Quality indicators in narrative research

This article opens with a problematisation of how one can meaningfully discuss the concept of quality in a methodology as notoriously ‘murky’ as narrative research. Unlike other kinds of qualitative approaches, there is a lack of consensus of what constitutes narrative, much less a clearly prescribed protocol for ascertaining evaluation. It then proceeds by outlining three features of narrative research (the importance of stories, the ‘messy’ nature of the data, and the attention to temporality), and then provides a close reading of an extract of an interview with a political activist who describes how she made her decision to break the law. Finally, drawing on the previous discussion, there is a non-exhaustive checklist of quality indicators for narrative research.