Interviews as a primary research method

• Effective planning and preparation for an interview is essential, this however, does mean that constructing, conducting and recording responses for an interview can be time consuming. 

• Prior to developing interview questions, ensure that you have a clear purpose for the interview (i.e you know what you want to achieve). 

• Once your purpose is clear, develop suitable and meaningful interview questions. 

Developing interview questions

• 1. Ensuring Questions Aren’t Ambiguous-i.e have more than one possible meaning 

• ❌ Ambiguous Question: How do families support each other? (Support could mean financial, emotional, or physical assistance.)
  ✅ Clear Question: In what ways do family members provide emotional support to each other during difficult times?

• 2. Ensuring Each Question Has One Purpose-i.e don’t ask two part questions.

• ❌ Two-Part Question: How do single parents balance work and childcare, and what support systems do they rely on? (This asks about two different aspects—work-life balance and support systems.)
  ✅ Focused Question: What strategies do single parents use to balance work and childcare responsibilities?

• 3. Avoiding Bias-  you need to be as objective as possible when creating interview questions.

• ❌ Biased Question: Why do teenagers from broken homes struggle more in school? (This assumes that teenagers from divorced families always struggle.)
  ✅ Objective Question: How does family structure impact a teenager’s academic performance?

• 4. Avoiding Assumptions- don’t assume an opinion based on common belief. 

• ❌ Assumptive Question: How does being a stay-at-home parent affect your happiness? (Assumes stay-at-home parenting affects happiness, but doesn’t allow for other perspectives.)
  ✅ Neutral Question: How would you describe your experience as a stay-at-home parent?

• 5. Being Concise- develop clear and concise questions that are easily understood by the interviewee. This limits misunderstanding.

• ❌ Wordy Question: Can you explain how being part of a close-knit community has had an impact on your life in terms of both emotional and social well-being?
  ✅ Concise Question: How has being part of a close-knit community impacted your well-being?

• 6. Only Including Relevant Questions- Each question you develop should be meaningful to the overall purpose of you interview. Avoid wasting time with unnecessary questions. 

• ❌ Irrelevant Question: What is your favorite childhood memory? (Unrelated to the research focus on community and family studies.)
  ✅ Relevant Question: How has your family influenced your values and beliefs?

Introduction: 

• introduce yourself to the interviewee and explain the purpose of the interview. 

• Explain confidentiality 

• Give approximate time frames

• Provide contact information 

• Allow them to ask questions. 

Effective ways to conduct an interview: 

• Ask one question at a time 

• Be as objective as possible when asking questions and listening to responses. Don’t let you opinions and beliefs influence the interview. 

• Be wary of non-verbal communication i.e. surprise or anger at their response. 

• Be in control of the interview- ensure the interview is remaining on track and sticking to time constraints. 

Written: 

• Take appropriate written notes as the interviewee is responding. 

• After an interview you can make notes on your notes i.e. clarify abbreviations and complete notes you skipped over. 

Audio: 

• Use a tape recorder to record verbal responses that you can develop into a transcript. Ensure you obtain permission for the use of the tape recorder. 

Video: 

• Use a video camera to record verbal and non-verbal responses. Ensure you obtain permission for the use of the video camera. 

Structured: 

• • Formal feel 

  • Questions have been structured and ordered

  • Interviewer doesn't deviate from set questions

  • Location and time of interview are planned 

  • Prior research has been performed 

  • Responses can be restricted 

Unstructured: 

• • Informal feel 

  • Questions are less structured and can be impulsively created in response to previous answers 

  • The interviews has more flexibility in shaping and changing the interview 

  • Can be time- consuming or travel off topic due to lack of structure. 

Basic analysis of quantitative information: 

1. Make copies of your data and store the master copy away. Use the copy for making edits, cutting and pasting, etc.

2. Tabulate the information. For example: add up the number of ratings, rankings, yes's, no's for each question.

3. For ratings and rankings, consider computing a mean, or average, for each question. For example, "For question #1, the average ranking was 2.4". This is more meaningful than indicating, e.g., how many respondents ranked 1, 2, or 3.

4. Consider conveying the range of answers, e.g., 20 people ranked "1", 30 ranked "2", and 20 people ranked "3".

Basic analysis of qualitative information: 

1. Read through all the data.

2. Organise comments into similar categories, e.g., concerns, suggestions, strengths, weaknesses, similar experiences, program inputs, recommendations, outputs, outcome indicators, etc.

3. Label the categories or themes, e.g., concerns, suggestions, etc.

4. Attempt to identify patterns, or associations and causal relationships in the themes, e.g., all people who attended programs in the evening had similar concerns, most people came from the same geographic area, most people were in the same salary range, what processes or events respondents experience during the program, etc.

Activity two: interview examples 

Observe one interview such as ones from Rove with Elmo, Peter Overton with Tom Cruise, Rove with Pink and answer the following questions: 

1. Is the interview structured or unstructured? What examples can you provide to support your answer?

2. Outline the preparation that would have been carried out prior to the interview. 

3. Describe the communication techniques used by the interviewer to enhance the experience for the interviewee. 

4. What techniques were used to create an effective interview? 

5. List the advantages/disadvantages of interviews as a method of researching issues/information.

Constructing: 

• As a class, students develop eight questions that include both structured and unstructured questions about how accessing support at Cerdon can contribute to effective resource management when completing the Preliminary Course. 

Conducting: 

• Individually, students interview two individuals from the school community using the questions that were developed as a class. With permission, students can record these using Google Forms, pen and paper, recording device, smart phone.

Analysing 

• In small groups, compare and contrast the interview responses. Then as a class, analyse the data to determine the extent to which accessing support at Cerdon can assists individuals to complete the Prelim course by using qualitative (written responses) and quantitative (tables, statistics) data.