Health Education Research Advance Access originally published online on October 12, 2004
Health Education Research 2005 20(2):226-236; doi:10.1093/her/cyg122
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Health Education Research Vol.20 no.2, © Oxford University Press 2005; All rights reserved
Researching practice: the methodological case for narrative inquiry
1 VicHealth Centre for the Promotion of Mental Health and Social Wellbeing, School of Population Health, University of Melbourne, Carlton, Victoria 3053, Australia (Formerly at the Centre for the Study of Mothers' and Children's Health, LaTrobe University, Bundoora, Victoria 3086, Australia), 2 Department of Community Health Sciences, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta T2N 4N1, Canada and 3 School of Public Health, LaTrobe University, Bundoora, Victoria 3086, Australia
Correspondence to: T. Riley; E-mail: triley{at}unimelb.edu.au
Research interest in the analysis of stories has increased as researchers in many disciplines endeavor to see the world through the eyes of others. We make the methodological case for narrative inquiry as a unique means to get inside the world of health promotion practice. We demonstrate how this form of inquiry may reveal what practitioners value most in and through their practice, and the indigenous theory or the cause-and-consequence thinking that governs their actions. Our examples draw on a unique data set, i.e. 2 two years' of diaries being kept by community development officers in eight communities engaged in a primary care and community development intervention to reduce postnatal depression and promote the physical health of recent mothers. Narrative inquiry examines the way a story is told by considering the positioning of the actor/storyteller, the endpoints, the supporting cast, the sequencing and the tension created by the revelation of some events, in preference to others. Narrative methods may provide special insights into the complexity of community intervention implementation over and above more familiar research methods.
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