Category: Qualitative interviews

Getting creative with interview methods

Although qualitative interviews are massively used in qualitative studies all over the world, there is enormous variation in how interviews are conducted, and by what mode. Qualitative researchers have been exceptionally creative in how they elicit verbal accounts from participants of research studies. For example, here are some of the numerous descriptors used in relation … Continue reading Getting creative with interview methods

Learning from a legendary interviewer: Barbara Walters

Broadcast journalist and interviewer, Barbara Walters, passed away at the age of 93 this past week. Walters conducted political and personality interviews for over 50 years and created the popular talk show, “The View”, which she anchored until the age of 84 (Stanley, 2022), at which time she retired in 2014. Although broadcast journalists’ interviews … Continue reading Learning from a legendary interviewer: Barbara Walters

How many interviews are enough?

This week's guest post is from Jiyea Park, who is a doctoral candidate in the Learning, Leadership, Organization Development at the University of Georgia (UGA). Jiyea was born in South Korea and has lived in Korea, China, and the U.S. Before joining UGA, Jiyea completed her undergraduate and Master's degrees in Lifelong Education at Soongsil … Continue reading How many interviews are enough?

Interviewing interviewers about interviewing

In daily life we are exposed to a range of interview types through public media and entertainment. For example, we see suspects interviewed by detectives in television shows and films. We learn about well-known people and celebrities when broadcast interviewers interview famous guests for news programs, documentaries and podcasts. We gain information about world events, … Continue reading Interviewing interviewers about interviewing

Elicitation in Qualitative Interviewing

This week, we have a guest blogger, Janie Copple, who talks about methods of eliciting participants' descriptions in interviews. Janie Copple—is a 4th year Ph.D. candidate in the Qualitative Research and Evaluation Methodologies program at the University of Georgia. Prior to coming to UGA, Janie completed a Master’s degree in history from the University of … Continue reading Elicitation in Qualitative Interviewing

Classic texts: Ann Oakley’s: Interviewing women: A contradiction in terms

Sometimes articles have lives of their own, and live on in ways that authors may not anticipate. The chapter by Ann Oakley, Interviewing women: A contradiction in terms (Oakley, 1981), published in Helen Roberts’ edited collection, Doing Feminist Research, is one such article. Oakley (2016, p. 199) herself comments that the chapter came to “acquire … Continue reading Classic texts: Ann Oakley’s: Interviewing women: A contradiction in terms

Tips for using focus groups in qualitative research

There are a variety of "group" interview formats that researchers use. These include brainstorming groups used to generate ideas in a relatively unstructured format; nominal groups, in which a researcher directs members of the group to respond to questions (which may be in written form), and there is minimal or no group interaction (MacPhail, 2001); … Continue reading Tips for using focus groups in qualitative research

What qualitative researchers can learn from studies that examine interaction in research interviews

Almost 30 years ago, Lucy Suchman and Brigette Jordan (1990) published an article in which they closely examined how survey interviewers posed questions to participants, and what happened next. They found that the delivery of scripted questions without deviation to ensure that people were asked the same questions, in the same way, was very difficult … Continue reading What qualitative researchers can learn from studies that examine interaction in research interviews

“Failure” in doing social research

It’s natural for us all to yearn to be successful at everything we do. Yet whatever we do, we will likely experience failure as we navigate the learning curve to become proficient and then expert in the skills we aim to develop. Conducting research is no different to the many other tasks we have learned … Continue reading “Failure” in doing social research

What qualitative interviewers can learn from studies of epistemics in conversation

Sociologist John Heritage (Heritage, 2012a, 2012b, 2013, 2018; Heritage & Raymond, 2005) has been writing about epistemics in naturally occurring conversation for over a decade. This work draws on the work of other scholars. These include Erving Goffman’s idea of “territories of the selves” (Goffman, 1971) in which people tend the boundaries of knowledge that … Continue reading What qualitative interviewers can learn from studies of epistemics in conversation