ABSTRACT
Narrative inquiry, working from a particular ontological and epistemological stance, is a way of understanding and inquiring into experience. Narrative inquiry is always with and within the stories of participants, the stories of inquirers, and the social, cultural, institutional, familial, linguistic narratives within which all stories are lived, told, and inquired into. J. Bruner focused the attention of the discipline of psychology on narrative when he posited that there are two modes of thought or cognitive functioning: the traditional logical scientific and the narrative. John Dewey's theory of experience often cited as the philosophical underpinning of narrative inquiry is central to people's understandings of narrative inquiry. Narrative inquiry is situated in relationships and in community and attends to each person's knowledge in relational and participatory ways. Narrative inquiry is relational research including the relation between researcher and participant.
