Potentials and Possibilities of Narrative Inquiry in Disability Research

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to analyze potential values of narrative inquiry in disability research. Through literature review, this study analyzes how narrative inquiry can disrupt habitual representation of disability and oppressive knowledge production. This study, first of all, examines the concept of narrative inquiry by exploring what distinguishes it from other research approaches. This study further examines how poststructuralist researchers complexify discourses of narrative inquiry through the reconceptualized notions of identity, experience, language, and power relations. Next, the potentials and possibilities that the narrative inquiry approach has in disability research are discussed. Then, this study reviews two studies that adopt narrative inquiry as a methodology to illuminate lived lives of people with visual impairment. This study claims that narrative inquiry can interrogate and challenge the master narratives of disability because it asks a different question, takes a indeterministic stance, and promotes researchers’ self-reflexivity. This study concludes that narrative inquiry is a less violent research methodology than the traditional positivist research approaches because it threatens any confidence of researchers in making truth claims about lives of people with disabilities.