A Three-Dimensional Approach to Narrative Analysis

This manuscript proposes a three-dimensional method of narrative analysis grounded in the dimensions of time, sociality, and place, providing narrative inquirers with a structured and systematic approach to deriving meaning from story data. This manuscript offers examples showcasing the application of the three-dimensional method for the purpose of interpretation, adaptation, and reproduction. The original research that served as the impetus for the application of this approach explored the stories nurses tell to describe experiences of professional identity formation and transition to practice using narrative methodology to guide the inquiry. An analogy of three-dimensional glasses is used to explain how generating a unique analytic frame and three-dimensional lenses of interpretation may be used to analyze narrative data. The proposed method includes a combination of characteristics inherent in holistic, structural, and thematic approaches to analysis. This approach analyzes findings holistically in that each participant’s story is preserved as its own whole entity; structurally, in that for each participant stories are extracted and analyzed in pieces, or plotlines; and finally, thematic analysis is represented by a culminating analysis presenting themes as narrative threads. Expanding and clarifying our understanding of narrative analysis is enriched by the exploration of new ways of seeing storied data. The proposed three-dimensional method of narrative analysis seeks to derive meaning while preserving, valuing, and respecting the voices and stories of the individuals and phenomena we seek to understand.