Surviving the Data Collection Report

How To Conduct Qualitative Interviews

What is a Qualitative Interview?

Qualitative interviews are interviews designed to :

Have the interviewee do a majority of the speaking

Encourage the participant to provide rich and detailed experiences.

Help the interviewer understand how and why the participant experienced certain events in their lives as they did.

Aspects of Qualitative Research Interviews

Life World: Focus on a participant’s experiences within their discourse community and not just their beliefs about issues.

Meaning: Focus on the meaning of what the participant says and also pay attention to how they say it.

Qualitative: Find knowledge in a qualitative manner; expressed in normal language and doesn’t aim to quantify any responses.

Descriptive: Seek to obtain open, rich descriptions of different aspects of the participant’s discourse community.

Specificity: The interviewee should be prompted to discuss issues that are relevant to your research topic.

Deliberate Naiveté: As an interviewer you should be open to new experiences while interviewing people versus expecting the same generic answers.

Aspects of Qualitative Research Interviews, cont’d

Focused: Stay focused on the central theme of what you are studying; keep deviations at least on elements of the DC you are discussing and try to revert back to the central research issue.

Ambiguity: Understand that sometimes the participants answers may be ambiguous and represent conflicting as well as contradicting in their own life world .

Change: Sometimes, the process of being interviewed can make the participant develop new insights and awareness on an issue. Sometimes their descriptions and meanings may change throughout the course of the interview.

Sensitivity: You should be aware that different interviewers can produce a range of responses on the same themes depending on their sensitivity to and knowledge of the interview topic.

Interpersonal Situation: Your focus should remain on advancing your understanding of the research issue. Personal connections may be made, but they should not be allowed to color the experience.

Positive Experience: A well conducted research interview can provide enriching new insights for the interviewer and the interviewee on their life situations.

Qualification Criteria for the Interviewer

Knowledgeable: Have a working knowledge regarding the topic and discourse community about which you are conducting the interview.

Structuring: The interview be structured to provide a guideline for you to follow and allow you to easily develop follow-up questions.

Clear: As an interviewer you should be able to ask clear, concise, easy and short questions for the participants to answer. Only use jargon when appropriate.

Gentle: You should be able to let your interviewee formulate/finish their thoughts at their own speeds. Letting them complete at their own pace is vital; questions may have never been asked before and it takes time to formulate a valuable answer

Sensitive: Actively listen to both the content of what is being said as well as how it is being said. Be sensitive to changes in tone or inflection that may indicate, for example, sarcasm.

Qualification Criteria for the Interviewer, cont’d

Open: As an interviewer you should be able to hear which aspects of the interview are important and focus on the main questions associated with the research issue.

Steering: Know what is relevant to completing the interview and what information you need. As a result, you will be able to guide the interview towards relevant discussion, as well as away from topics that will not be pertinent to your research.

Critical: As an interviewer you should be able to take what is being said for more than face value. You should be able to write down the important critical points to aid in recall.

Remembering: Being able to harness the skill of recall while interviewing participants enhances the information and data you may be able to gain from it.

Interviewer Issues Non-Talker: Get them to explore their thoughts with phrases such

as : “could you elaborate on that?” “could you talk a bit about…”, “could you explain why you think that way?”, or “can you tell more about that?”

Rambler: You should be able to politely say “Excuse me, but I was wondering if we could change the subject a bit and get back to your thoughts on …” or “ excuse me, but I was wondering if you elaborate on the point you mentioned about…”

Uncomfortable: When you sense that a participant is uncomfortable with a section of the interview you can ask questions such as “which part is uncomfortable for you? Can you talk about the part that you feel more comfortable with?”

Contradicting Statements: If a participant makes contradicting statements, at the beginning of the contradiction you can issue statements such as “Excuse me, but before you mentioned that (first statement), but now you’re saying (new, contradicting statement), can you clarify this for me please?”

Interviewer Issues Continued

Confused: If the participant is confused by your wording of the question, you can simply state “Sorry, then let me try to rephrase it for you” then rephrase your question other terms. You may need to prepare multiple versions of the same question.

Personal Questions: Avoid asking them. Don’t feel obligated to answering them.

Flirt: Avoid consciously flirting with interviewee unless you are doing research about the effects of flirting.

Type of Interview Questions Introducing Questions Probing Questions Specifying Questions Direct Questions Indirect Questions Structuring Questions Interpreting Questions Follow Up Questions Silence

Guide for Preparing Interview Summaries

Description of Interview setting and Purpose Memos, or Notes, or Video or Audio Recording:

Always politely ask permission before recording. Theoretical Memos/Notes: Interviewee’s position

on your research issue Methodological Memos/Notes: Interviewee’s

advice to create your literature review and further your research.

Personal Memos/Notes: What you have learned about the manner in which your discourse community functions that will affect the way you conduct further research.