Research as Storytelling

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Today I read the article From Interview Transcript to Interpretive Story: Part 1 – Viewing the Transcript through Multiple Lenses by Coralie McCormack. This resonated with me since I have done a transcription of my interview on Getting Air with Terry Greene and wondered how to go about coding or making sense of that text. I did put it through a word cloud generator to see what words are at the top of the ‘pile’ as those most frequently used. There’s more to analyze in that transcription, but also once I transcribe the other interviews I’ve done and will yet do – since I’m scheduled to participate in a couple of events during Open Education Week in early March.

This article identifies the various lenses as:

  • active listening –
  • narrative processes – theorizing, augmentation, argumentation, description
  • language – means of communication (language as text) PLUS construction of reality (language as social process)
  • context – personal context, interactional context, cultural context (social, political, historical, structural)
  • moments – epiphanies or turning points

These are further described:

  1. Active listening – listening to the tape several times; reconnecting to the ‘storyteller’; listening to reactions; interrogating assumptions and views; interpretations of respondent’s words; examining own biases and perceptions
  2. Narrative processes – as the researcher reads the transcripts they pay attention to stories, descriptions, arguments, augmentation and theories presented.
    1. stories have beginning and endings, highlights – evaluation
    2. there are boundaries, who, what, where – the orientation
    3. linked events/actions that are responses to the questions – shares the ‘and then what happened’
    4. summarizing the point – the abstract
    5. closure – coda
  3. Language – this lens examines features of language – word grouping, phrases, frequently used words, assumed common understanding – tacit knowledge; words that make space for thoughts; specialized vocabulary; key words around the research question; references to self, relationships, environments.
    1. active/passive voice
    2. speech functions – questions, commands, statements, exclamations
    3. personal pronouns used – I, we, you, they
    4. repetitions, false starts and hedging
    5. metaphors, similes, analogies, imagery
      1. What is unsaid but signaled – periods of silence, length of silences, tone, speed of delivery, inflections, emotions, volume, hesitations
  4. Context; culture and situational
  5. Moments – signified by key words or phrases, descriptions of events; memories retold; epiphanies; unexpected revelations; personally reflective moments; commonplace moments.

“With these multiple lenses, the competing, contradictory or complementary positions of the individual interviewee may be revealed.”

Worth remembering this as I examine personal transcripts from video interviews.