Narratives as community workers’ practices: The talk ‘at’ and ‘about’ work at a meeting about tuberculosis treatment

Abstract

The study focuses on narratives which emerge as talk ‘about’ and ‘at’ work and points to the context of the community health workers’ professional practices as well as the Institute Director’s orientations on ‘how to do the job’, during a work meeting on tuberculosis treatment at Vila Rosário Institute. The research approach is qualitative, in the scope of narrative analysis as practice, of interactional and sequential kind, in interface with the interactional frames analysis approach. The analysis of the data, recorded in audio and transcribed according to Conversation Analysis conventions, are segments of a work meeting held at the Institute in 2009. The analysis indicates that the talk ‘about’ and ‘at’ work is activated by the community workers through narratives which represent an indirect way of positioning themselves about their own work during the meeting. The narratives illustrate, exemplify and substantiate the community workers’ conceptions about work in different frames. From the Director’s point of view, there is the perception of the interactional and social site of the meeting as a moment to give directions about the community workers’ work and to establish future plans for the Institute. However, through narratives in action, the community workers negotiate the tension over the interactional and institutional order, evoking a repertoire of actions, attitudes, positioning, procedures, and displaying the way they understand how to position themselves and act on their daily duties along with Vila Rosário residents during the tuberculosis treatment.

Key words: narrative analysis, interactional sociolinguistics, community health workers, tuberculosis