2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

In this full method paper, we present application of narrative inquiry methodology—first theorized by Clandinin and colleagues in the field of teacher education —within the post-secondary engineering education context. In our work, we employ narrative inquiry methodology to make meaning of the experiences of undergraduate student Veterans and service members (SVSM) in U.S. engineering degree programs. Broadly, this research aims to understand and contextualize how SVSM transition into, participate within, and produce personal and professional identities that cohere with engineering education and practice in civilian contexts.
Narrative inquiry, as a qualitative research methodology, is used to derive meaning from experience through the sharing, construction and examination of narrative organizational schemes known as stories. Narrative inquiry methodology, as documented across qualitative research literature in the social sciences, suggests a relational, longitudinal, and personally interactive process wherein participants and researchers share, live, and make meaning of stories.
In this paper, we detail our approach developed to apply narrative inquiry methodology with SVSM in engineering education contexts. We explicitly synthesize the ontological, theoretical, and methods-based underpinnings and participant/researcher roles of narrative inquiry as methodology to frame our own application. Specifically, we discuss processes of coming alongside participants, familiarizing ourselves with their experiences through memo-ing and chronologies, finding and synthesizing participant stories, narrative meaning making, storying and re-storying participant experiences within a response group, and connecting across stories to identity, cultural, and social theories. Using data from our own study, we present examples at each step to offer one way engineering education researchers can engage in NI methodology.