The Story of Zahra
Abstract
The aim of this paper is to narrates the lived experiences and story of a woman, a philanthropist, an engineer, and an academician who held from a remote part of Northern Nigeria. It is a part of the Biographical Narrative Method of qualitative research (Kutsyuruba & Mendes, 2023). Listening to and interpreting the narratives of a philanthropist, an engineer, and an academician is a motivational feature of a professional woman. Research methodologies don’t usually consider the psycho-social and biographical dynamics of individuals’ lives considering the dynamics in their geographical settings (Flynn, 2019). The paper draws from the experiences of a woman who hailed from an ethnicity, and shared a common culture, sourcing relevant literature. This is a biographic narrative story and lived experiences that reveal some of the challenges experienced by women dependent upon their psycho-social, socio-economic, and geographical setup. Mainly storytelling. Upon which experiences are driven by the story. A restorying was made and themes were obtained as struggle/challenges, motivation, strengths, and lessons from the experiences were highlighted (Cardenal, 2016). The analytic strategy focuses on the whole life history or story (biography), how it was told (narrative), and the social interpretation (interpretive). The story provides an overview of its potential application for motivation and change of perceptions of people. It said that “when we shift our perception, our experiences change”. The interview provides a useful tool to help with an in-depth qualitative exploration of her life story and experiences.
References
Bornat, J. (2008). Biographical methods. The Sage Handbook of social research methods, 344-356.
Bruce, A., Beuthin, R., Sheilds, L., Molzahn, A., & Schick-Makaroff, K. (2016). Narrative research evolving: Evolving through narrative research. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 15(1), 1609406916659292.
Cardenal, E. (2016). Biografía y relato en el análisis sociológico. La aportación de la escuela BNIM (Biographic Narrative Interpretive Method)/Biography and Story in Sociological Analysis. The Contribution of the BNIM (Biographic-Narrative Interpretive Method) School. Reis: Revista Española de Investigaciones Sociológicas, 55-71.
Casey, B., Proudfoot, D., & Corbally, M. (2016). Narrative in nursing research: An overview of three approaches. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 72(5), 1203-1215.
Casey, K. (1995). Chapter 5: The new narrative research in education. Review of research in education, 21(1), 211-253.
CHASE, S. (2005). E (2005): Narrative inquiry: Multiple lenses, approaches, voices. The Sage Handbook of Qualitative Research. London: SAGE Publications.
Clandinin, D. J. (2006). Narrative inquiry: A methodology for studying lived experience. Research studies in music education, 27(1), 44-54.
Corbally, M., & O’Neill, C. S. (2014). An introduction to the biographical narrative interpretive method. Nurse researcher, 21(5).
Corsten, S., Konradi, J., Schimpf, E. J., Hardering, F., & Keilmann, A. (2014). Improving the quality of life in aphasia—Evidence for the effectiveness of the biographic-narrative approach. Aphasiology, 28(4), 440-452.
Corsten, S., Schimpf, E. J., Konradi, J., Keilmann, A., & Hardering, F. (2015). The participants’ perspective: How biographic–narrative intervention influences identity negotiation and quality of life in aphasia. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, 50(6), 788-800.
Cortazzi, M. (1994). Narrative analysis. Language teaching, 27(3), 157-170.
Creswell, J. W., & Miller, D. L. (2000). Determining validity in qualitative inquiry. Theory into practice, 39(3), 124-130.
Flynn, S. (2019). Life stories of the economic recession: Biographical Narrative Interpretative Method (BNIM) and the lived experience of disability in times of austerity. Scandinavian Journal of Disability Research, 21(1).
Godwin, J. (1987). Harmonies of Heaven and Earth: Mysticism in Music from Antiquity to the Avant-garde: Simon and Schuster.
Greenhalgh, T. (2016). Cultural contexts of health: the use of narrative research in the health sector: World Health Organization. Regional Office for Europe.
Jones, K. (2003). The turn to a narrative knowing of persons: One method explored. NT Research, 8(1), 60-71.
Kutsyuruba, B., & Mendes, B. (2023). Biographic Narrative Interpretive Method. In Varieties of Qualitative Research Methods (pp. 59-65): Springer.
Ligon, G. S., Hunter, S. T., & Mumford, M. D. (2008). Development of outstanding leadership: A life narrative approach. The Leadership Quarterly, 19(3), 312-334.
Megías, M. P., García, M. M., & Arcos, D. P. (2017). Life stories as a biographic-narrative method. How to listen to silenced voices. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 237, 962-967.
Ollerenshaw, J. A., & Creswell, J. W. (2002). Narrative research: A comparison of two restorying data analysis approaches. Qualitative Inquiry, 8(3), 329-347.
Peta, C., Wengraf, T., & McKenzie, J. (2019). Facilitating the voice of disabled women: the biographic narrative interpretive method (BNIM) in action. Contemporary Social Science, 14(3-4), 515-527.
Phoenix, A. (2008). Analyzing narrative contexts. Doing narrative research, 64, 77.
Polkinghorne, D. E. (1995). Narrative configuration in qualitative analysis. International journal of qualitative studies in education, 8(1), 5-23.
Roseneil, S. (2012). Using biographical narrative and life story methods to research women's movements: FEMCIT. Paper presented at the Women's Studies International Forum.
Spector-Mersel, G. (2010). Narrative research: Time for a paradigm. Narrative inquiry, 20(1), 204-224.
Squire, C., Andrews, M., Davis, M., Esin, C., Harrison, B., Hydén, L.-C., & Hydén, M. (2014). What is narrative research? : Bloomsbury Academic.
Taylor, S., & Littleton, K. (2006). Biographies in the talk: A narrative-discursive research approach. Qualitative sociology review, 2(1), 22-38.
Wengraf, T. (2004). The biographic-narrative interpretive method-short guide.
Whelan, K. K., Huber, J., Rose, C., Davies, A., & Clandinin, D. J. (2001). Telling and retelling our stories on the professional knowledge landscape. Teachers and teaching, 7(2), 143-156.
