Chapter Five Cross-Cultural Interpretation of Field Texts

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this chapter is to explore and deliberate over ways in which culture may contribute to the interpretation of field texts while also intersecting the dimensions of time, space, and sociality in accordance with Clandinin and Connelly's (2000) notion of the three-dimensional narrative inquiry space.

Approach – This chapter highlights research interactions within a long-term, school-based narrative inquiry dealing with lived curriculum experiences.

Findings – The researchers gained insight into some of the nuances of interpreting field texts. In particular, this study highlighted the potential influence of the cultural, racial, religious, ethnic, or linguistic backgrounds of researchers and their participants in shaping the interpretation of field texts.

Research implications – The field texts that were presented and examined in this chapter shed light on key curricular experiences, spaces, and silences that might occur in relational and interpretive research stemming from cross-cultural experiences and vantages. This uncovered strand of inquiry interpretation has wide implications for qualitative work.

Value – Narrative inquirers and researchers employing other interpretive forms of qualitative investigations might be influenced to attend to the themes of culture in their work in novel ways. New understandings of researcher bias and the subsequent interpretation of results can be seen from a cross-cultural experiential paradigm.

Citation

Schlein, C. and Chan, E. (2012), "Chapter Five Cross-Cultural Interpretation of Field Texts", Chan, E., Keyes, D. and Ross, V. (Ed.) Narrative Inquirers in the Midst of Meaning-making: Interpretive Acts of Teacher Educators (Advances in Research on Teaching, Vol. 16), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 109-129. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1479-3687(2012)0000016009