Narrative Inquiry in Music Education: Troubling Certainty

This text provides a forum for the presentation and discussion of narrative inquiry approaches to research in music education, and contextualizes this work within the larger conversations of music education research and practice. In an innovative dialogic approach the text is divided into 3 parts, each presenting a different perspective on the uses and purposes of narrative in and for music education. Section I explores the origins of narrative research across a range of fields of inquiry and presents a conception of narrative inquiry as “resonant work”. Section II provides 7 examples of narrative inquiry research, each of which is accompanied by a reflective commentary. The commentaries provide an interpretive perspective of the narrative accounts, suggest further questions that arise from the inquiry, and provide insight into the potential uses of the narrative account for the theory and practice of music education. Section III brings together the perspectives of two eminent theorists and practitioners.