1/ A thread on qual interviewing. I've been talking to students this week about to embark on their first interview so I thought I would share my tips here for anyone about to do the same! Feeling nervous/anxious about doing your first interview is normal! I am very shy/socially
2/ anxious & I take comfort in the fact an interview is a structured social encounter - you have a role to play, so does the interviewee. You will hit your stride - for most around interview 3/4. A practice run with a friend or family member can really help boost your confidence!
3/ If you have the opportunity to watch a research interview take it! There's no better way to learn. My PhD supervisors also encouraged their students to participate in research & that was so helpful to get a feel for an interview from the "inside". There are loads of different
4/ approaches to qual interviewing (eg narrative, active etc) I'm thinking here of a more generic approach often described in reports as "semi-structured" - an interview guide but there is the flexibility to ask unplanned & spontaneous questions. I've tweeted before that I don't
5/ find the structured-semistructured-unstructured distinction very helpful because all social encounters have structure & all are human & messy. I'd rather hear - in a report - how people actually conducted the interview because 'semistructured' can cover both "I asked all the
6/ questions in the exact order they appeared on the guide with no unplanned questions" and "there was a guide but it was just an aide memoire & once I had asked my opening question I followed the participant & asked lots of follow up and unplanned/spontaneous questions...". So
7/ the term 'semistructured' can cover wildly different approaches to interviewing & that's before we have even got to the question of interviewer style - do you show interest, empathy? Do you self-disclose? Do you greet the participants' responses with enthusiasm? This paper is
8/ really useful for reflecting on your style. When I first read it I thought it was 1 researcher interviewing well & 2 badly then I got off my high horse & stopped being judgey & found it really useful for reflecting on my style - I tend towards interest: journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.117β¦
9/ but that is partly shaped by who I am interviewing. When interviewing people I have shared experiences/positionings with I might incorporate some empathic responding & some self-disclosure. The point is there isn't one right way to do an interview well the key is to be able to
10/ reflect on what you're style is & ideally share some of that in your report. For me the qual interviewer is not extracting information from participants they are co-constructing meaning with participants. It's not a question of whether we influence - but how? Reflecting on
11/ that is key. My approach to a 'semistructured' interview is the messier approach I described earlier. I love Rubin & Rubin's description of a qualitative interview as "on target while hanging loose" is perfect. You have a purpose, you've thought deeply methods.sagepub.com/book/qualitatiβ¦
12/ about what that is, you have laboured over your interview guide, carefully considering question wording & order & then as soon as you have asked your opening question the guide is cast aside because you follow the participant's lead... if they mention something relevant to a
13/ later question you ask about it then and there - not as I have seen stop the participant talking about it because it will come up later... This messy or hanging loose approach means you are a duck - from the participant's perspective you are serenely gliding across a pond -
14/ attentively listening to them... but underneath the surface you are paddling furiously to stay afloat! Noting things you want to ask more about, mentally crossing off later question on the guide because they have been addressed. If you need to make notes - just tell the
15/ participant you will be doing this - otherwise they may be wondering what it is they are saying that is prompting the sudden note taking. If you don't take notes - it's fine to take a pause and check in with your guide to determine if you have covered everything important.
16/ The risk with this messy approach is that you miss something - the overwhelming plus in my experience is that you get deeper, richer data by centering the participant & not the guide.. Interviewing str8 couples in teams was hugely helpful here - one of us interviewed the man,
17/ the other the woman & we got to compare notes on the way home & later review the transcripts. The interviews where the researcher stuck closely to the guide were generally much thinner than the messy interviews. The unexpected/unanticipated was more likely in the messy ints.
18/ So I'm all for messy. Forgive yourself if you make mistakes - we all do! @ginnybraun & I shared some of our best (or worst) in the chapter on interviewing in our qual textbook Successful Qualitative Research - making assumptions, asking Qs that were: uk.sagepub.com/en-gb/eur/succβ¦
19/ too broad/vague & making a mess of a participant asking for our personal view on the topic. Is self disclosure OK? Keep in mind participants are not generally asked to keep what we say to them confidential. So if you share something personal you are putting it out...
20/ there. But there's no design/quality reason not to disclose - influence is inevitable - but it's worth giving some thought to what and how you disclose. Interviewer disclosures can derail the interview and stop it being an interview. This is partly why I lend towards interest
21/ rather than empathy as there's less potential for getting tied in ethical knots with interest. I interview as Victoria the researcher interested in what you have to say. Then it doesn't become too complicated if the participant says things that challenge Victoria the perdon.
22/ My go to eg for teaching is interviewing a conservative Christian who thought Harry Potter novels corrupted children & were anti Christian & I had one of the books in my bag! Being authentically Victoria the person in that moment would have completely derailed the interview!
Person not perdon!! Why did that not autocorrect?!
23/ So your first interview doesn't have to & won't be perfect - there is no perfect interview! - and that's ok. When you're nervous it can be hard to let silences develop - the temptation is to rush into the next question. But silences are your friend - they tell the participant
24/ that they can keep talking, you want to hear more. Hold in mind that many people will want to be a good participant, to give you want they think you want to hear about. I don't entirely buy the argument that if something is salient for someone they will talk about it. Because
25/ participants are taking cues from us about what is/ isn't important. So if you want to know about something put it in your guide! Ask about it! That's all for now I think - good luck! You will be fine. π
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