STORIES FOR RESEARCH 325tion workers much more closely and were more likely to trigger their more personal reflections
about relations with fellow workers and clients alike.
After this initial reconnaissance phase, we set up an initial, entry interview with each participat-
ing storyteller. During the entry interview, we asked a series of open-ended questions about the
worker and his or her work. We discussed in greater detail the story collection process and gave
each worker a story sketchbook that included instructions and blank pages for taking notes and
outlining stories. We advised the street-level workers to take notes about the stories but not to write
them out. Writing imposes demands of clarity and formality that, we felt, would inhibit many of our
storytellers. We did not want our street-level workers worried about professor-researchers correct-
ing their grammar and spelling! The goal of the sketchbook was to help them recall and retell stories
that they told or heard during their workday. The sketchbook served as a means to prompt their
thinking about the stories between the initial interview and the first story collection. Our purpose
was to encourage the street-level workers to tell us stories that were part of their work setting, not
just those that might be manufactured in response to the research. The storytellers themselves would
become our “participant-listeners.” The instructions were restated in the sketchbook:
Over the next several weeks, we would like you to use this sketch book to write down a
rough outline of 2 to 3 different stories. These stories should describe situations that take
place within your agency during this time, or that you might recall from the past. The rough
outlines will help you remember the story when you tell it to us later; you will not be
required to share these notes with us.
We are interested in stories about how or when your own beliefs about fairness or
unfairness help you make decisions. At times your beliefs may have conflicted with the
department’s formal and informal policies; at other times, policies may have facilitated
your reliance on your own beliefs.
Stories can involve an encounter between you and clients, be about encounters between
you and your agency, or among you and other members of your agency. You may also retell
a story that happened to someone else, even if you are not a character in the story.
The stories should, as much as possible: (1) have a plot or storyline with a beginning,
middle, and end; (2) tell us who the characters are; (3) explain the relationships among the
characters; (4) describe the feelings of the characters toward each other and the events; and
(5) include a description of the setting and circumstances in which the event(s) occurred.
(Maynard-Moody and Musheno 2003, 169–70)
We then set up a subsequent appointment to collect our first stories two to four weeks after the
entry interview. We deliberately postponed the first story collection to further encourage the
likelihood of collecting stories that would be told within the work unit, not just to researchers.
Research team members arrived for our appointments early to allow time to sit in waiting rooms,
the teachers’ lounge, or the principal’s office. Research team members often rode with police
officers, observing the work routines and collecting stories while on patrol. In this way, the story
collection appointments became opportunities for ongoing field observation.
Story collection began with a simple request to tell the story, which was tape-recorded. Some,
but not all, storytellers referred to their story sketchbooks. After the storyteller finished, we used
standard probing techniques to encourage storytellers to provide greater detail about events, setting,
and characters. Probes encouraged the full rendering of the story. We recorded as many stories in
each session as the street-level worker was willing to tell, usually two or three. For teachers and
vocational rehabilitation counselors these story-collecting interactions were usually limited to
approximately one hour between classes or appointments. Many of our police stories were told