Semi-structured Interviews for Educational Research

Ian Willis and Debbie Prescott November 2015

Educational Research seminar seriesEducational Development Division

Content for today• Provide reasons for using semi-structured interviews

• Share our stories & our lessons learnt• Debbie• Ian

• Provide a summary of key points• Focused on semi-structured interviews

• Share some other key considerations

Semi-structured interviews“allow researchers to develop in-depth accounts of experiences and perceptions with individuals” (Cousin, 2009, p71)

Examine the wording of this statement:What do each of the key words suggeste.g. in-depth accounts suggests individual’s ‘stories’ much less likely to be shown in a questionnaire

Good for• Learning about interpretations, meanings and intentions

• Giving a space for interviewee to set part of the agenda

• Flexibility, has options to refine and to follow unexpected avenues

• Probing, following up• Getting in-depth data – ‘a rich picture’

Not so good for:•Standardised procedures•Comparability• ‘Objectivity’•Large numbers• ‘Facts’; mostly we are interested in perceptions, motivations and reasons

Defining characteristic“The defining characteristic of semi-structured interviews is that they have a flexible and fluid structure” • Has topics or themes to be explored

• not a set of questions asked exactly the same to all interviewees

• Flexibility to follow up different areas depending on interviewees responses and interests

• Has space for the unexpected• Interviewer and interviewee create the interview together - unlike questionnaire design Mason 2004

Case study - Ian• Planning and Flexibility

• research questions and interview questions

• Importance of follow up questions• changing interview questions• responding to unexpected data

• Straightforward recruiting interviewees• Strengths/limits of the data

• what it is and what it isn’t

Case study - Debbie• Pilot phase is important and use of critical friends• Have a plan but don’t be afraid to follow up interesting leads

– though be careful how much you “wander” off topic.• Recording / data collection… how you will handle the data…

issues• What to do if interviewees say things that are sensitive

(ethics)• Your role in the process and influence (insider etc?)• Recognise the situation that the data was collected in and

the constraints – careful not to generalise or claim too much• How to deal with the amount of data

Planning: Question development

•Designing and revising your interview schedule• Relationship to research questions• Prompts• Follow up questions (next slide)

• It’s not just a conversation•Piloting

Follow up questions: some techniquesGetting more depth• Compare and contrast questions• Ask for an example• Ask for meaning

• What does that mean, what did that mean for you• Provide some evidence

• What makes you say that (avoid why…)• Ask for more detail

• Can you tell me more….• Use NVC; nod, open body language, ‘uh has’!

• Reflect back to check understanding

Questions: Avoid or beware of• Leading questions• Double questions• Ambiguity• Vague terms or jargon• Assumed knowledge• Perfect recall• Overly sensitive questions

Planning: Conduct of the interview

• Atmosphere generated is a key factor• Use language of interviewee

• within reason but avoid researcher jargon• Building rapport• Setting, timing• ‘Rich data’: Exploring nuances, uniqueness• Notice your own reactions

• these will affect the interview• Power relationships

• Where when

Other considerations• Ethical approval• Your ‘position’: insider?• How many interviews?

• Interviewee selection: inclusion/exclusion criteria

• Audio recording/ transcribing• Relationships between research approach, research questions, interview data, analysis and writing up

An example:• Start with your overall research question

• What are students’ study habits in the first year of the Life Sciences programme

• Develop a number of topics or areas to be explored• What study activities do you do outside the scheduled learning

events (not counting revision time for exams)?• Of the various types: relative time, overall time • Do you know how much independent work your tutors/lecturers

expect of you• How do you decide what to spend time on when studying outside

scheduled hours? • What sorts of things motivate you to do more study outside

scheduled hours

Comments, questions

• Did it answer your questions• New questions• Learning from today• Taking away• What next

ReferencesArksey, H., and Knight, P. (1999) Interviewing for social scientists. London, UK: SageBurton, N., Brudrett, M., and Jones, M. (2008) Doing your education research project.

London, UK: Sage.Cousin, G. (2009) ‘Semi-structured interviews’. Chapter 5 in Researching Learning in

Higher Education. London: Routledge.Freestone 2012 The use of semi-structured interviews in pedagogical research

http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/assets/documents/disciplines/biosciences/2012/LeicesterPedR/Freestone.pdf

Hannan (2007) Interviews in Education Research http://www.edu.plymouth.ac.uk/resined/interviews/inthome.htm Kvale, S. (2007) Doing interviews. London, UK: SageKvale, S., & Brinkmann, S. (2009). Interviews: Learning the craft of qualitative research

interviewing (2nd ed.). Los Angeles, California: Sage Publications.Legard, R., Keegan, J., and Ward. (2003).’In-depth interviews’, in Ritchie, J. and Lewis, J.

(ed.) Qualitative research practice. A guide for social science students and researchers. London, UK: Sage.

Punch, K. (2005) Introduction to social research. Quantitative and qualitative approaches. 2nd edn. London, UK: Sage.

Robson, C. (2002) Real world research. 2nd edn. Oxford, UK: Blackwell PublishingMason (2004) Semi-structured interviews in The SAGE Encyclopedia of Social Science

Research Methods

Active listening, focus and adding clarity and depth• check apparent contradictions or inconsistencies

('Yes, but didn't you say a moment ago…?' 'How can that be so if…?')

• search for opinions ('What do you think of that?' 'Do you believe that?')

• ask for clarification ('What do you mean by…?' 'In what way?' 'Can you give me some examples?')

• seek comparisons ('How does that relate to…?' 'Some others have said that…')

• pursue the logic of an argument ('Does it follow that…?' 'Presumably,…?')

http://www.edu.plymouth.ac.uk/resined/interviews/inthome.htm

Active listening, focus and adding clarity and depth• ask for further information ('What about…?' 'Does that

apply to…? 'Can you say a little more about…?')• aim for comprehensiveness ('Have you anything more

to say on that?') • put things in a different way ('Would it be fair to say

that…?' 'Do you mean…?' 'In other words…?') • summarise occasionally and ask for corroboration

('So…?' 'What you're saying is…?' 'Would it be correct to say…?');

• Suggest alternatives ('An opposing argument might run…' 'What would you say to the criticism that…?)

http://www.edu.plymouth.ac.uk/resined/interviews/inthome.htm