Occupational science, narratives and playing the french 2005
1. Occupational Science,
Narratives and Playing
the French English
Horn
Jackie Taylor
“to be human is to be ‘there’, caught up in
the world, taking a stand on one’s life,
active and engaged in ordinary
situations, with some overview of what is
at stake in living” Heidegger
May 2005 Jackie Taylor
2. Outline
Why am I interested in playing the
English horn?
Why am I interested in narratives?
What is all this to do with occupational
science, and more importantly
occupational therapy?
May 2005 Jackie Taylor
3. Playing the English horn
When someone tells me stories about
their occupations:
what do I learn about the person?
And their interaction with
the occupation?
the social world?
the physical world?
And what else?
May 2005 Jackie Taylor
4. The Horn Player
A successful, well-educated scientist, a
technical director, travels widely with his
job
White Caucasian English, lives in
Lancashire
Mid 40s, lives with wife and 3 children
May 2005 Jackie Taylor
5. What is a narrative?
A story about something that happened
Set in time and place
A beginning, middle and end
Characters
A plot unfolds
It can be told differently in different
situations
May 2005 Jackie Taylor
6. This narrative was part of an
interview
… in which there The
were several horn
narratives …..
May 2005 Jackie Taylor
7. The interview is part of a life
… in which there
are many narratives Research
told…... interview
There is a theory
that our identity is a
narrative
May 2005 Jackie Taylor
8. What do narratives tell us?
How the individual makes sense of
events
How ‘doing’ relates to ‘being’
How the individual chooses to present
themselves to other people (including the
researcher/interviewer)
How the individual is situated in their
culture
May 2005 Jackie Taylor
9. Narrative analysis
There are several approaches
All approaches preserve the wholeness of
the narrative, events sequenced into plot
Context is part of analysis
Agar and Hobbs
Global coherence
Local coherence
Themal coherence
May 2005 Jackie Taylor
10. Who is the Horn Player?
The Moral Self
Playing /working hard is important
Family is important
Loyalty and commitment are important
(and therefore conflicts arise)
May 2005 Jackie Taylor
11. Who is the Horn Player?
The Agentic Self
I am often the happy victim of
circumstances.
I like to be in control!
May 2005 Jackie Taylor
12. Who is the Horn Player?
The Social Self
I don’t want you to think I’m bragging.
I think there are others better than me
May 2005 Jackie Taylor
13. Who is the Horn Player?
Occupational self???
I find wonderment and excitement in music
I have a fair degree of mastery in my music
I welcome challenge in music
I am a part of a musical tradition that must
be passed on to the young
May 2005 Jackie Taylor
14. Occupational Science
the study of the human as an
occupational being including the need for
and capacity to engage in and orchestrate
daily occupations in the environment
over the lifespan
(Yerxa, 1989)
May 2005 Jackie Taylor
15. Occupational Science
Individuals are studied in interaction with their
environment
The complexity of occupations is
acknowledged and studied
person’s experience of occupation is studied
generates knowledge about the form, function
and the meaning of human occupation
May 2005 Jackie Taylor
16. Playing the English Horn.
Being a Horn Player.
Place -
Time – North-West Research
life-span interview
Family life
Time –
Late 20th century Work life
Horn Culture –
player’s Culture – Modesty
life Brass bands and
military bands
May 2005 Jackie Taylor
Notes de l'éditeur
Name change – apologies to the Horn Player who so kindly agreed to be interviewed. The reason will become apparent Quote taken from Zemke and Clarke 1996
Give out sheet A – picking up the horn for the first time. Read it through together
So it can be seen that there is a narrative on sheet A Characters The Horn Player Michael, his son What is the plot of the narrative? How the Horn Player came to recognise the horn as his favoured instrument and gained new value to the military band.
Describe method and sample, a little. North West Serious leisure Unstructured interviews
People make their own sense of events and construct personal continuity over time. Past experience, present identity, anticipated futures. We constantly construct our identity. New events are told in narratives in order to interpret them. This often happens in conversation with others. The research interview also elicits narrative telling – but the researcher must be aware of the impact that they have on the construction of identity. We interpret our earlier life in the light of what we now know (Lawlor 2000) Polkinghorne (1991) ’ Like each episode singly, my life as a whole – that is, my self – is something temporal that unfolds in time and whose phases I survey prospectively and retrospectively from within an ever changing present.’ (p143) also – ‘It is the narratively structured unity of my life as a whole that provides me with a personal identity and displays the answer to “Who am I?”.’
How the individual makes sense of events By retelling what happened How the individual chooses to present themselves to other people (including the researcher/interviewer) why this version of events and not another? Identity taken as a process of self-definition, very closely tied in with what we do, and how we account for ourselves. How the individual is situated in their culture We come to be who we are by being located, or locating ourselves in social narratives rarely of our own making . (Somers, 1994)
There are several approaches eg life story research Look at sheet B – the analysis
Sarbin talks about duty and obligation, wisdom and folly, pride and shame, honour and dishonour
Polkinghorne talks about the person who actively sets goals, strives to achieve them, overcomes obstacles, actualises ideas
Who am I?’, ‘who am I not?’, ‘who am I like?’, ‘who am I not like?’
What can I do with that phrase of his? – ‘ this is fantastic, this instrument’ This is a tentative category
People make their own sense of events and construct personal continuity over time. Past experience, present identity, anticipated futures. We constantly construct our identity. New events are told in narratives in order to interpret them. This often happens in conversation with others. The research interview also elicits narrative telling – but the researcher must be aware of the impact that they have on the construction of identity. We interpret our earlier life in the light of what we now know (Lawlor 2000) Polkinghorne (1991) ’ Like each episode singly, my life as a whole – that is, my self – is something temporal that unfolds in time and whose phases I survey prospectively and retrospectively from within an ever changing present.’ (p143) also – ‘It is the narratively structured unity of my life as a whole that provides me with a personal identity and displays the answer to “Who am I?”.’
