1 - QUALITATIVE INTERVIEWING • There are opportunities required for probing. • A
Communication between interviewers - Ensure
Interview
➢Interviewing is a form of questioning characterized
by the fact that it employs verbal questioning as its
principal technique of data collection.
➢Interviews are employed by people in everyday life,
but as a scientific tool of social research, or better as a
method of data collection, interviewing is different
with regard to its preparation, construction, and
execution in that it is prepared and executed in a
systematic way.
➢ Interviews basically consist of asking questions,
listening to individuals and recording their responses.
➢ Interviews allow participants to provide rich,
contextual descriptions of events.
➢ Interviews are a systematic way of talking and
listening to respondents and are another way to collect
data from individuals through conversations.
➢ Kvale (1996) regarded interviews as “an interchange
of views between two or more people on a topic of
mutual interest, sees the centrality of human
interaction for knowledge production, and emphasizes
the social situatedness of research data.”
Why do we need to conduct interview?
Why interview?
• The most obvious way of finding the information is to
ask someone who may be able to help.
• Interviews also have a large number of potential
advantages for a qualitative researcher. Specifically, in
an information setting some of the advantages are
especially significant.
• There are many reasons to use interviews for
collecting data and using it as a research instrument.
Gray (2004) provided the following reasons:
Gray (2004) provided the following reasons:
• There is a need to attain highly personalized data.
6.
good return rate is important (speed).
• When respondents are not fluent in the native
language of the country, or where they have difficulties
with written language.
• Immediacy
How to conduct qualitative interviews?
• PREPARATORY STAGE
1. Research conceptualization and development
2. Preparation of the interview guide
- skeletal outline of the interview
- the interview guide should structure the
questions or topics to be covered in a natural, sensible,
and helpful sequence
Tips for preparing interview guide:
a. Read the literature and have a good grasp of your
topic
b. Refer to your research questions and ask: WHAT
SPECIFIC INFORMATION DO I WANT TO GET FROM THE
INTERVIEW?
c. Start drafting your questions.
• Use open questions.
• Do not use leading questions.
d. Start with broad questions that will make the
interview at ease and encourage them to give their
perspectives
e. In the middle section, ask more detailed questions
f. In the concluding section, seek clarification.
3. Suitability of the sample for the in-depth
interviewing
4. Interview trialing (piloting)
5. Inter-interview comparison - Issues which have
emerged in earlier interviews may be significant to the
current interviews
similarity and evenness of coverage across interviews -
Developments must be communicated
7. Participant management
- It is important to keep the participant on-
board during the period before the appointment of
the interview
• This involves such things as:
a. Writing letters thanking the participant for agreeing
to take time while reminding them of the date, time,
and place of the interview
b. Using courtesy phone calls the day before or the
morning of the interview to remind the participants of
the interview and to check whether any problem/issue
has arisen
c. providing participants with some background details
about the research and its purpose together with the
ethical arrangements involved in the research
8. The preparation/selection of the interview location
• QUALITATIVE INTERVIEW STAGE
 “The interviewer must continually make quick
choices about what to ask and how, which aspect
of the participant’s answer to follow up – and
which not; which answers to interpret – and which
not.
 Interviewers should be knowledgeable in the
topics investigated, master conversational skills,
and be proficient in language with an ear for their
subject’s linguistic style.
 The interviewer should have a sense for good
stories and be able to assist the subjects in the
unfolding of narratives.” (Kvale, 1996, p. 147)
1. Recording the interview
• critical to producing good quality transcriptions
The following are key considerations:
• Use the best quality recorder available
 • Take precautions to make sure that you have
the capacity to record a lengthy interview on your
recorder
• The quality of the microphone used will
affect the quality of the recordings
• Extraneous noise in the environment affects
the clarity of the recording
• Video recording is more difficult and also
more intrusive on the interview situation than sound
recording
2. Orientation stage of the interview
➢ The major spoken contribution of the researcher in
a qualitative interview is the introductory stage of the
interview
➢ In this, the interviewer begins the process of
engaging with the interview by:
• Introducing self
• Explaining the purpose of the interview and
what it is hoped to achieve during the session
• Indicating the typical amount of time the
interview will take
• Explaining the ethical basis of the research
and the interview in general, that the interviewee is
free to withdraw at any stage and ask for their data to
be destroyed
• Allowing an opportunity for the interviewee
to ask any question before the interview starts
• Throughout this process encouraging the
interviewee to speak and respond extensively;
explaining that it is the interviewee’s views,
perceptions, responses, etc. that the researcher is
interested and that time is not constrained in terms of
giving answers.
3. What qualitative researchers do (and do not
do) when interviewing
➢ The interviewer does not normally take detailed
notes
➢ (How does note-taking affect the interview - The interviewer should thank the interviewee
process?) formally
➢ For novice researchers, taking down notes - The interviewer should enter a debriefing
complicates an already difficult task and, perhaps, stage in which the interviewee’s experience of the
should be avoided until the other skills involved in interview is discussed. This may involve:
qualitative interviewing has been mastered • Allowing the interviewee to ask any question
➢ The qualitative interviewer does not do a lot of they wish about the research
talking during the course of the interview itself • Checking that the interviewee remains happy
➢ The qualitative interviewer does not interrupt the that the recording can be part of the research
interviewee’s replies • Providing names and contact details of
organizations, etc. which might be able to deal with
➢ During the qualitative interview, the researcher is
issues of a counseling or therapeutic nature arising
largely listening to the replies to the questions and
from the interview
issues raised by the interviewee.
• Obtaining feedback about the interview
➢ During the qualitative interview, the researcher is
content and interviewing methods employed
actively building a mental picture and understanding of
what the interviewee is saying. It is essential that the
What happens after the qualitative interview?
researcher engages with the replies of the interviewee
These are post-interview considerations to bear in
➢ The qualitative interviewer needs to be able to use
mind:
silence effectively.
• Support for the interviewer
➢ Questions in the qualitative interview are structured
✓ the interviewer should have a confidant
in ways which encourage extensive responses in inhibit
with whom he/she may work through the interview
simple yes or no reply
experience
4. Bringing the interview to a conclusion ✓ Social and emotional support
➢ The end of a qualitative interview is not signalled • Data protection and management
simply by the final topic on the interview guide being • Data transcription
reached.
➢ The satisfaction of the researchers and the
interviewee is an additional important criterion.
The following are some of the steps which may be
associated with the finishing of the interview:
- The interviewer may wish to take a short
“time-out” break to review the interview guide in light
of how the interview proceeded
- The interviewee may be given the
opportunity to discuss things that he/she thinks are of
some relevance but which have not emerged in the
interview