Beth-
I agree with you regarding use of "Ethnograph" and similar computer tools.
Although lots of folks really like them, I've resisted their use.
One of the ways I've explored analysis (and the sometimes dreaded
interpretation) is through the use of poetry, fiction, and other alternative
(some call them experimental, but that seems way too positivist for me)
(re)presentation forms. This would seem to me to have real application to a
narrative research format: if you've already got narratives, why not use
them as narratives?
I've called most of what I've written in alternative (re)presentation
formats, fiction, partly as a way to highlight the ways that all texts, even
(or especially?) research texts, are in some sense fictions anyway.
Pragmatically, it also provides me with "cover" to resolve concerns about
confidentiality. And it accentuates the importance of stories in creating
and understanding lives.
Anyway, that's one idea.
Phil Smith
Interim Administrator, Vermont Self-Determination Project
103 South Main Street, Weeks Building
Waterbury, VT 05671-1601
1-888-268-4860 (Toll Free in Vermont)
(802) 241-2617
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fax (802) 241-1129
Date: Thu, 4 May 2000 19:18:37 EDT
From: [log in to unmask]
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Narrative research analysis
Message-Id: <[log in to unmask]>
Hi everyone!
When conducting emancipatory narrative research, what
methods are used to
analyze the shared stories? It seems that qualitative
"encoding," such as
what is done with _Ethnograph_ software leans toward
quantification of
"data." Please share your experience and wisdom...
Best,
Beth
Beth Omansky Gordon
The George Washington University
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