Interviews and qualitative research

Dr. Marilyn KendallMarilyn.Kendall@ed.ac.uk

http://www.cphs.mvm.ed.ac.uk/groups/ppcrg/

Aim: to produce knowledge

Interview research may to some appear a simple and straightforward task. It seems quite easy to obtain a sound recorder and ask someone to talk about his or her experiences. It seems so simple to interview, but IT IS HARD TO DO WELL.

Kvale and Brinkman 2009

A professional conversation

We live in an interview society, in a society whose members seem to believe that interviews generate useful information about lived experience and its meanings. The interview has become a taken-for-granted feature of our mediated mass culture

Denzin and Lincoln, Part IV, Handbook of Qualitative Research, 2000

With a structure and purpose

Asking questions and getting answers is a much harder task than it may seem at first…each interview context is one of interaction and relation: the result is as much a product of this social dynamic as it is a product of accurate accounts and replies

Fontana and Frey, in Denzin and Lincoln, Handbook of Qualitative Research, 2000, Ch. 24

Theorizing the Interview

The theoretical assumptions of the researcher –whether explicit or not- inform the design of interview studies and questions, as well as the analysis and re-presentation of data…thinking about these issues during data analysis may be too late

Roulston 2010

Careful listening and questioning

Interviewing is rather like marriage: everyone knows what it is, an awful lot of people do it, and yet, behind each closed front door, there is a world of secrets

Ann Oakley, 1993

Typology Face to face Phone E-mail Internet Group Joint

Structured Semi-structured In-depth Cognitive Discovery Oral/life history,biographical

The central problem

How, if at all, is it possible to access, understand and report other people’s worlds and experiences???

Language

“panta rei”

Gathering or Generating?

Philosophy of social researchWhat is the nature of the social world? OntologyHow can we know the social world? Epistemology

Research interview as a speech event

Eliot Mishler Research Interviewing

Structured and unstructured All same series of questions

–standardised Positivist Stimulus-response Language transparent Explanation Inflexible Responses coded in pre-

determined scheme Interviewer controls pace

and questions Objectivity and detachment Neutral, passive, invisible

General topic areas of interest

Interpretivist Speech event Explored and co-

constructed Understanding Creative and responsive No a priori categorisation

Respondent talks in own terms and at own pace

Openness and engagement Relationship, trust and

rapport, active participant

The interviewResearcher –informant Personality History Research ideas Knowledge

The interview text“cooked” by interview interactions,and transcription decisionsOur interview story

The research reportResearcher’s story

The untold stories

Formal analysisActive interactionwith the researcher

Pre-existing ideasAbout the research process;Researcher’s, informant’s,Gatekeepers’

Constant is the researcher –skills, integrity, experience

An open mind [but not an empty head]

Reflexivity Research diary Re-listening and re-reading Context

Active Listening

Qualitative interviewing requires intense listening, a respect for and curiosity about what people say, and a systematic effort to really hear and understand what people tell you

Rubin and Rubin, Qualitative Interviewing, the art of hearing data, 1995

Three difficult things

The beginning The middle The end

Context

The sampleWho? Access, gatekeepers

The locationHome, ward, clinic, office, private, communal,

comfortable…

The researcherSelf presentation; expert or learner, same or

different, gender, ethnicity, age, social background

Recording the Interview

Ethical issues

Informed consent Privacy Avoiding harm Whose interests? Overt/covert

Qualitative interviewing is both an academic and a practical tool. It allows us to share the world of others to find out what is going on, why people do what they do, and how they understand their worlds. With such knowledge you can help solve a variety of problems.

Rubin and Rubin, Qualitative Interviewing; the art of hearing data, 1995

Mma Ramotswe had always believed in the direct approach, no matter what advice Clovis Anderson gave in The Principles of Private Detection. Clovis Anderson seemed to endorse circumspection and the finding out of information by indirect means. But in Mma Ramotswe’s view, the best way of getting an answer to any question was to ask somebody face to face… It nearly always worked

Alexander McCall Smith Blue Shoes and Happiness Ch 8