qualitative interviewing approaches and practical issues 05/02/2008 marta trzebiatowska
TRANSCRIPT
Qualitative Interviewing Approaches and practical issues
05/02/2008Marta Trzebiatowska
Lecture outline Qualitative vs. quantitative interviews What is distinctive about qualitative interviewing? Implications for interview design Categories How to prepare for an interview Sampling/choosing your interviewees Group interviews (‘focus groups’) Interview schedule and setting up an interview Conduct during an interview Truth and validity Recording and transcribing
Bryman (2004), Ch15 and Ch 16
Qualitative vs. quantitativeQualitative
interviews Unstructured/semi-
structured Schedule flexible Speaking off-topic as
desirable Rich and detailed
answers desirable
Quantitative interviews
Structured
Schedule rigid Speaking off-topic as
an obstacle Brief and easily
coded answers desirable
What is distinctive about qualitative interviewing? Intense listening A systematic effort to ‘hear’ data Respect for your interviewees In-depth exploration of the topic Openness to new understandings and
meanings A ‘great adventure’ (Rubin and Rubin,
1995)
How do qualitative interviews differ from conversations? The researcher has a goal Interviews are a research tool Interviews are recorded More depth than an ordinary
conversation (probing, listening without interrupting)
The data are analysed and shared through publications
With strangers and acquaintances
Implications for interview design
1. Finding out detailed information about how your interviewees understood what they saw, heard and experienced
It helps to understand what they think and ground it in the context of their experience (nuance, detail, evidence)
Implications for interview design
2. Awareness of our relationship with the ‘interview partner’
How do they perceive us? How do these perceptions affect
what they reveal? Obligation on both sides
Implications for interview design
3. Qualitative interviews are personal! Who you are and how you deal with
the interview situation matters Your reactions (verbal, facial
expressions, gestures) will determine the interviewee’s reactions: mutually reinforcing
Categories Unstructured interviews Semi-structured interviews Topical oral histories Life (hi)stories Evaluation interviews Focus group interviews
Life (hi)stories
Focus on the experience of the individual and what they felt as they passed through different stages of life
A ‘window’ on social change
What do we consider when preparing for a life story interview? a sketch of the stages or phases of your life; a sense of the pivotal events in your life; key themes around ‘work, love and play’; conflicts; key people; the artefacts of your life; your changing body and the places in has been; spiritual quests; coherence and contradiction in your life; a chart of how you have seen yourself at different stages
of your life: who are you now, how have you changed?; life secrets you cannot tell (Plummer, 2001: 123)
Group interviews/focus groups
A focus group A ‘group interview’ Centred on a specific topic Co-ordinated by a
moderator/facilitator To generate qualitative data by
capitalising on the interaction within the group setting
When to use focus groups? When developing guidelines for
future research The purpose of the research is to
uncover factors relating to complex behaviour
When looking for ideas emerging from the group
Preparing for qualitative interviewing What’s the problem? What do I
want to know? Start from a broader theme, then
narrow it down The topic will be modified by what
the interviewee says Is your topic appropriate for
qualitative interviewing?
Research topic You must be interested in the
issues and the topic must be grounded in the lives of your interviewees
Ideas for qualitative interviewing come from everywhere
Curiosity or political commitment may motivate you
Sample Representative not always possible Depends on the topic: you may wish to interview
individuals who have the kind of knowledge you are interested in (purposive sampling)
Snowball sampling Theoretical sampling (interviewing until you
reach data saturation and letting your theory guide your choice of interviewees)
…or interviewing whoever you can get hold of! (convenience sampling)
Interview schedule An outline of questions/ a script is
a good idea Main questions Follow-up questions Probes Open-ended or closed questions?
Interview schedule: an exampleIdeas about child-rearing
How would you described a good child as opposed to a bad child?
How do you think they become good or bad children? When your children grow up, what kind of qualities
would you like to see in him or her? Do you see yourself as a good and competent mother? Do you think people hold mothers responsible for how
their children turn out?
(From ‘The Cultural Contradictions of Motherhood’, Hays, 1996, Yale University Press)
Setting up an interview Either pre-arrange it or seize the
moment and interview someone on the spot
A letter/a phone-call/face-to-face Explain what an interview implies,
questions, what happens to data, interviewees’ rights
Time How many interviews overall? How many interviews in one day? Interviewing is exhausting
physically and emotionally Intense listening requires
prolonged concentration No more than 3 a day Between 45 mins and 2 hrs each
Place If possible let your interviewee
choose the setting Whose territory? Physical space as important as
symbolic positioning of the interview in the lives of your participants
Food, drink
Conduct during an interview How to begin? How to ask questions? ‘Pussyfooting’ around the informants –
avoiding confrontation Probing – What do you mean by that? Devil’s advocate – seeking out
confrontation Leading questions – suggesting an
answer
Examples Do you think the
media affects the way you feel about your body? WRONG!
Are men more religious than women? WRONG!
How are female bodies portrayed in the media? BETTER
How do men/women practise religion? BETTER
Truth and validity Interviewees wish to ‘tell it like it is’ Problematic Many interviewees believe in ‘objectivity’ ‘doing poststructuralism’ with your informants,
i.e. deconstructing the dominant discourses with them f.ex. ‘What do you think about the way eating disorders are perceived by the majority of people? Do you agree/disagree with these perceptions/opinions’?
Recording interviews
1. Notes2. Tape/digital recorder3. Video-recording
Most people agree but some may not and they usually have a good reason.
Transcription and Translation: a Linguistic and Ethnographic Task
Transcription – do it ASAP A laborious process Ethnographic translation –
interpreting, constructing, converting observations into words
Linguistic translation – collecting and presenting data in more than one language