Using tellability to analyze entrepreneurial narratives in the classroom
A comprehensive theoretical review suggests that tellability can be used to understand life stories, how stories
are constructed, the social context shaping storytelling, and how stories function as a mode of thought. However, the complex and
multi-dimensional nature of tellability has been overlooked. This study analyzes one Chinese teacher’s storytelling of six
entrepreneurs’ stories as an example, aiming to demonstrate that tellability is structurally embedded within an entire story.
Interpreting the stories with reference to the classroom setting reveals that entrepreneurial narratives are tellable because they
institutionalize culturally salient values and beliefs about entrepreneurship, they are pedagogically meaningful, and they provide
an epistemological tool for listeners to constitute their future reality. This paper argues that an analysis on tellability,
informed by multiple theories and recognizant of its structural, social, ontological and epistemological nature, is effective to
understand teachers’ storytelling in classrooms and unpack the meanings of stories in more detail.
Article outline
- Introduction
- Theoretical conceptualizations of tellability
- Conceptualization of tellability from sociolinguistics
- Conceptualization of tellability from narratology
- Conceptualization of tellability from conversation analysis
- Conceptualization of tellability from narrative psychology
- A summary of tellability from different narrative approaches
- Data and methods
- The participating university and the teller
- The data
- Methods of data analyses
- Analyses
- The first nascent entrepreneur’s story
- Narrative accrual – the stories of the other five nascent entrepreneurs
- Discussion
- Conclusion
- Notes
-
References
References
Bamberg, M.
(
2011)
Narrative practice and identity navigation. In
J. A. Holstein &
J. F. Gubrium (Eds.),
Varieties of narrative analysis (pp. 99–124). London: Sage Publications.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Bröckling, U.
(
2016)
The entrepreneurial self: Fabricating a new type of subject. London: Sage Publications.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Bruner, J.
(
1986)
Actual minds, possible worlds. Massachusetts, US: Harvard University Press.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Bruner, J.
(
1991)
The narrative construction of reality.
Critical Inquiry, 18(1), 1–21.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Bruner, J.
(
2004)
Life as Narrative.
Social Research: An International Quarterly, 71(3), 691–710.
[URL]
Down, S.
(
2006)
Narratives of enterprise: Crafting entrepreneurial self-identity in a small firm. UK: Edward Elgar.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Down, S., & Warren, L.
(
2008)
Constructing narratives of enterprise: Clichés and entrepreneurial self-identity.
International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research, 14(1), 4–23.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Ferrell, A. K.
(
2012)
It’s really hard to tell the true story of tobacco: Stigma, tellability and reflexive scholarship.
Journal of Folklore Research, 49(2), 127–152.
[URL].
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
Fiol, C. M.
(
1989)
A semiotic analysis of corporate language: Organizational boundaries and joint venturing.
Administrative Science Quarterly, 34(2), 277–303.
[URL].
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
Foss, L.
(
2004)
‘Going against the grain …’ Construction of entrepreneurial identity through narratives. In
D. Hjorth &
C. Steyaert (Eds.),
Narrative and discursive approaches in entrepreneurship (pp. 80–104). UK: Edward Elgar.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Gibb, A.
(
2002)
In pursuit of a new ‘enterprise’ and ‘entrepreneurship’ paradigm for learning: Creative destruction, new values, new ways of doing things and new combinations of knowledge.
International Journal of Management Review, 4(3), 233–69.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Jackl, J. A.
(
2018) “
Do you understand why I don’t share that?”: Exploring tellability within untellable romantic relationship origin tales.
Western Journal of Communication, 82(3), 315–335.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Jefferson, G.
(
1978)
Sequential aspects of storytelling in conversation. In
J. Schenkein (Ed.),
Studies in the organization of conversational interaction (pp. 219–248). New York: Academic Press.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Johansson, A.
(
2004)
Narrating the entrepreneur.
International Small Business Journal: Researching Entrepreneurship, 22(4), 273–293.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Labov, L.
(
1972)
Language in the inner city: Studies in the Black English Vernacular. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Labov, L.
(
2010)
Narratives of personal experience. In
P. C. Hogan (Ed.),
The Cambridge encyclopedia of the language sciences (pp. 546–548). New York: Cambridge University Press.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Labov, W., & Waletzky, J.
(
1967)
Narrative analysis: Oral versions of personal experience. In
J. Helm (Ed.),
Essays on verbal and visual arts (pp. 12–44). Seattle: University of Washington.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Linde, C.
(
1993)
Life stories: The creation of coherence. New York: Oxford University Press.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Linde, C.
(
1996)
Whose story is this?: Point of view, variation and group identity in oral narrative. In
J. Arnold,
R. Blake,
B. Davidson,
S. Schwenter &
J. Solomon (Eds.),
Sociolinguistic variation: Data, theory and analysis. Selected papers from NWAV23 at Stanford. Stanford, CA: CSLI Publications.
Linde, C.
(
2009)
Working the past: Narrative and institutional memory. New York: Oxford University Press.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Lounsbury, M., & Glynn, M. A.
(
2001)
Cultural entrepreneurship: stories, legitimacy, and the acquisition of resources.
Strategic Management Journal, 22(6–7), 545–564.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Martens, M. L., Jennings, J. E., & Jennings, P. D.
(
2007)
Do the stories they tell get them the money they need? The role of entrepreneurial narratives in resource acquisition.
Academy of Management Journal, 50(5), 1107–1132.
[URL].
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
Nida, E. A.
(
1993)
Language, culture, and translating. Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Ochs, E., & Capps, L.
(
2001)
Living narrative: Creating lives in everyday storytelling. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
O’Connor, E.
(
2002)
Storied business: Typology, intertextuality, and traffic in entrepreneurial narrative.
International Journal of Business Communication, 39(1), 36–54.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
O’Connor, E.
(
2004)
Storytelling to be real: narrative, legitimacy building and venturing. In
D. Hjorth &
C. Steyaert (Eds.),
Narrative and discursive approaches in entrepreneurship (pp. 105–124). UK: Edward Elgar.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Polanyi, L.
(
1979)
So what’s the point? Semiotica, 25(3–4), 207–242.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Polanyi, L.
(
1989)
Telling the American story: A structural analysis of conversational storytelling. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Rae, D.
(
2005)
Entrepreneurial learning: A narrative-based conceptual model.
Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development, 12(3), 323–335.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Ryan, M. L.
(
1986)
Embedded narratives and tellability.
Style, 20(3), 319–340.
[URL]
Ryan, M. L.
(
1991)
Possible worlds, artificial intelligence, and narrative theory. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Ryan, M. L.
(
2005)
Tellability. In
D. M. Herman,
M. Jahn &
M. L. Ryan (Eds.),
Routledge encyclopedia of narrative theory (pp. 589–591). New York: Routledge.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Sacks, H.
(
1972)
An initial investigation of the usability of conversational data for doing sociology. In
D. Sudnow (Ed.),
Studies in social interaction (pp. 31–74). New York: Free Press.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Sacks, H.
(
1992)
Lectures on conversation. Vol 11. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Suchman, M. C.
(
1995)
Managing legitimacy: Strategic and institutional approaches.
The Academy of Management Review, 20(3), 571–610.
[URL]
Wang, L.
(
2020)
Entrepreneurial narrative and concept teaching and learning.
Industry and Higher Education, 34(1), 24–35.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Cited by
Cited by 2 other publications
Blain, Hayden & Paul Millar
Ho, Janet & Jiapei Gu
2023.
Small stories of a key moment: Exploring discursive construction in digital quarantine stories.
Discourse Studies ![DOI logo](//benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 29 may 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers.
Any errors therein should be reported to them.