Battling bad weather along the way: Meaning making in narrative inquiry and its challenges

Abstract

This paper is a personal account on how I embrace reflexivity while making meaning of my experiences as a narrative inquirer. Revisiting my doctoral journey, I describe the stage when my research field texts were generated from the experiences throughout my four-month research fieldwork. I then illustrate the challenges I encountered while managing my data corpus after my fieldwork ended. The biggest obstacle was during the interpretive process when I attempted to make sense of these experiences, constructed into my research texts, while travelling in the directions of an inquiry: inward, outward, backward, forward and situated within place. It was the time when I fully submerged in my reflexivity and critical reflections, but at the same time had the difficulties to emerge from the depths of meaning making. Admittedly, I was drowned in my own confusions, self-doubt and dilemma while trying to understand the true meanings of my inquiry. The decision on re-storying such experiences was another overwhelming period at this particular stage. Metaphorically, it was the time during the journey when I sailed through a stormy sea – the going was rough and bumpy. The important lessons learned throughout these meaning making experience are also accentuated towards the end of the narration.