Emergence

• Research methodologies can be said to have genealogies of emergence. Positivist research (science based) traditionally has favored quantitative data gathering and analysis and most research is still conducted this way. But with time, research movements have evolved that recognized the importance of knowledge production based on narratives provided by people's lives, not just that which can be measured or scientifically reproduced. Narrative inquiry can thus be assumed to be a research strategy that grew out of the need for new modes of understanding.
  
  

Hypothesis

• As is true in any kind of research, a hypothesis or argument must be developed that the research supports. The data-gathering methods should include a wide variety of perspectives and can be based on multiple techniques. You should assume that a narrative-inquiry approach of a research project was a necessary element of developing a cogent argument. For example, a study that examines the history of a family could possibly be done without a narrative inquiry, but the study would be far better by including personal perspectives gathered in interviews.
  
  

Strategy

• Narrative inquiry is a research strategy. You can assume that the person or people who are the subjects of research have a story to tell that can provide information vital to the argument being made and that the researcher's participation is relevant. It is a collaborative approach in which the researcher and subject coconstruct a story out of their interactions. The constructed narrative thus recognizes the relationship between the researcher and subject and can be a combination of their views.
  
  

Recognition

• When assessing a research study's methodology, you may not find specific mention of narrative inquiry. But you can assume a narrative inquiry process was engaged when data-gathering techniques included interviews, field notes, letters, journals, autobiographies and orally told stories. Other clues of a narrative process are an author's active reflexive participation in which biases, values and personal background such as gender, culture, history or socioeconomic status are foregrounded. These all point to the researcher's role in the data-gathering process.