reflection
Creating a Semi-Structured Interview Guide
Invoking Burke’s 1941 Metaphor of the Unending Conversation
”Imagine that you enter a parlor. You come late. When you arrive, others have long preceded you, and they are engaged in a heated discussion, a discussion too heated for them to pause and tell you exactly what it is about. In fact, the discussion had already begun long before any of them got there, so that no one present is qualified to retrace for you all the steps that had gone before. You listen for a while, until you decide you have caught the tenor of the argument; then you put in your oar” (pp. 110-111).
Investigate Key or Sensitive Terms Ahead
Take the time to research terms of art (e.g., labels for identities, names for transitions in roles)
Take the time to investigate if any of the words you are using in your research questions or probes are sensitive to your participants and find preferable or more neutral terms or word choices
Being Current
Update your knowledge about the Identity, Role, & Lived Situation you are about to Interview your Participants about
Interviewing individuals about coping with a family member’s diagnosis of Parkinson’s??
Be conversant about symptoms of Parkinson’s
Interviewing individuals about being successful environmental stewards at DU??
Be conversant about sustainability efforts at DU & groups and opportunities for students
Semi Structured Interviews Allow the Interviewer to ….
Ask
Ask for an in-depth description of the studied experience(s)
Stop to Explore
Stop to explore a statement or topic
Request More
Request more detail or explanation
Ask about Meanings
Ask about a participant’s thoughts, feelings, actions
Keep on Topic
Keep the participant on topic
Circle back
Come back to an earlier point
Semi Structured Interviews Allow the Interviewer to..
Restate point
Restate the participant’s point to check for accuracy
Slow or quicken Pace
Slow or quicken the pace
Shift Topics
Shift the immediate topic
Validate
Validate the participant’s humanity, perspective, or action
Use social skills
Use observational and social skills to further the discussion
Show Respect
Respect the participant and express appreciation for their participation
Initial questions
Open up the interview
Ideas for opening up an interview about new motherhood…
What was your life like in the couple of years before you became a mother?
Could you tell me a little bit about your decision to become a mother?
What excited you about becoming a mother?
Might help the interviewer understand the context and environment of the women when they became a mom and allow for an opening of a conversation about what life looked like before and after this change came.
Intermediate questions
Aim to gain a deeper understanding of more specific topics
Example:
How did becoming a mother change your relationships with others?
Follow up Probing Questions:
How did your relationship with your spouse change? with your peers? with your parents?
How did the way communicate others change?
When you became a mother, did you find yourself creating more relational boundaries?
This question might help the interviewer explore the relational impacts and social changes that likely occurred when becoming a mother.
closing questions
Designed to wrap up the conversation and allow the participant to add anything they felt was missing throughout the interview or wanted to explain in another way
What advice do you have for someone who is soon to be a new mother about the changes they will experience?
Follow up Probing Questions:
What do you wish you knew before you became a mother and how would that have changed your experience?
What is something you learned through being a mother?
This question is designed to allow the participant to look back and reflect on their transition to motherhood and advise people soon to become moms about the changes that will soon occur.
Prompts and Probes
Silence
‘Could you give me an example …?’
‘What do you mean by …?’
‘How did that make you feel?
‘Can you tell me more about that?’
If necessary, reassure the participant that they are the experts on their experiences, and that their views and opinions are interesting to you.
Practice Interview Questions & Probes
Practice Practice Practice
As novice qualitative interviewers, the tendency is for us to elicit shorter responses.
To redress practice interview guide questions & probes until you feel natural asking each question and probe to avoid stumbling over questions
Expect to use your probes to draw out your interviewee– to get more details
The more details of their stories you elicit
easier to code,
easier to understand their experiences
Easier to understand underlying meanings and importance of their responses
Pilot Interviewing
Prior to conducting interviews, “pilot” the interview with a friend/family member
Pilot interviews are full practice sessions that allow you to test run your questions and feel more comfortable during the recorded interviews
Set the Stage for how this Interview might differ from a typical conversation …
Tell your interviewees in advance you wish to understand their experiences in their words
That you might ask for more details on what they mean time to time
Role Playing Interviewing in a Fishbowl
On your index card, write your own name and provide a description of an ideal interviewee for your research topic for COMN 2200: Qualitative Inquiry in Communication.
On a separate piece of paper, write 2-3 potential interview questions for this ideal interviewee.
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