scholarly journals Making Sense of the Unknown: A Narrative Analysis of COVID-19 Stories as Told by WSU Research Students

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 183-198
Author(s):  
Alicia Van der Spuy ◽  
Lakshmi Jayakrishnan
Keyword(s):  
Narrative Analysis ◽  
Personal Narratives ◽  
Literacy Skills ◽  
Eastern Cape ◽  
Effective Learning ◽  
Making Sense ◽  
Analysis Methodology ◽  
Or Practice ◽  
Specific Concept ◽  
Research Students

Storytelling is an important tool through which to make sense of life experiences. Stories can be classified as personal narratives, historical documentaries and those that inform the viewer about a specific concept or practice. These narratives can be used to promote discussion about current issues in the world. Storytelling can thus be seen as an effective learning tool for students by providing a strong foundation in “Twenty First Century Literacy” skills as well as advancing emotional intelligence and social learning. This project used storytelling to gather information regarding people’s encounters with COVID-19 and lockdown, with specific focus on the Eastern Cape of South Africa. Employing a content analysis methodology, it attempts to analyze responses to narrative inquiry interviews about the COVID-19 pandemic as conducted by students, as part of their introduction to the methodology of research.  These responses were used to generalize findings, as well as to look at individual reactions that could bring light to, and make sense of the human experience of the pandemic within an educational context. Both negative and positive experiences were related by interviewees and students.    

Transforming Conflict Narratives

2021 ◽  
pp. 154134462110451
Author(s):  
Beth Fisher-Yoshida ◽  
Joan C. Lopez
Keyword(s):  
Narrative Analysis ◽  
Personal Narratives ◽  
Coordinated Management Of Meaning ◽  
Social Worlds ◽  
Social Narratives ◽  
Personal Stories ◽  
The Social ◽  
Management Of Meaning ◽  
Social Narrative ◽  
Conflict Narratives

Narratives, both personal and social, guide how we live and how we are acculturated into our social worlds. As we make changes in our lives, our personal stories change and, in turn, have the potential to influence the social narratives of which we are a part. Likewise, when there are changes in the culture and social worlds around us, that social narrative changes, thereby affecting our personal narratives. In other words, personal and social narratives are strongly linked and mutually influence each other. We may feel and know these transformations take place and understand the ways in which our lives are affected. However, we often struggle to document these shifts. This article suggests using the practical theory, Coordinated Management of Meaning (CMM) (Pearce, 2007), for narrative analysis to identify and surface personal and social narrative transformations.

Systematic Literature Review on Narratives in Organizations: Research Issues and Avenues for Future Research

2016 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 368-379 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shalini Sahni ◽  
Chandranshu Sinha
Keyword(s):  
Literature Review ◽  
Systematic Literature Review ◽  
Narrative Analysis ◽  
Personal Narratives ◽  
Past Research ◽  
The Body ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Organization Studies ◽  
Research Issues ◽  
Analytical Approaches

Narrative as a method is an interpretive approach of sharing individual experiences and beliefs that facilitates knowledge and generates human responses. The purpose of this study is to review the body of literature available using narratology in organization studies. This article employs a systematic literature review of 186 research articles in 94 identified journals from the year 1995 to 2014 that were subsequently evaluated for analysis. The review identifies five different approaches used by the narrative researchers across disciplines—content analysis (case study method), structural analysis, oral narratives and personal narratives, their contribution and spread in organizations. This article attempts to reinforce the significance of taking narratives as a methodology in organizations by providing a systematic overview of past research works in organizational settings. The study also summarizes the analytical approaches of narrative analysis used in 186 articles, which might underpin the qualitative research and provide some practical advice for those who wish to use narrative analysis in future.

scholarly journals Adolescent students as media fictional characters

Comunicar ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 21 (42) ◽  
pp. 147-155 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laia Falcón-Díaz-Aguado ◽  
María-José Díaz-Aguado-Jalón
Keyword(s):  
Media Literacy ◽  
Narrative Analysis ◽  
Harry Potter ◽  
Literacy Skills ◽  
Educational Tool ◽  
Adolescent Students ◽  
Class A ◽  
Literacy Activities ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The Phoenix

Media fictional narrations on adolescents as characters and target are used by teenage audiences when looking for references for their identity building. As a starting point for Media Literacy activities to help teenage students in this process, this research focuses on the representations of adolescent students proposed by different kinds of media fictional narrations. Three European narrations have been chosen in order to analyse and compare different genres, codes and values: the television series «Física o Química» and the films «Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix» and «The Class». A classic narrative analysis approach has been applied in order to encourage teachers to use this kind of Media Literacy activities by employing methodologies that they are familiar with. The results show that such a methodology could facilitate the comparative analysis of important coincidences between these examples (such as the importance of friendship and couple relationships) and also underlines meaningful differences (like the orientation towards the future). The conclusion reached is that the comparison between such different kinds of media fictional narrations is a useful educational tool for improving Media Literacy skills and helping teenage students in the identification of the values and images they really want to choose as reference and inspiration for their own identity building. Los relatos audiovisuales que tienen a los adolescentes como audiencia y protagonistas son utilizados por éstos para buscar referencias con las que construir su identidad. Esta investigación busca comprender cómo es la identidad de los estudiantes adolescentes en distintos tipos de relatos audiovisuales de ficción, como punto de partida para la elaboración de materiales de alfabetización mediática que les ayude en dicho proceso. Para ello se seleccionaron tres narraciones europeas recientes sobre la vida escolar de adolescentes, con las que poder contrastar entre géneros, códigos y valores: la serie televisiva «Física o Química» y las películas «Harry Potter y la Orden del Fénix» y «La clase». El método ha sido el análisis textual de tipo cualitativo, utilizando como categorías las de la morfología del relato clásico. Los resultados reflejan que dicho esquema, familiar para el profesorado de Literatura, permite detectar importantes coincidencias entre relatos (como la importancia de las relaciones de pareja y amistad…), que hacen más significativas las diferencias del contraste (como la orientación hacia el futuro o el valor del pensamiento y del profesorado en dicho proceso). Se concluye que la comparación entre los tres tipos de relatos representa un óptimo recurso para la alfabetización mediática así como para ayudarles a tomar conciencia de cuáles son los valores con los que quieren identificarse y los problemas que pueden obstaculizarlos.

Female Varsity Athletes’ Perceptions of How They Became Optimistic in Sport

2017 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 30-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hayley L. deBeaudrap ◽  
John G.H. Dunn ◽  
Nicholas L. Holt
Keyword(s):  
Early Adulthood ◽  
Personal Narratives ◽  
Dispositional Optimism ◽  
Negative Experiences ◽  
Life Orientation Test ◽  
Life Orientation ◽  
Domain Specific ◽  
Analysis Methodology ◽  
Semistructured Interviews ◽  
Varsity Athletes

The purpose of this study was to explore female varsity athletes’ perceptions of how they developed high levels of dispositional optimism in sport. Eighty-three female varsity athletes completed a domain-specific version of the Life Orientation Test (LOT: Scheier & Carver, 1985). Nine participants (M age = 19.33 years, SD = 1.5) who had high dispositional optimism in sport then completed individual semistructured interviews. Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis methodology was used. Results showed that during childhood, participants perceived that their parents were supportive, provided feedback, and allowed them to have choice over the sports they played. During adolescence, coaches began to play an important role and participants were also able to learn about being optimistic through the positive and negative experiences they encountered. During early adulthood, participants developed personal narratives about the ways in which they approached sport with optimism.

How to Increase the Quality of a Suffering Experience: Lessons Derived From the Diary Narratives of a Dying Adolescent Girl

2017 ◽  
Vol 76 (3) ◽  
pp. 256-295 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mustafa Volkan Kavas
Keyword(s):  
Advanced Cancer ◽  
Narrative Analysis ◽  
Lived Experiences ◽  
Adolescent Girl ◽  
Personal Narratives ◽  
Terminally Ill ◽  
Two Dimensions ◽  
Primary Sources ◽  
Hermeneutic Phenomenological

Personal narratives are assumed to be primary sources of the essential meaning of lived experiences of dying. In this study, I analyzed the personal diary of Miraç Fidan, a terminally ill adolescent with advanced cancer who kept a diary until her death at the age of 15. Miraç’s Diary, also published as a book, was subjected to hermeneutic phenomenological narrative analysis. Inferences were drawn regarding the following basic elements: (a) The dynamics in which Miraç lived and (2) her perceptions of herself, her immediate environment, and her experiences. Suffering seems to be the main experience dominating Miraç’s life, which I examined with regard to two dimensions: suffering caused by inevitable factors and suffering caused by preventable/changeable factors. The results suggest that if various causes among contextual factors are neutralized, then the quality of the existential experience determined by the inevitable factors would increase.

Actantial analysis

2005 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-74 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yong Wang ◽  
Carl W. Roberts
Keyword(s):  
Identity Construction ◽  
Narrative Analysis ◽  
Subject Matter ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
Personal Narratives ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Versus Communication ◽  
Power Differentials ◽  
Formal Procedure ◽  
The Subject

This paper introduces a formal procedure for analyzing narratives that was developed by the French/Lithuanian structuralist, A. J. Greimas. The focus is on demonstrating the utility of Greimas's ideas for analyzing one aspect of personal narratives: identity-construction. Reconstructing the basic actantial structure from self-narratives is shown to provide cues to power differentials among actants as perceived by the narrator. Distinguishing narrated events along conflict versus communication axes helps the analyst determine whether an experiential or a discursive domain is of primacy for the narrator. Moreover, investigation of communicative outcomes can be used to validate (or invalidate) findings on power relations. Analyses of narrative plots may afford insights into how people engage objects with cultural valuations within the various social contexts recounted in narrative data. Finally, Greimas's theory of modalities can be used to differentiate among these plots within narrative trajectories. This approach to narrative analysis differs from more traditional “denarrativization” and “renarrativization” approaches in that it affords the researcher a language (or discursive structure) according to which the narrator's, not the analyst's, understandings of character relations and reality conditions become the subject matter of one's research.

scholarly journals A qualitative investigation of the digital literacy practices of doctoral students

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 82
Author(s):  
Diane Louise Bell
Keyword(s):  
Doctoral Students ◽  
Academic Libraries ◽  
Digital Literacy ◽  
Research Productivity ◽  
Literacy Practices ◽  
Time Pressure ◽  
Literacy Skills ◽  
Complex Nature ◽  
Digital Skills ◽  
Research Students

Academic libraries are currently part of a landscape where there is a rapid growth of digital technologies and electronic resources and they have responded to this by developing their research services. Some of the most specialised and complex research in higher education is conducted by doctoral students and the effective use of digital tools and skills is often crucial to their research workflow and success. The need for digital literacy has been further emphasised during the global pandemic of 2020-21 which has required the maximisation of online working and digital skills to ensure the continuation of education, services and research productivity. This paper presents the findings of a qualitative research study in a UK university exploring factors influencing differences in the digital literacy skills of doctoral students. The literature included has been updated as digital skills and technologies are a constantly changing area of research.   Due the complex nature of doctoral research, it was difficult to draw definite conclusions about the many factors which influence the digital literacy practices of research students. Students interviewed in the study discussed their approaches to and understanding of information, digital and media literacy (Jisc, 2016) but the influence of demographic factors such as age, discipline and gender could not easily be evaluated.  All students in the study appeared to be under time pressure and required a high level of organisation and this was assisted by digital skills and proficiency and access to robust hardware and software. They believed they were largely self-taught and some required appropriate training at the point of need to increase their research productivity. This paper will explore how evidence-based practice and engagement may be used to understand the digital practices of doctoral students and to inform the development of research services within academic libraries. 

scholarly journals Making Sense of an Elusive Concept: Academics’ Perspectives of Quality in Higher Education

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lazarus Nabaho ◽  
Jessica Norah Aguti ◽  
Joseph Oonyu
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Academic Discipline ◽  
Fitness For Purpose ◽  
Higher Education System ◽  
Makerere University ◽  
Making Sense ◽  
Or Practice ◽  
Perception Of Quality ◽  
Quality In Higher Education ◽  
Elusive Concept

Objective: Since the 1990s studies on how stakeholders in higher education perceive quality have burgeoned. Nevertheless, the majority of studies on perception of quality in higher education focus on students and employers. The few studies on academics’ perceptions of quality in higher education treat academics as a homogeneous group and, therefore, do not point out cross-disciplinary perspectives in perceptions of quality. This article explores how academics across six disciplines perceive quality in higher education. Method: The article is anchored in the interpretivist paradigm. Data was collected from 14 purposely selected academics at Makerere University in Uganda and analyzed using thematic analysis. Results: The findings show that academics perceive quality in higher education as transformation, fitness for purpose, and exceptional. The findings further demonstrate that a stakeholder group or an individual stakeholder can subscribe to a notion of quality in higher education but voice divergent views on its variants. Similarly, the academic discipline, the perceived purpose of higher education, and the problems within a higher education system have an influence on stakeholders’ conception of quality in higher education. Conclusions: From the findings it can be inferred that quality in higher education defies a single definition and that stakeholders’ perceptions of quality do not take place in a vacuum. Implication for Theory and/or Practice: The multidimensional nature of quality and the contestations around it necessitate a multidimensional approach to assuring and assessing it.

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