Structural narrative and Thematic content analysis
Coursework Portfolio (100%)
Student assessment for this module is entirely based on coursework. Your coursework will consist of a portfolio of one piece of work which you will complete throughout the Semester.
The coursework will enable you to carry out some basic analysis of auto ethnographic narrative data and will provide you with the opportunity to demonstrate that you can:
• Employ the techniques of Narrative Inquiry
• Conduct analysis
You will need to employ TWO approaches used in Narrative Analysis:
1. Structural narrative analysis (an analysis of the structure of the narrative. The plot, organization of the narrative and the narrative type, Riessman, 2008)
2. Thematic content analysis (an analysis of the content of the narrative, Sparkes & Smith, 2008)
How to do a Structural narrative analysis (Riessman, 2008)
Undertake a thorough and broad reading of the narrative.
How is the narrative structured? (Gergen & Gergen, 1983)
It is a progressive tale (towards a valued state), a regressive tale (away from a valued state), or a stable tale (with little change).
Can you identify the tone of the narrative? (Crossley, 2000)
Is there an optimistic tone, a pessimistic tone, or is it a neutral tone, Crossley (2000)
3. Write a summary of the narrative (identify a plot, key events, characters etc) (Propp, 1968; Frank, 1995; Hiles & Cermak, 2008).
How to undertake a Thematic content analysis, (Sparkes & Smith, 2000)
Conduct a thorough and broad reading of the narrative and identify key themes within that data.
Write up your findings from this analysis in the form of a findings section. The word limit for this part of the coursework is 1500 words (excluding any quotes that you use). Participant quotes are NOT included in the word count, but any headings and subheadings are.
