Eleventh and Twelfth  (June  and November  2007)

Intensive BNIM Short Course in Muswell Hill, London N10

in the Biographic-Narrative-Interpretive Method (BNIM)

5 days for 6 people:   June 14^th and 15^th; 18^th – 20^th;      November 8^th ad 9^th, and 12^th to 15^th

The value of open-narrative interviewing and insightful interpretation is widely recognised, but rather than having to invent the wheel for themselves, many people welcome a systematic immersion into principles and procedures that have been shown to generate high-quality work. An excerpt from an email we received from one university may be suggestive:

“… a number of the trainees who graduated this year got top awards in their doctorate projects... BNIM and narrative projects were considered to be of a particularly high standard by both internal and external examiners, and were very well received.  The course director was very impressed and has told me that the standard of the research of those undertaking these projects (using BNIM) has improved the standard of the whole cohort.”

For over eight years in the UK, and more recently in New York, in Auckland (NZ) and  Ljubljana (Slovenia), we have been running BNIM intensive trainings designed for PhD students and postdoctoral researchers in various pure and applied  fields. Comments include:

Elvin – A richness beyond what I could imagine.

Sian – Well-balanced, with just enough of each step. It was nice to have a number of little thresholds. I like the emphasis on own research, and having lots of time for reflection.

Mark – I could go away and practice now. I liked the balance of how and why. I really got my head round that and could explain it to someone else.

Recently completed PhDs and clinical doctorates by researchers using BNIM range over topics such as: reintegration of Guatamalan refugees; identity in informal care; men coping with sexual abuse; psychosomatic study of breast cancer; love and intimacy; motivation in occupational therapy; South African migrants to NZ; transitions in hearing voices’ life stories; nurses’ and health visitors’ learning and professional practice; relationship experiences in psychosis and hospitalisation. We know of 18 more PhDs and clinical doctorates in process.  Universities include Auckland, Birmingham, Dublin, de Montfort, East Anglia, Central Lancashire, East London, Essex, Exeter, Leicester, Kings College London, Leeds, Oxford, Oxford Brookes, Plymouth.

BNIM assumes that “narrative” expresses both conscious concerns and unconscious cultural, societal and individual presuppositions and processes. It supports research into the lived experience of individuals and collectives, facilitating understanding both the ‘inner’ and the ‘outer’ worlds of ‘historically-evolving persons-in-historically-evolving situations’, and particularly the interactivity of inner and outer world dynamics.  It especially serves researchers who need a tool that supports understanding spanning sociological and psychological dynamics and structures, and these treated not statically but as situated historically and biographically.  Such research provides an innovative base for policy.

Theoretical and methodological developments from recent research practice are raised for discussion.  When you  enrol for the course, you automatically become a member of the <Biographic-narrative-BNIM> email list where news, questions and discussion circulate. Methodology can be lonely without a secure base and like-minded people working in the same way as you. The course, the textbook, the Short Guide and the email list offer you support in using part or all of the BNIM tool-kit.

Summary

Designed for PhD students and professional researchers, the course provides a thorough training in doing BNIM biographic narrative interviews, together with ‘hands-on experience’ of following BNIM interpretation procedures.  Students develop a sense of how their own research projects might use such aspects  and components. The cost is £600 if paid in full by  May 1^st / October 1st.  If paid later, the cost is £700. Taught by Prue Chamberlayne and Tom Wengraf in Muswell Hill, North London,  the course’s  small number of students ensures close coaching and support for the intensive work that is needed for you to fully acquire both the understanding of  principles and the practical capacity for  proceeding with the  systematic practices involved in BNIM – usable both for BNIM and  for other types of  narrative interviewing and interpretation.

You will be expected to have looked at (not read!)  chapters 6 and 12 of Tom’s textbook, Qualitative research interviewing: biographic narrative and semi-structured method (2001: Sage Publications),   Preliminary and supplementary material will be provided. More recent debates and developments in theory and method are integrated into the programme. Before the course starts, you are expected to have studied the most recent version of the Short Guide to BNIM which will be sent to your email address.

Programme (subject to revision)

Thursday 14th–  Friday 15th  June 2007 /   8^th and 9^th November

We start with a short introduction to the Biographic-narrative-interpretive method,  a very brief history of its development in Germany and then in Britain, and an indication of the principles behind its practice. The  point and timing of  using  open-ended biographic narrative interviews rather than (only) the more conventional semi-structured and attitude-and-argument focused ones is clarified.  The bulk of the  two days is then almost entirely devoted to learning the craft of  BNIM interviewing practice. This involves  learning to  ask  narrative-pointed questions (both topic-focused and also open) and not inadvertently interrupting or deflecting the interviewee. Apparently simple, it rapidly becomes clear that such a craft requires repeated and careful practice to be successfully achieved.  Pencil-and-paper and repeated practical exercises ensure such success is achieved by the end of the 2nd day.  

 Monday 18th to Wednesday 20^th June 2007 /  12^th to 14^th November

We outline the principles and you engage in  the  key practices of BNIM  interpretive work . We explain the twin-tracks of ‘lived life’ and ‘told story’ analysis, and micro-analysis,  and how you convert the raw transcript into two series of processed data for each track. You learn the significance of the future-blind chunk-by-chunk approach peculiar to BNIM by practice – by doing parts of a narrative text analysis, a  micro-analysis  and   biographical data analysis. Finally, on the basis of case-presentations, you practice case-comparison and the comparative theorising towards which BNIM work is typically oriented. The course ends with our looking again at how you might best use all or part of the BNIM approach for your individual research projects, and how to defend your choice to use this biographical research method with a low-N in-depth sample in arguments with sceptical research and applied policy audiences.

 For an  example of BNIM case studies we recommend the European Union seven-country SOSTRIS project (edited) Biography and social exclusion in Europe: experiences and life-journeys (2002: Bristol, Policy Press).  Other books, articles, theses and reports that you might wish to look at are listed in the full bibliography  of the constantly updated Short Guide to BNIM.

To get a copy of the ‘Short Guide’, to ask any questions or to book a place, contact  [log in to unmask]. To reserve your place for November, please send a deposit of £100. To get the early-bird discount, you need to pay £600  by May 1^st./  October 1^st.  (The cost then rises to £700). Reserve early, pay early: get a place, pay less!