doing interviews

Doing Interviews

Introduction to Interview Research

Seven Steps of an Interview Inquiry

Epistemological issues of Interviewing

Ethical Issues When Carrying Out Interviews

Designing an Interview Study

Conducting an Interview

Interview Quality

Interview Analysis

• Interviews have been about for a long time! • Thucydides interviewed participants in the

Peloponnesian war (Ancient Greek)

• Research on interviews hasn’t been about for as long • Posh term for this is epistemology research

• Interviews are a valid form of scientific research! • Freuds psychoanalytic theory based to a large extent

on interviews with patients (1963) • Piaglet theory on child development formed through

interviews with children (1930) • Design of consumer products heavily focused by

interviews, with Dichter (1960) leading in this)

1 ThematisingPurpose of the investigation

2 DesigningPlan the design of the study

3 InterviewingConduct the interviews

4 TranscribingPrepare for Analysis

5 AnalysingCreating Meaning

6 VerifyingIs what you’re saying correct?

7 ReportingCommunicate Findings

Interviews attempt to understand the themes of lived daily world from subjects’ perspectives. It is very similar to an everyday conversation but has a specific approach and technique that is used.

Life World

Meaning?

QualitativeLorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod

Descriptive & Specificity

Qualified Naïveté

Focus & Change

Positive Experience

Think of yourself as a traveller…

…and also as a miner

Lots of ethical issues can take place in interviews

• What are the beneficial consequences of the study? • How can informed consent of participants be obtained?

• Who should give consent, subject or other? • How much information about the study needs to be given in

advance, and what can wait till the debrief? • How is confidentiality protected?

• How can identity be disguised • Who has access to the interviews

• How does the researchers role affect the study • Will publishing the study have any consequence, positive or

negative?

Informed Consent

Confidentiality

Consequences

Researcher Integrity

Designing an interview study involves planning the procedures and techniques (the how) of the study

Temporal Dimension

The key thing to work out is your…

(when you should think about different parts)

read the steps7

Keep the end point in sight

Tell me about X, Y and Z

Tell me about X and Z

I’m not interviewing

bears!

Difficult to generalise findings and test hypothesis

Difficult to analyse and make sense of interviews

15 ±10

Don’t go in with no knowledge!

I IV V

• Open nature of interviews promotes production of new knowledge!

• Take account of the 7 stages of the interview journey from the start

• Interviewing can be seen as less of a method and more of a craft, it relies on you as an interviewer knowing enough about the subject to keep up with the interviewee

A qualitative interview is usually semi-structured. There are a sequence of themes to be covered, as well as some prepared questions.

There can be an openness to change of sequence and question order to allow answers to be given and stories to be told by participants

Careful attention needs to be given to setting the stage for an interview when briefing subjects before, and debriefing subjects after, the interview

How will briefing effect the knowledge that is produced in the interview?

Briefing to define the situation for the subject

Debrief with more information

INTERVIEW

Create an interview script

Researcher Questions Interviewer Questions

Which form of learning motivation dominates in high schools?

Do grades promote an external, instrumental motivation at the expense of a motivation for learning

Does learning for grades socialise to working for wages

Researcher Questions Interviewer Questions

Which form of learning motivation dominates in high schools?

Do grades promote an external, instrumental motivation at the expense of a motivation for learning

Does learning for grades socialise to working for wages

Do you find the subjects you learn important?

Do you find learning interesting in itself?

What is your main purpose in going to high school?

Have you experienced a conflict in what you want to read and what you have to read to get a good grade?

Have you been rewarded with money for getting good grades?

Do you see any connection between money and grades?

Interviewer questions should be brief and simple.

Introductory Questions

• Can you tell me about…

• Do you remember an occasion when…

• What happened in the episode you mentioned…

These questions can have rich descriptions of participants experiences, allowing you to look at the experiences that are being examined

Follow-Up Questions

• A nod

• ‘mmm’

• [repetition of key words]

• …actual follow up questions

Extends through the curious, persistent, and critical attitude of the interviewer

Probing Questions

• Could you say something more about that

• Can you give a more detailed description of what happened

• Do you have further examples of this

Purpose is to pursue the answer, you know that it’s there - you just need to get to it!

Direct Questions

• …

Directly introduce a topic. Better left to the later parts of interviews after participants have given spontaneous answers

Silence

• “…”

Instead of talking and cross-examining participants, give moments of silence for people to reflect

The art of the second question

Grades are often unjust because very often - very often - they are only a measure of how much you talk and how much you agree with

the teacher’s opinion• Silence • Hmm, mm… • How much you talk? • Can you tell me more about that? • Could you give some examples of what you are saying • Have you experienced this yourself?

• You feel that the grades are not fair? • You feel that the grades do not express your own abilities

• When you say that they depend on how much you talk, do you mean bluffing? • When you mention the importance of following the teachers opinion, are you

thinking of wheedling?

• Are you sure that is correct?

The quality of an interview not only relies on the questions posed; the way that the interviewer reacts after an answer may be just as important.

Interview Quality

#ShakespeareForResearch

Hamlet Do you see yonder cloud that’s almost in shape of a camel?

Polonius By th’ mass and ‘tiz like a camel indeed

Hamlet Methinks it is like a weasel

Polonius It is back’d like a weasel

Hamlet Or like a whale?

Polonius Very like a whale

Hamlet (aside) They fool me to the top of my bent

Short interview

Leading Questions

Reliability of Answer

Power of Interviewer

The quality of the original interview is decisive for the quality of the analysis and reporting of the interview

There are no criteria for what makes a good interview

Three general quality criteria for good interviews concern the richness of the interviewee’s answers, the length of relevant answers, and the clarification of the interviewee; statements

Interview Analysis

We’ll cover qualitative analysis in more detail later on, this will give you a rough idea of the different types of analysis that are possible

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Subjects describe their life world during the interview. They spontaneously tell what they experience, feel, and do in relation to a topic

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Subjects themselves discover new relationships during an interview, see new meanings in what they experience and do so because of their own descriptions

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Interviewers condense and interpret the meaning of what is said with this happening during the interview itself. Interviewer then sends their back to the subject for validation.

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Recorded interview is analysed by the interviewer alone. Interview is structured for analysis and analysis involves developing the meanings of the interviews.

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Optional

Re-interview. When the analysis has occurred the researcher can reinterview subjects and give interpretations back. Subjects get an opportunity to comment on what is being said.

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Option

Action - Subjects may choose to change their thinking or behaviour based on the interview and self-report this back to the researcher.







Interview Quality

Interview Analysis

Information in this presentation was

based on…

doing interviews

Education