ABSTRACT

This chapter aims to examine the nature of three inter-related concepts that will provide with a critical lens through which one can understand the narratives of individuals in three national contexts, namely South Africa, Bangladesh and Mauritius. Bruner makes an important point about the interplay between particularity and generalisability in narratives, that is, all stories contain both unique and particular aspects. It discusses the concept of agency and the role it plays in shaping and giving meaning to human action and experience. The chapter explores that the concept of culture is foregrounded economics and educational development in what is studied and also in the way research is designed, executed, written up and disseminated. It discusses the relationship between what has been called the 'art of interpretation'–hermeneutics–and the concept of context. As this relationship 'connects' the analyses of the three national contexts with the 'whole' or unified picture.