On Framing
How to Frame?
- Theoretical Frame: What is your interpretive lens for understanding data? This position says, decide on a way to interpret the data first, then look at the data to understand how it does and does not fit into the frame. This applies to classic theoretical frames like feminism, Marxism, etc. The most common question asked at three chapter defense is “what is your theoretical frame?” The second most common statement is “Your theoretical frame is not clear enough.” A theoretical frame needs to be grounded in a thorough understanding of the appropriate literature.
- Grounded theory tries to create a frame which arises from the data. Again, though, the focus is on the frame. What is the best way to interpret the data. For grounded theory, one goes over the data multiple times looking for the right way to interpret it. Meant to be more emergent.
- Narrative inquiry framing approaches theorizing as a useful part of a storyteller’s struggle to understand a story. But, people debate whether or not a story should be framed at all.
What is a narrative inquiry frame?
In narrative inquiry, there exists a tension between narrative as story and narrative as research. Each inquirer must decide how much to comment upon a story. How much do you shape/construct how your readers understand a story. Also, will you offer multiple constructions?
The frame does offer a way to link the story to outside references, to suggest how ideas in the story link to the ideas of others explicitly.
Trimmer’s “Introduction” argues for story rather than academic discourse. On p. ix he says, “Theories . . . theories . . . and theories about stories, but NO stories.”
Connley and Clandinin say, “To understand X, go read Y.”
On p. xii he says the stories in his collection “play with all of the devices of storytelling (scene, dialogue, point of view) to render moments that suggest an educational encounter.”
Framing Samples
No Frame
Story can be left totally open for the reader’s interpretation. So a story might go like this:
Today I woke up.
I went for a walk.
I came home and then I wrote a poem about the walk.
Frame One
Or we can frame that story:
This is a story about the connection between literacy and life, the way literacy can create a fuller life for those who engage with it:
Today I woke up.
I went for a walk.
I came home and then I wrote a poem about the walk.
Frame Two
Or, reframed, the story can take on a totally different meaning:
This is a story of how a man deals with the loss of his wife. He finds solace in the physical acts of everyday existence:
Today I woke up.
I went for a walk.
I came home and then I wrote a poem about the walk.
Frame Three
Maybe this is a story about literacy or maybe this is a story about coping with depression.
Today I woke up.
I went for a walk.
I came home and then I wrote a poem about the walk.
Trimmer’s rules for stories:
- Avoid teacher as hero
- Avoid making students into “them”
- Avoid the exotic—tell stories of every day teaching
- How generalizable should the story be?
- Stories are grounded in the particular details
- Be honest
- Reveal
- Allows you to move over emotional territory