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Both narratives and narrative research engage with the construction of meaning through the organisation and interpretation of experience – whether the experience of individuals, communities, or countries. Narratives help us make sense of the world and communicate our understanding of it. Bruner (Bruner 1986; Connelly and Clandinin 1990) suggests that the power of narrative is to render "the exceptional and the unusual into comprehensible form" (p. 47); Clandinin and Connelly (1990) claim that people tell stories because they "lead storied lives' (p. 2). Narrative is the form by which we think of ourselves and others; we generate stories as a way of constructing our lives.

Publication details

DOI: 10.1007/978-94-017-9282-0_5

Full citation:

Johnston-Parsons, M. , Watts, M. F. (2015)., Introduction, in P. Smeyers, D. Bridges, N. C. Burbules & M. Griffiths (eds.), International handbook of interpretation in educational research, Dordrecht, Springer, pp. 81-86.

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