Interviews - Progress Report...

I chose the interview as my primary research tool for my professional inquiry. I have been talking to actors who are 'polymaths', for example an actor who also produces, and an actor who also directs and writes plays. So far I have conducted around half of my interviews, and I am really enjoying them. As a reflective tool to help me improve upon my technique and analyse my process, I thought I would blog today about how I am getting on so far....

Planning

When looking at ethical frameworks in module 2, I realised that it was vital to appreciate that my participants are giving up valuable time to help me in my research, and as such I must be respectful of that. I have endeavored to work around my participants' busy working lives, which has meant conducting interviews at some un-sociable hours. I set myself one hour for each meeting, which I felt was a reasonable length of time and I have ensured that I stick to this.

Perhaps inevitably, I have had participants cancel or postpone appointments due to their ever-changing working lives. So far this has not been a problem, although it is forcing me to explore means of interview technique other than face-to-face. I now plan to conduct at least one of my interviews via skype - Paula's post about skype interviews was a really useful point of reference when planning this, as the article she references talks about the potential differences in behaviour whilst communicating 'online' and I should be aware of this when analysing my data. I still believe that skype is preferable to a telephone call, as I feel am able to communicate more freely with participants and put them at ease.          

As with my pilot interview, I decided to email all the participants beforehand, to make sure they were clear of arrangements and to ensure I was sticking to the professional and ethical code I have set myself. Many of the participants are known to me personally, so I feel that a certain element of formality is helpful, to set up the interviewer/participant dynamic. I used the email from my pilot interview as a template:

".....As discussed on the phone, I am writing to confirm our interview appointment at 11:00am on the 25th November, 2011. The interview will last 1 hour and refreshments will be provided by me. With your consent, I plan to record the session on a dictaphone; this recording is purely for my own purposes and will not be passed on to any third parties. The purpose of the interview is to gather information and opinion on your lifestyle as a creative polymath. The information that I collect will form part of a professional inquiry I am undertaking, in association with Middlesex University Institute for Work Based Learning. Thank-you for offering your time - please do give me a call if you find that you are unable to make it...." (Thomas, 2011)    

Interviewing

I have really enjoyed the interviews I have done so far, and have found my 'semi-structured' approach has worked well. Had I planned a series of set questions, it would not have given me the freedom to pursue lines of inquiry that developed organically throughout the meeting. Each participant has their own unique story to tell, and I wanted to gain as detailed an insight as possible into their thought process. As I mentioned in a comment on one of Simone's posts, the only difficulty I had was continually reminding myself to phrase questions in a way that was not 'leading' - I did not want to bias the results, so I did find myself having to be very careful, and remember that I was there in the capacity of a researcher not a friend.

On a practical level, as planned, I used a recording device during my interviews, so that I could give the  participants my full attention. This has worked very well, although I have already suffered one technical set-back....one of the interviews had to be conducted in a fairly busy cafe, as the original venue we had planned was unavailable. When I got home, I found that it was very difficult to make out what was being said because of the background noise - a fairly obvious mistake to make, but one that could cost valuable time. I am going to be extra cautious from now on to do a recording check at the beginning of the interview, and if necessary use a notepad as backup. Hopefully this won't be needed but I don't want to risk loosing precious data! I find it also helps to transcribe/notate the interview whilst it's still fresh in your mind.    

Transcribing

After reading Ahmet Ahmet's post along with a comment from Adesola, I decided to opt for a kind of shorthand way of transcribing my interviews. Ahmet had described how lengthy he was finding the process of writing up his interviews, and Adesola shared a technique she uses, of making only basic notes, along with the time on the interview tape that it was discussed. So, if for example, my notes say that a participant discussed struggling with prioritsation at 5.25 mins, and I want to use that in my final written piece, I will know exactly where I need to go and get a quote. I think for the purposes of what we are doing, this will be fine, and as time is short, it'll be great to free up some valuable time to continue looking at literature sources. For anyone who hasn't written up interviews yet, I would definitely recommend this method; I do think it's important to have a record of research data gathered though, so I will ensure I keep copies of the recordings securely stored, after all, they are my evidence and proof of my findings.

What now....

I have collected a wealth of information, but in order to properly analyse my data and come to meaningful conclusions, I am going to have to better organise my findings. I am yet to decide whether to do this thematically, or by other sub-group headings. What's important to me is that when I am writing up my research, I am able to efficiently compare and contrast opinions. I still have half my interviews to conduct, so much more to do, but I'm very confident that a qualitative approach has been the most valuable method. The subject of career fulfilment is impossible to quantify numerically, so the detailed insight that an interview allows has been very useful.

I'd love to hear how others are getting on with their interviews!....