ABSTRACT
Presently researchers in the social sciences are engaged in the telling of stories1 that span a range of narrative approaches (e.g., autobiography, autoethnographies, biography, personal narratives, life histories, oral histories, memoirs, and literary journalism). A growing number of these researchers (e.g., Lawrence-Lightfoot & Davis, 1997; Richardson, 1993, 1997) are writing their storied narratives in ways that combine empirical and aesthetic descriptions of the human condition, thus pushing at “the frontiers of art” to which Featherstone earlier alluded. Still others (e.g., Denzin, 1997; hooks, 1991) are critiquing the notion that one should ever rightfully assume the authority to tell other people’s stories. This chapter is about these researchers and their work, as well as the work of other researchers who use narrative approaches to study literacy. It is also about issues that currently encompass narrative inquiry as a way of knowing and writing, and the implications of such issues for research and practice in the field of literacy education.
