 
What narrative research does is to focus
particularly on the lives of participants -- on their experiences --
as they understand their experiences
whether they're teaching or learning, or other type of social interaction.
What makes narrative research perhaps a little different
from other types of qualitative research is the particular attention
that is paid to the fine, fine details of these experiences.
Narrative research very seldom if ever tries to generalise data
to different contexts, but instead, tries to describe in detail
the understanding -- the meanings -- that the participants in the research process make
of their own lives. And that is done either to
various forms of working data, such as language learning histories,
or to written journals
that teachers may write, reflecting
on their practise, or it could be the small stories
that participants tell in everyday conversations
or invented new contexts. And of course those types of
data and the data analysis approach
that go along with actually analysing those data
are quite similar to
qualitative research generally, but
what is important with narrative research is that those
data are looked at as stories, of these people's lives - number one -
and also, the stories in very rich detail
of those experiences.
