published online: 19 May 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ni.18031.abk
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