Nygren & Blom. 2001. Analysis of Short Reflective Narratives.

Qualitative Research
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Analysis of short reflective narratives: a method for the study of knowledge in

social workers' actions
Lennart Nygren and Bjorn Blom
Qualitative Research 2001; 1; 369
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2001 SAGE Publications. All rights reserved. Not for commercial use or unauthorized distribution.
A RT I C L E
Analysis of short reflective narratives: a

method for the study of knowledge in
social workers actions
L E N NA RT N YG R E N a n d B J R N B L O M
Ume University, Sweden
Q
R
Qualitative Research
Copyright
SAGE Publications
(London,
Thousand Oaks,ca
and New Delhi)
vol. (): -.
[-
() :;
-; ]
This article describes and discusses a method for

analysing and working with short reflective narratives. The method is
inspired by the interpretation theory of Paul Ricoeur, and applied to
short written stories where social work students reflect on situations
from their field studies situations they experienced as critical or
problematic. The article starts with a discussion about the need to
develop complementary methods in narrative research. This is
followed by an argument for written narratives as an alternative
research approach. A pilot study of 14 narratives from social work
students containing critical or problematic events is then presented
with a focus on the analysing process. The analysis is evaluated as
focused and manageable, easy to combine with quantitative analyses
and it appears to generate findings in a form that is easy to publish. It
provides a shortcut to a deeper understanding of both the narrative
and the narrator. On the negative side, the method using written
narratives has potential risks of over-interpretation, and the loss of
the midwife effect that can appear in an oral interview.
ABSTRACT
KEYWORDS:
knowledge, meaning units, narrative analysis, Ricoeur,

social work, text interpretation
An approach to developing narrative research

In this article our purpose is to demonstrate and discuss a method for
analysing short reflected and written narratives. Over the last decades,
narrative analysis has gained increased attention as an effective approach in
health and social sciences (Coffey and Atkinson, 1996; Mishler, 1995).
Disciplines such as education, nursing science and social work share a strong
interest in applied research, and narrative studies are frequently used to
describe and understand the complexity of the processes where people
interact or work with other people (Scott, 1989). In our view, narrative
analysis is an approach that is well suited to the exploration of how people

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Qualitative Research 1(3)
make sense of their experiences (Clandinin and Connelly, 1994). However, in

addition to the interest in analysing sense-making, narrative analysis also
enables the researcher to study how people order and tell, or rather structure
their experiences (Coffey and Atkinson, 1996).
We have the impression that most social research that uses narrative
analysis is based on the assumption that the best quality data are obtained
through research interviews with open questions (Mishler, 1986; Riessman,
1993). Whilst we agree that a good research interview is a useful tool for
constructing meaning, we also consider the role of the interviewer as very
important in that process (Mishler, 1986).
An approach where interviewees are asked to reflect and then write down
(short) narratives instead of telling them orally is a significantly different but
complementary method. It has a similar purpose in its search for the
meaning given to peoples experiences but is more focused. The method of
analysing written narratives presented in this article could be seen as a way
of accelerating the process of developing field texts into research texts
(Clandinin and Connelly, 1994).
This approach is also based on the assumption that the respondents
written narratives constitute an interpretative step that changes the quality
of the data for the analyst in a fruitful way. Written narratives produced by a
homogenous group (as in this case) provide a more direct focus on the
respondents way of defining and understanding an event. This is achieved by
asking respondents to write down the story and then make an initial
interpretation of what they have written.
There are many ways of analysing the research texts that emanate from
collecting narratives. Mishler (1995) identifies three main models of
narrative analysis: (1) models which emphasize reference and temporal
order: the telling and the told; (2) models which focus on textual coherence
and structure; (3) models where the interest lies in narrative functions:
contexts and consequences. Our approach borrows thoughts from all three
models. By applying the thinking of the French philosopher Paul Ricoeur
(1976, 1981, 1984, 1985, 1988), we have adapted a concept of the
relationship between the telling and the told where the analytical process is
based on his ideas of a distinction between chronology and narrative. But
since we deal with real experiences of social work students, we also feel that
our analysis gains value from its relevance to human action in certain
contexts. At the end of this article we evaluate this Ricoeur-inspired model of
narrative analysis in relation to social work research.
The complex knowledge base of social work

Social work in todays modern world demands knowledge of many different
kinds. In international scientific debate there is no consensus about what
kind of knowledge is at work in the actions of social workers (Nygren and

Nygren and Blom: Analysis of short reflective narratives
Soydan, 1997). What is the role of theoretical knowledge in the moment of

action, when a child is separated from its parents, when a dialogue is opened
with a drug abuser, or when the client is told how much money she or he will
get? To what extent is it a question of personal talent, creativity or charisma
that is crucial to what will happen? Is knowledge applied in a prescriptive or
instrumental way, or does it take the shape of a mass or a matrix of
knowledge a more or less conscious background against which social
workers reflect their sensory impressions?
The disagreement on this issue can be represented as a fight between those
who believe in a rational, instrumental application of knowledge and those
who argue that social work is a creative, artistic activity (Reamer, 1993).
Between these two extremes there are many possible combinations and
variations. One combination is the concept of practice wisdom where
theoretical knowledge, experience and creativity amalgamate into something
presumably better however more mysterious than knowledge, namely
wisdom (see Goldstein, 1990). The issue about the function of knowledge in
different kinds of action is crucial in education where people learn how to
work with people. Social work education, for example, is supposed to prepare
students for critical reflection. A well-known dilemma is how to make a
proper balance between different kinds of knowledge. Is it preferable to
educate social workers who have a high theoretical potential so that they will
be more flexible when situations change? Or, for the same reason, would it be
better to focus on what social workers actually do in practice?
The arguments in this field of conflict are still based on relatively vague
conceptions. Therefore it is promising to see the increasing interest in
narrative approaches in social work research. Conceptualizing social work
practice is needed since social work is a highly communicative and complex
practice. There are many arguments for the study of narrated experiences
and our view of social workers work as narratives is not unique (Goldstein,
1990; Hall, 1998). Goldstein (1990) argues for narrative theory as a possible
practice theory in social work:
By revealing the meaning-laden character of social behavior and its
interpersonal and environmental contexts, the narrative form not only
operationalises the precept start where the client is, but offers a sound basis for
ongoing dialogue and relationship (p. 39).
This prescription for using narratives to start where the client is has an
obvious parallel in the ambition to search for knowledge in peoples actions
(Nygren and Soydan, 1997). The use of histories, including narratives, in
social work research and evaluation is proposed by Martin (see Shaw and
Lishman, 1999). Shaw (1996) argues that social work evaluation based on
life stories brings together the participatory aspect from observation methods
and the interactive character of qualitative interviews (p. 141). This article is
a step on the way towards the further development of complementary
methods for the analysis of narrated experience from social work practice.

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The written narrative: a way of reflecting meaning

A common argument for working with narratives is that storytelling is a way
for storytellers to give meaning to their experiences (Manning and CullumSwan, 1994; Riessman, 1993). Apparently, the most prevalent approach is to
ask the respondent to verbally narrate situations or events. The standard role
of the interviewer is to listen and document. The respondent is then often
asked to confirm the transcription of the interviewer.
An alternative approach is to ask the respondent to write down narratives.
Thus a relevant question is to ask what is won or lost in comparison with
the verbal approach. The difference between speaking and writing is a
classic issue that philosophers and linguists have struggled with for centuries.
In Phaedrus, Plato had Socrates say that writing is inhuman, since it
tries to establish what can only exist in the mind, outside the mind (Ong,
1982).
It is possible to assume that storytelling becomes differently expressed if the
respondent is also asked to write down the story. An extreme standpoint can
be exemplified by Derrida (1976), who argues that writing is a quite different
performance from the spoken word and that the written text, as a result of its
structural character, does not represent anything outside itself, i.e. Derrida
offers a critique against the idea that it is possible to identify a connection
between what is said and what is written. In this article a more realistic view
is preferred following, for example, Ong who describes writing as a
technologization of the word (Ong, 1982). This implies that the story, when
it is written, is separated from its author but that the text itself will continue
to exist even if the author disappears or changes opinion. The meaning of the
narrated events is distanced from the authors experience and what is written
can, within a few moments, be totally obsolete in comparison with the
authors later experiences. On the other hand, the meaning of an event is
structured through the writing procedure and its authenticity is elucidated
both for the author and the world. In Ongs words: Writing introduces
division and alienation, but a higher unity as well. It intensifies the sense of
the self and fosters more conscious interaction between persons. Writing is
consciousness-raising (p.179).
This higher level of consciousness can be called into question. Conscious of
what? What reality is the written word referring to? Maybe it is in the
specific act of writing or speaking that this consciousness is created. It is
possible to assume that the written word or, more generally, the use of
symbols is a way for humanity to create a more qualified meaning of
experiences in relation to the spoken word. A person who speaks, hears her
or his own words and is usually in some kind of interaction with another
person. When you write, you see your own words and you interact with
yourself (and this interaction also includes more or less conscious conceptions of other persons as future readers of the text). Both that which can be

uttered verbally and that which is written become objectified experiences and
are thus distanced from the person who tells the story.
The crucial difference between speech and text in this context is probably
the ontological constancy of the written word. A written text is a medium for
storage, usually more durable than what the human memory remembers of
what has been said. Speech is fleeting and what someone has said at one
moment can be forgotten the next. The written word is permanent to a higher
degree. The author can return to her or his text and see what she or he just
thought, and then continue to write with reference to the preceding text. A
verbally presented story does not give the same opportunity. The written word
makes it possible for the author to continually switch between the parts and
the whole of the storytelling, and also between what is written and the not
yet written without facing the risk of losing parts of the story. The writer of a
story is not dependent on memory to be able to do this switching between the
different aspects of the story.
If this idea of the difference between speaking and writing is correct, a
plausible conclusion is that a person who writes has more potential in the
moment of the storytelling to understand her- or himself, compared with
someone who tells the story verbally. A reasonable assumption is that a
narrative written down by the storyteller is a more reflected expression
compared to a transcribed interview. However this cannot lead us to the
conclusion that written stories are always better research materials than
verbal interviews it depends of course on the purpose of the research.
A possible statement, emerging from this discussion, is that the written
word refers to who the author was at the moment of writing. Maybe it is
possible to understand Ongs idea of a higher level of consciousness in the
following way: an increased understanding of the earlier being of the self not
only increases the consciousness of the present self, but also the consciousness of future prospect for the self.
The dialectics of understanding and explanation

In western thinking, explanation and understanding are often considered as
contradictory. A project for the French philosopher Paul Ricoeur has been to
abolish this contradiction (1976, 1981). Ricoeur posits that, before reading a
text, we can take two possible attitudes: explaining or understanding. To
explain is to uncover, through a structural analysis of the internal relations
of the text, the meaning and the scope of suggestions. To explain a narrative
is to grasp its skein of movements, the fugue-like structure of interlaced
actions (Ricoeur, 1981: 156). Understanding is, conversely, to catch or get
the hang of the whole chain of part-meanings in a fused way: that is to find
the meaning of the text.
Both concepts explanation and understanding for Ricoeur, are included
in the superior concept interpretation. Interpretation is the dialectics between

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explanation and understanding. In this way, understanding precedes,

accompanies and encloses the explanation. On the other hand, the
explanation develops the understanding in an analytical way (Ricoeur,
1981).
Ricoeur (1976, 1981) describes the dialectics between explanation and
understanding as a first movement from understanding to explanation and
then as a second movement from explanation to learned understanding
(depth interpretation). In the first phase, understanding is a naive grasping of
the meaning of the text as a whole. The second phase means that the depth
interpretation generates a more sophisticated and learned way of understanding, with explanatory procedures and with a moment of handicraft
an ars interpretandi. In the beginning the understanding is a guess. At the end
it satisfies what Ricoeur conceptualizes as dedication. The explanatory,
structural analysis is a necessary stage between the two.
In our judgement, Ricoeur provides a more explicit argument for the
importance of the dialectics between explanation and understanding than
other hermeneutical approaches, both in terms of epistemology and in terms
of the concrete process of interpreting texts. For the social scientists this can
be developed into an analysis where the different moments of the
interpretation process are under control. Both the scientist and the reader of
the analysis can see, in explicit terms, how the analysis relates to the original
text.
With the help of Ricoeurs interpretation theory, there seems to be the
possibility, on an empirical basis, of understanding the meaning of social
workers stories about turning points and critical events, and the way they
describe and reflect upon the function of knowledge in these situations.
Even if it was not Ricoeurs intention that his interpretation theory could
be used for researchers interpretations of social workers stories, one argument for using his thinking in this way is supported by several successful
attempts to adapt his theory for the analysis of stories produced by staff
(mainly nurses) and patients in health care (strm et al., 1994; Rasmussen,
1999; Sderberg, 1999; Udn et al., 1995). In addition to the differences in
target groups, these studies also differ from our own study in that they are
based on narrative interviews and are thus produced in a direct interaction
between interviewee and interviewer.
Social work narratives: a pilot study

The basic idea for this study is to use the narrative character of social work
actions to search for the knowledge content in critical and problematic events
occurring during the field studies of social work students. Swedish social
work students were asked to write a story in the last semester of their course
(preceded by a whole semester of field studies including learning how to work
directly with clients) and given the following instructions:


Write down a narrative, a compressed story, where you describe a situation
from your practical training in which you can describe the presence of
knowledge/unknowledge in relation to client/s.1
What kind of knowledge was it?
From what source did it come (supervisor, colleagues, earlier theoretical
studies, earlier experiences, etc.)?
In what way was that knowledge working in the situation described?
The stories were used as a pedagogical tool, as a basis for verbal presentation
and discussion in the classroom, but the written narratives were collected by
us for research purposes. In this article a random sample of 14 narratives are
analysed (n = 145). We are aware that the fact that data were collected
within an educational framework influenced how the students responded to
the task given. For this reason, the quality of data can be questioned but it is
still our judgement that the approach gave good enough data for the
evaluation of the method that is the focus of this article, (see also Blom and
Nygren, 1999).
We separately read the 14 narratives with Ricoeurs (1976) interpretation
theory in mind. In the first step, the narratives were naively read. This
reading resulted in the identification of categories covering how the students
formulated the knowledge content in the situations they had described.
These categories were labelled and memorized by using simple codes: for
example, type of story, type of co-actors, mentions explicit source for
working knowledge, useless narrative? etc., but also things like apparently
influenced by the preceding lesson on theory of knowledge and effects of
reflection. These codes created columns in a matrix where the rows consisted
of the information from each narrative.
The purpose of the naive reading is to get a sense of the text as a whole
(Ricoeur, 1976). The procedure adopted was to stop after each naive reading
and formulate an open and preliminary answer to the question: What
meanings are expressed by these stories? The answers, generated from the 14
narratives, were ordered using the following frame of reference:
Different types of knowledge were important for the students in the
situations described, from book knowledge to an approach that can be
labelled unknowing which implies an (often) conscious openness for the
unpredictable.
The effect of the presence of a certain type of knowledge varied from
paralysing to generating a breakthrough in the process of talking with
clients.
The specific character of the situation seemed to be of importance for the
function of the knowledge that was referred to.
The naive reading was followed by a careful structural analysis that
sometimes needed several steps, sometimes not, see Table 1 for an example. In
the structural analysis the aim was to identify meaning units in the text, and

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these units varied in size from one word to whole paragraphs. In the process
of the structural analysis, the textual elements isolated in the coding
procedure were put together with other elements (segmentation that
generated horizontal relations between elements). Further, connections were
searched for between elements and the naively understood whole, where
different elements were ordered hierarchically within this whole (and often
modified this whole) (Ricoeur, 1976:84). What appeared was a dechronologization (in Ricoeurs terminology ) of the narrative that gave an
opportunity for uncovering the narrative logic underlying the narrative time.
To explain a narrative is to get hold of its symphonic structure of segmental
actions ( p. 85).
The purpose of the structural analysis is usually to generate a matrix that
is much more detailed and logical than one that emerges from the naive
reading. The matrix is given a schematic form describing (at least ideally) a
hierarchy of actions correlated with a hierarchy of actors (Ricoeur, 1976:
85).
Finally, the naive whole generated in the first reading of the narrative was
brought together with the themes from the structural analysis in order to
ground an interpreted whole. The process can be described, in the
terminology of Ricoeur, as a way of proceeding from the guessing mode of
the naive reading to the explaining (but not interpreting) mode of the
structural analysis, and then to an in-depth interpretation. The whole is
reformulated in narrative form in order to present the reader of the analysis
with a readable version of this in-depth interpretation.
By framing the result of the naive reading, a strategic choice has already
been made the option exists to go through the procedure case by case from
naive reading to structural analysis to interpreted whole, and then weigh up
the wholes of all individuals into a general naive whole. Instead the choice
here was to weigh up the results of the naive reading of all 14 narratives into
a common frame of reference, and then let the various themes generated
from all cases in the case-by-case structural analysis merge into that frame
for the creation of a new interpreted whole. In other words, the social work
students were considered as a collective, or as carriers of the discourse being
studied. The aim was not to research why student A reflects one way while
student B reflects another.
Mari an example
In this section we have chosen to present Maris (false name) narrative,
followed by comments on how the elements in Maris story were related to
each other, partly to the wholeness of the naive reading, and how the themes
generated by the structural analysis were matched against the rest of the
individually generated themes, in the construction of the interpreted whole.


MARI
( N A R R AT I V E
NUMBER
7)
I spent my field studies at a youth team where one works with young boys and
girls aged between 13 and 19. There were certain clients that you contacted
yourself if they didnt show up at the office at the time appointed. The client I
worked mostly with was one of those. A girl, 16 years old, whom I choose to
call Lisa. Lisa rents a small flat, which I, among others, helped her get. She has
no telephone and is therefore rather difficult to reach. Sometimes I went to her
home when she didnt come to the office at the time we had appointed.
It was quite likely that she wasnt there, or that she had a big party with a lot of
drunken youths. You never knew what you could face. Lisa is a girl that all
social workers who have met her describe as difficult to get in contact with. She
talks very little and is also very quiet.
Once I went alone to Lisa, to see her without a special purpose, just to see if she
was all right. By then we had met each other a couple of times and had started
to have a good relationship. But I had also learnt from my earlier talks with
her, and from my colleagues, that she didnt talk much and that she didnt want
to tell much about her life. (My pre-understanding). When I arrived, she
became happy. Normally she tries to hide her face in the hair, but this time she
didnt, and I felt that she was beaming forth an openness I hadnt seen before.
We sat down on the sofa, in her small flat filled with cigarette smoke
everything seemed grey in there. I asked her how she had been doing since the
last time we met. She was short in her answers as always. And I didnt say
much myself. While we sat down I decided to try giving her a little more time
than in previous talks. I wanted to give Lisa more room than before, so we sat
quiet and silent for several minutes. Suddenly she started to talk. She opened up
more and more, and at the same time I carefully tried to get nearer with
questions. I also stressed that she didnt have to answer if she didnt want to.
She showed me an incredible confidence, and for the first time I reached her. It
felt unbelievably good. The meeting took more than two hours and because of
another meeting I had to break things up, but nevertheless I felt that Lisa
wanted me to stay longer.
I think the reason I reached Lisa that day was that I managed to ignore the preunderstanding I had got from my colleagues and my earlier talks with her. I
simply decided to give her time, something I felt I hadnt been inclined to try
before. I tried to put myself outside; I let her lead the meeting so that it could
take any form.
Stage one in our analysis, the naive reading, was done in the following way:
first the story was read straight through, we then wrote down naive memos,
i.e. short notes to help our memory. Naive memos that we extracted from this
story were, for example:
The situation has the character of whim, a spontaneous visit, without
any alternative action given beforehand (would this have been possible if
the purpose had been a two-hour-long conversation with the explicit aim to
get Lisa to talk?).
Shows the importance of opening a space, defined by the client.

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Deliberately unknowing, experimenting by letting the silence open an

alternative relationship.
Clear dramatizing in the narration. Suddenly . . .
These short memos were then put together with the other 13 cases in order to
generate the more general frame of reference following the idea that was
presented earlier in this article.
After having constructed the naive frame of reference, the second step of
analysis started, i.e. the more time-consuming structure analysis. During this
phase the text was read several times with the purpose of sorting out the
units of meaning in the text (cf. Plsson and Norberg, 1994; Sderberg and
Norberg, 1993). These units varied in size from a single sentence to part of, or
a whole, paragraph. Units and codes are illustrated in the chart below. In this
case we have done a stepwise structural analysis, where each step had a
certain focus. This is illustrated by the second, third and fourth columns in
Table 1. The first column in the table is about the key situations and actions
that appear in the narrative, the second deals with the actors and how they
are referred to, while the third is where we sorted by reflective aspect, i.e.
where the narrator changed mode from telling the story into evaluating it.
We have used both in-vivo codes and more condensed codes (especially in the
fourth column). The latter is perhaps a bit unfaithful in relation to Ricoeur
since it makes explicit an interpretative dimension that may provoke his idea
that the structural analysis generates explanation but not interpretation
(Ricoeur, 1976).
The codes in the right columns were then put out on the table and thus
taken out of chronological order, together with the codes from all narratives.
After that, the codes were sorted with the help of the searchlight generated
by the naive reading. In Ricoeurian words one could allege that the codes and
their structure have given an explanation to the stories, but that we still have
to interpret the stories to form a whole. What we observed here was, for
example, that the how/who column gave material for an interpretation of
the student as active and Lisa as passive, until the turning point in item 6,
after which Lisa is talked about as active. This was also recognized as a
pattern in other narratives.
The shift from this stepwise structure analysis to an interpreted whole is
difficult to describe. The depth interpretation comprises a moment of aha it
can be seen in this way. The overview generated by the naive reading, in
combination with the systematic coding of the structure analysis, forms the
basis for a new story. The 14 narratives comprise a number of story types. To
illustrate this point, one of these can briefly be formulated like this
(structured form):
Conditions: social work students are confronted with the task of trying
one more time with a client that colleagues had difficulties in making
progress with. This extra attempt is conditioned by the circumstance that


TABLE
1. Examples of meaning units and codes from Maris narrative
Preliminary units
of meaning
What-codes
1.A girl, 16 years old,

Girl, 16 years
whom I choose to
call Lisa.
2.Lisa rents a small flat,
Rents a flat
which I, among
others, helped her get.
3.She has no telephone
Hard to reach
and is because of that
rather difficult to reach.
...
4.While we sat down I
Sat down
decided to try giving
here a little more time
than in earlier talks.
5.I wanted to give Lisa
Sat quiet, time
more room than before,
due to that we sat quiet
and silent for several
minutes.
6.Suddenly she started
Sudden talk
to talk
7.I think the reason I
reached Lisa that day
was that I managed to
ignore the preunderstanding I had got
from my colleagues and
my earlier talks with her.
8.I simply decided to give
her time, something I
felt I hadnt been inclined
to try before.
9.I tried to put myself
outside
10.I let her lead the meeting
to take any form.
How/who-codes
Reflective codes
I choose to call her

I and others
helped her
Because of that
We sat, I decided,
giving her
Strategy: give more

time, Relates to
earlier talks
I wanted to give
her, We sat quiet
Give room
Strategic silence
She started
Turning point
I acted, She was

reached, I
managed to ignore,
I had got, My talks
with her
Tentative
explanation,
Actively ignoring
pre-understanding
I gave her, I felt
Reduction of
explanation: give
time, Strategy
compared to earlier
complicating the
strategy
modulating,
leaving the control
I tried
I let her lead
the social work student has time and that the supervisor as well as the
student regards it as a learning opportunity. The impression is that the
attempt is under control insofar as the client and the student presumably
have quite a lot in common, regarding age and sex. The meetings that are
referred to imply a positive relationship that has already begun.
Situations: the meetings are often situated in the clients home, with only
the client and the social work student present. Little time pressure.
Main stories: the meeting with the client and the student is initially
characterized by a wait-and-see attitude. When a new space is offered, the

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client chooses to use this by talking, and there is a change in the way she
talks about herself. It is not the same relationship between the client and
the student after this change, compared to previously. The student
describes a positive development for the client after this: in the short term,
when it comes to the continuation of the talk (he or she didnt want to stop
talking), and in the long-term (it led to more and more open-hearted talks)
...
Strategy: the student chooses to experiment and offers the client some
room, a blank space, makes herself unknowing, ignores previous
knowledge, lets the time work. . .
Reflection on knowledge and the consequences of knowledge: the student
identifies various types of knowledge in this story type. Above all, it is
referred to as a purposive strategy, i.e. the experiment is not made
blindfolded. Instead it is made against a gathered background of knowledge that is merely mentioned (either it is not completely conscious or the
respondent chose not to write about it) but can be regarded as a
conglomerate of theory, the students own earlier experiences, etc.
There are other story types among the 14 narratives. An example is the type
of story that describes the intervention as conditioned by legal demands, or
by knowledge emanating from journals and files of the agency and from
colleagues. In these stories the acting is more straightforward and the
possibility and the motives for creating an empty space are not used.
Summing up: some arguments for and against the method

In this pilot study we have illustrated a method of working with narratives
which brings closer the question about how knowledge works in
problematic meetings between social workers and clients. Naturally, similar
questions in other fields can be analysed in the same way (doctorpatient,
husbandwife, etc.). One purpose of this study was to find out what kind of
knowledge social workers experienced/believed was effective in these
meetings and what significance the conditions, the situation, the acting, etc.
is given by the narrators in this case a number of social work students.
Thus, the narratives have something to say about the tacit understandings of
what constitutes a competent (student) social workers account (Martin,
1999). What are the strengths and weaknesses of the chosen method that
can reasonably be identified from this pilot study?
The following points are positive experiences from the method:
The empirical material is more structured, as well as more reflective, than
transcripts from interviews. The higher degree of reflection implies that
the story is more understood by the narrator. Thus, the material can be
assumed to say much about the narrators self-conception, something that
is important in research on identity, life-stories, etc.

The method is time-saving for the narrators as well as for the interpreters.
The saving of time is obvious during the data collection and, compared to
the interview, the time-consuming transcription can be left out. The
analysis can be speeded up, but partly this is the result of delimiting
instructions. Presumably it is easier to make digressions from the subject
when interviewing even if the interviewer provides similar delimiting
instructions. Given the limited space for writing in this study, it is most
likely that the writer would focus on essential matters. Another aspect of
this is that the narration is less controlled by people other than the writer
(some control is however present in the form of the instructions).
Short written narratives offer opportunities for presenting more empirical
material in reports for example in the form of a whole story as in this
article.
The approach gives a good opportunity for quantifying data regarding the
units of meanings in the stories, as well as the story types, in a larger
database (cf. Blom and Nygren, 1999). This is to a great extent a
consequence of homogenized instructions, but also a function of a more
specified approach.
Partly as a mirror image of the positive experiences, there are also observed
limitations or problems with the method:
The short stories have an inherent risk of over-interpretation. The
narratives are not always that exhaustive. One aspect of this is that the
narrator can feel limited the form makes it difficult to develop circumstantial reasoning. The shortness of the stories can lead to a superficial
self-reflection. The writer does not have textual space to penetrate his or
her own story and self-reflection is restrained because unexpressed or
dropped aspects only exist as thoughts and are not written down.
The midwife effect that an interviewer can have disappears. The writing
implies a dialogue with oneself or between author and text. An interviewer can make a narrator talk about things the solitary writer might not
pay attention to. Further, the method requires that the narrators are adept
at writing. Some people would rather talk than write. However, because
the opposite is also true, it is hard to tell if this implies any significant
disadvantages in comparison with interviews.
Despite the structured approach, central moments which cannot be
described or routinized still remain. There is no easy way to answer the
questions about how the naive reading is done, or how the compilation of
naive reading and the parts from the structure analysis is done. These
moments include elements of the ability to make associations,
impulsiveness and creativity. Phenomenologically, this compilation is
experienced as a series of very fast switches from cognition (seeing the
words in front of oneself) and a kind of scanning of an inner world of
knowledge and experience.

381
382
The method is difficult because discipline is demanded. The researcher has

to be constantly aware of what she or he is doing, for example to be
conscious of how and when to use different kinds of codes. In-vivo codes
and interpreted codes imply that the analysis takes place on different levels
of abstraction. This, in turn, becomes problematic when the material is to
be arranged hierarchically.
The consumption of time can, in spite of the gains during the data
collection, be underestimated. The temptation to collect many narratives
in order to get data for a quantitative analysis leads to difficulties when, for
example, all meaning units from the structural analysis are put on the
table in the qualitative analysis.
The demands for a well-elaborated theory of knowledge are far-reaching.
What kind of knowledge is obtained through this method? When can it be
assumed that the meaning of the texts, in Ricoeurs terms, is uncovered?
The question of validity necessitates an advanced theory of knowledge,
where the interpreter has to be knowledgeable enough to be able to take a
stand on questions about how one looks upon the concepts, as well as the
relations between episode, writer, text, reader and interpretation.
In spite of these obstacles, the pilot study reveals great potential for this
method. There are, of course, several reasons for refining and further
developing all steps in the analytical procedure. This concerns everything
from the question of what kind of research questions the method can be
appropriate for, through the formulation of better instructions to the
narrators, a more careful choice of samples, and more consciously made
processes in the steps from naive reading, to depth interpretation and choices
concerning forms of presentation.
Consequently, this method does not represent a simple instrument, but
then it is not intended for use in measuring simple phenomena. By contrast,
it seeks to contribute to the understanding of meaning in complex social
processes.
NOTE
1.
The task was preceded by lessons where different conceptions of knowledge were
discussed, e.g. the concept of unknowing as a conscious way of being open for
the unpredictable or rather to release oneself from ones knowing. A reason for
this was an ambition to draw the students attention to the idea that knowledge is
not by definition the same as theory or book knowledge (Blom, 1999; Morn,
1992).
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is a Professor of Social Work at Ume University, Sweden. His
research interests are Swedish and international social policy, local welfare and
knowledge production in social work. He has been the director of the social work PhD
program in social work at Ume University since 1991, and is a referee for both
Swedish and international social work research journals.
Address: Department of Social Welfare, Ume University, S-901 87 Ume, Sweden.
[email: lennart.nygren@socw.umu.se]
L E N N A RT N Y G R E N
is an Assistant Professor of Social Work at Ume University, Sweden. His

research interests are theory development in social work, knowledge and action in
social work and evaluation of social work practice. His doctoral dissertation was on
market orientation of personal social services.
Address: as Lennart Nygren.
[email: bjorn.blom@socw.umu.se]
BJRN BLOM


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Qualitative Research

Analysis of short reflective narratives: a method for the study of knowledge in

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Analysis of short reflective narratives: a

This article describes and discusses a method for

knowledge, meaning units, narrative analysis, Ricoeur,

An approach to developing narrative research

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Qualitative Research 1(3)

make sense of their experiences (Clandinin and Connelly, 1994). However, in

The complex knowledge base of social work

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Nygren and Blom: Analysis of short reflective narratives

Soydan, 1997). What is the role of theoretical knowledge in the moment of

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Qualitative Research 1(3)

The written narrative: a way of reflecting meaning

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Nygren and Blom: Analysis of short reflective narratives

The dialectics of understanding and explanation

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Qualitative Research 1(3)

explanation and understanding. In this way, understanding precedes,

Social work narratives: a pilot study

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Nygren and Blom: Analysis of short reflective narratives

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Qualitative Research 1(3)

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Nygren and Blom: Analysis of short reflective narratives

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Qualitative Research 1(3)

Deliberately unknowing, experimenting by letting the silence open an

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Nygren and Blom: Analysis of short reflective narratives

1. Examples of meaning units and codes from Maris narrative

1.A girl, 16 years old,

I choose to call her

Strategy: give more

I acted, She was

I gave her, I felt

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Qualitative Research 1(3)

Summing up: some arguments for and against the method

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Nygren and Blom: Analysis of short reflective narratives

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Qualitative Research 1(3)

The method is difficult because discipline is demanded. The researcher has

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Nygren and Blom: Analysis of short reflective narratives

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Qualitative Research 1(3)

is an Assistant Professor of Social Work at Ume University, Sweden. His

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Nygren & Blom. 2001. Analysis of Short Reflective Narratives.

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