Building the Environment for Narrative Inquiry With Young People With Intellectual Disability

Abstract

Narrative inquiry methods are central to qualitative research that seeks to understand phenomena through the lived experiences of research participants. This research used a form of narrative inquiry—storytelling, to invite four young people with intellectual disability referred to as the “story owners” to share their stories about sexuality and relationships. Through a reflexive approach, this article unpacks the relational and physical contexts that surrounded the narrative inquiry methods, which the researchers describe as the narrative environment. In this narrative environment, each story owner co-developed their story with an academic researcher. The research found that the key components of the narrative environment which were co-created somewhat differently by each story owner were space and place, objects, people, and relationships and communication. Take home messages provided in this research can assist novice researchers and co-researchers in their methodological approach to narrative research with people with intellectual disability.