How does Jones & Smith (2017) describe qualitative research methods?
“Qualitative methods offer a (different) lens to explore, understand, interpret or explain phenomena in real-world context and settings”
What are qualitative research methods?
A range of different methods and techniques to collect and analyse data
How does Burgess (1994) describe interviews?
“Involve a conversation with a purpose”
How does Patton (2015) describe interviews?
“Open-ended questions and probes yield in-depth responses about peoples experiences, perceptions, opinions, feelings, and knowledge”
What is the aim of using an interview to collect data?
- To provide rich, detailed, and in-depth information about a topic
- Explore particular cases and subjective/personal experiences
How many steps are there in creating an interview?
6
What are the steps in creating an interview?
1 - Framing your research question
2 - Choosing the type of interview
3 - Defining your sample and strategy for recruiting participants
4- Developing an interview guide
5 - Conducting the interview
6 - Transcribing the interview
Which steps in creating an interview are often done at the same time?
2, 3 & 4
When asking questions in interviews, what do we need to avoid doing?
- Asking questions about casual relationships or correlations between variables
- Asking questions that seek to establish general trends
- Asking questions that may be leading
What do we need to focus on when asking questions in interviews?
- People’s experiences, perceptions, opinions, feelings and knowledge
- A particular context
What is the difference between research and interview questions?
Interview questions may seem quite different from your research question, they should address the topic but in an indirect manner
What are the different types of interviews?
- “Default” option (face-to-face)
- Remote interviews (Zoom, email)
- Informal, conversational (no interview guide)
- Tailored, customised, thematic (not a numbered sequence of questions)
- Can involve more than one interviewee/interviewer
- Doing more than talking (ethnographic style/ taking pictures/ photo & object elicitation)
What sample do you need for an interview?
- Participants who represent a variety of positions
- ‘Fix’ key aspects that defines the group you are look at (e.g. age/gender)
- Sharing a similar background as the group you are studying may be advantageous
What is purposive sampling?
Participants are chosen ‘on purpose’ not randomly
What is snowballing sampling?
Using the initial few interviewees to recommend other potential participants
What structure should an interview be?
Funnel structure
What is the funnel structure?
- Start with an introductory question, which should be open-ended
- Flow logically and clustered around topics
- From general to specific questions - it helps in gathering details and checking out all possible responses
What should the interview guide do?
Outline the main topics to be covered, should be flexible
What format should the interview guide be?
The format may vary according to different epistemological and methodological traditions
How many different structure interviews are there?
3
What are the 3 different structures of interviews?
- Structured
- Semi-structured
- Unstructured
Describe a structured interview
- Same questions, same order
- Participants may be provided with a set of possible answers
- The researcher has all the control
- Constrains the interviewer-interviewee relationship
Describe a semi-structured interview
- A set of pre-formulated questions
- Interviewer can improvise questions
- Mostly open-ended questions
- The order of questions in less important
Describe an unstrcuted interview
- An initial question or prompt
- Questions emerge from the immediate context
- Participants explore their stories and experiences on their own terms
- The researcher may have a shortlist of issues as a reminder
