This document outlines a research subproject on narrative inquiry in English teaching and learning. The subproject aims to collect narratives through life stories, autobiographies, and experiences of English teaching and learning. It will use methods like interviews, observations, and storytelling to gather data from multiple sources. The pre-service teachers conducting the research will analyze data thematically and develop an understanding of English language contexts. The subproject intends to contribute to the larger research goals at the LLEI and benefit the professional development of participating pre-service teachers.

2. Practitioner Research at the LLEI
Orientations to guide the subproject:
The voices of the LLEI realities: life stories
and experiences.

3. Micro Projects (Students’ research projects emerging from their educational contexts)
Research Macro project 2:
Understanding and
characterizing EFL in the LLEI:
experiences and phenomena in
the pre-service teachers’
educational contexts.
Research Subproject 3:
The voices of the LLEI realities: life
stories and experiences.
Research Subproject 4:
Understanding English
teaching and learning
contexts in EFL education.
Research field 2:
The Study of the English
Language and its contexts
Figure 1. Adapted from the Research frame at
the LLEI.
Contextualization
at the LLEI

4. Objective
This sub-project aims to carry out narrative inquiry in
English teaching and learning research through
specific perspectives defined by the B.A program: Life-
stories, autobiographies and experiences in English
teaching and learning.

5. In words of Barkhuizen, (2014), “the strength
of narrative inquiry lies in its focus on how
people use stories to make sense of their
experiences, p. 17.”
Narrative inquiry

6. As other research perspectives, narrative inquiry embraces a set
of components to fulfill the requirements of a formal and
rigorous research study.
Narrative inquiry is pertinent in the field of English learning and
teaching (ELT) because “it helps us to understand the inner
mental worlds of language teachers and learners and the nature
of language teaching and learning as social and educational
activity, p.17.”
Narrative inquiry

7. Defining my research statement
When doing narrative inquiry in ELT, researchers
should consider the existence of three key
features that in terms of components are
defined under the constructs of: (a) cross-time
identity, (b) context and (c) affect.

8. • Experiences that
take place over
long periods of
time in multiple
settings.
Cross-time
Identity
• The setting that
shapes
transformations
while living the
experience of
English teaching and
learning.
Context • Feelings and
emotions that shape
the narrative of
participants and give
the researcher the
significance of
experiences.
Affect
Defining my research statement

9. Justification of the subproject at the LLEI
• Pre-service teachers will grow up through the research exercise
and the interpretation of the voices of ELT contexts.
• Pre-service teachers could change their view and acquire a critical
understanding of English teaching and learning from the voices of
other teachers and participants.
• The reflections, conclusions and findings of the pre-service
teachers will contribute to the research field of English language
and its contexts and the research construction at the LLEI.

10. Writing the justification of my project
A solid justification of a narrative subproject involves arguments that…
• Explain why it is relevant and significant to collect the narrative of
participants in regards to English as a foreign language and/or ELT.
• Relate the importance of the research for the (a) subproject, (b) the
macroproject and © the research field. Findings and conclusions contribute
to build the research at the LLEI and its CAU.
• Describe the impact of the project on your professional development and
reconstructions of yourself as a pre-service teacher.
• Explain the relevance and contributions of the research in the region and
context where you carry out the project.

11. Literature review
Narrative research looks for a revision of literature, pertinent and
coherent with the investigation and the purpose of it.
• Some references:
– Connelly, F.M., & Clandinin, D.J. (2006)
– Polkinghorne, D. (1995)
– Barkhuizen, G. (2014).
– Barkhuizen, G. and Wette, R. (2008)
– Pavlenko, A. (2011)
– Shkedi, A. (2005)

12. Writing the literature review of my project
1. Definition of the type of narrative and its relation to the project you carry out. Include
citations and authors that could be pertinent for the type of narrative inquiry.
2. Establish a dialogue between the authors you selected, the participants of your project
and your own voice as a researcher.
3. Keep in mind the recommendations below:
 The literature review is not a summary or a list of authors and citations. It is
definitely your critical construction in regards to your project and what authors have
stated about narrative inquiry.
 It is not a list of isolated concepts or definitions.
 Make explicit your critical point as a researcher and pre-service teacher. Therefore,
your own reflections based on the understanding of theory are essential to support
the literature review.

13. Writing the literature review of my project

14. Research design: Methodological aspects
Narrative
inquiry
Biographies/
Autobriograhies
Multiple
narratives
Life-
stories

15. Sources of data collection
Figure 1. Sources of data as doing narrative research: Multimodal data collection. Barkhuizen, (2014).
Oral
elements
Written
elements
Visual
elements/
Multimedia
materials

16. Sources of data collection
In order to collect data, researchers can use:
 Field notes of the shared experience
 Journals for biographies and reflections from the voices of participants.
 Unstructured interviews and their transcripts
 Observations in the research context
 Photographs: taken by the researcher or taken by the project participants
after giving basic instruction.
 Storytelling about lived experiences or biographies, including
autobiographical writing.
 Narrative frames from the methodological procedure stated by
Barkhuizen, (2014).

17. The process of data collection and data analysis
Data collection
Establish a friendly
relationship with the
participants.
Narrative inquiry implies
permanent interaction
for data collection.
As collecting data…
Guarantee
trustworthiness:
-Different sources of
data to contrast data.
-Photographs, video-
recordings, digital
narrative.
Stimulate data
collection…
Revisit data collection to
stimulate and guide the
participants to the
narrative you require in
regards to findings and
the research objective.
Narrative frames

18. Data analysis
According to Barkhuizen (2014) , the theory of narrative inquiry and its nature
shares the same approaches framed by the qualitative research. Thus
researchers commonly analysis and interpret data under the characteristics of
the qualitative research or as we agreed on the B.A program under the
descriptive research tradition.
• Content analysis
• Thematic analysis
• Grounded theory

19. Data analysis
According to Barkhuizen (2014) , the theory of narrative
inquiry and its nature shares the same approaches framed
by the qualitative research. Thus researchers commonly
analysis and interpret data under the characteristics of
the qualitative research or as we agreed on the B.A program
under the descriptive research tradition.

20. Narrative research teachers
• Martha Bonilla
• Vivian Ibeth Chitiva
• Ángela Sarmiento
• Sandra Milena Rodríguez