Communicating Culture interviewing

Interviewing: Definition  Interviewing is a meeting of two persons to exchange information and ideas through questions and responses, resulting in communication and joint construction of meaning about a particular topic. Janesick (2004): 72

Interviewing: preliminary thoughts  Material gathered through interviews is one of the most common methods in field research  Often used as a primary method or a way of further focussing participant-observation  Interviews allow material to be accessed from social situations where the researcher was not/cannot be present  Key participants are individuals who appear to have a wide knowledge of the social situation you are interested in  Sometimes they are individuals who stand at the of the ‘culture’ you are investigating  Useful in establishing the most important research questions  May enable access to other situations, people or organisations  Dangers: Do interviews offer a biased view? Do interviewees have their own agenda?  Ethical issues: Are interviews exploiting these individuals?

Interviewing: procedures (1)  Establishing relationships  The key is ensuring the person you are interviewing is at ease. How do you do that?  Tell them what you are doing and why  Ask for permission to use a tape recorder/take notes  Ensure confidentiality …  Be sensitive to body language and tone of voice  Ask non-threatening questions first

Interviewing: procedures (2)  Use a schedule which specifies the topics or themes to be covered  For structured interviews this lists the questions to be asked  For unstructured interviews it reminds you which topics/issues to cover (these might not occur in the same order in the interview).

Types of interview  Interviews range from: Structured Semi-structuredUnstructured (directed)(non-directed)

Structured Interviews  Structured Interviews  have explicit research goals  Are similar to a verbal approximation of a survey questionnaire  Allow for easy comparison between participants  Responses are shaped by the researcher

Unstructured Interviews  Unstructured Interviews  have an implicit research agenda  Are similar to ‘steered conversations’ or ‘conversations with a purpose’  Questions emerge typically from the conversation  Skill is in finding the most appropriate time to ask questions  Choosing which type of interview to use depends on the nature of the research and who you are interviewing.  Interviews can move from being structured at the beginning to more unstructured at the end

Interview Task  Find someone you know to interview. The interview should last approximately 15 minutes.  What are your beliefs about friendship?

Types of Interview Questions (1)  Degree of focus  ‘grand-tour questions:  Could you show me around the building?’  ‘What are the general purposes of this room?’  These enable a broad picture to be obtained  Specific questions:  ‘Please tell me more about …’  These help to find out more specific information

Types of Interview Questions (2)  Degree of open-endedness  Open-ended  ‘How do you feel about …’  Used to discover participant’s perception of the situation. Allows participants to interpret questions their own way. Allows new questions to be generated.  Closed questions  ‘Do you agree with the idea that …’  Restricts participant’s response. Useful to confirm findings

Types of Interview Questions (3)  Types of information  Descriptive  Could you tell me what happened that evening?  Structured  ‘What factors do you think are involved in …?’  Contrast  ‘In what way has the course improved since last year?’  Clarification  ‘You talk about how objects represent people. Can you clarify for me what you mean?’  Follow-up  ‘You mentioned organising space in the gallery. Can you tell me how you organise the display space?’

Understanding interview material  Knowledge is gained from the interviewee’s viewpoint  Research material is gathered from the interaction between the interviewee and the researcher  The primary goal is to understand and interpret these materials in terms of the context in which they were produced:  Was the interview pre-arranged?  Was the interviewee at ease?  What type of questions were asked?  When and how were they asked?  We will do more work on what to do with material collected from interviews in a later session