Interview Articles

Where were this articles when I was in Intro to Qual trying to analyze interviews and write up my findings?  I interviewed 6 beginning deaf educators and thought that there was some really good data in the interviews, but I struggled with the study because we didn't talk about transcription in class and the time we spent on analysis included mostly photographs and documents with very little discourse.  I found a few "similar studies" and followed their lead...but they weren't the best examples.  I felt that the way I transcribed lost a lot of the data that I knew was there.  And when it came to analysis I wasn't sure exactly how to go about interpreting my findings.  I'm pretty sure I did half the things the articles warn against.  :-)  Both of these articles would have been very helpful at the time.  I'm glad I read them now because I'm planning to do a similar interview study for Program Eval II in the spring.  I'm hopeful that these articles will help me both with my current analysis for my DA project and my Program Eval project.

So...some notes for me to look back at next semester and some quotes and thoughts on things that stuck out to me.

Antaki et al, 2007:  What is not analysis?

1.  (Under-analysis through) Summary "Transcription prepares the data for analysis.  However, it is not analysis in itself" (p. 13).  Summarizing losing information from the interview and doesn't add any information.  Summarizing can distort the the original message.

2.  (Under-analysis through) Taking Sides

Position-taking and critical dis-alignment limit the complexity of the discourse.  "A particular danger is that the desire to sympathise or censure, when not allied to careful analysis, can lead to the sort of simplification that is the antithesis of analysis" (p.18).  

3.  (Under-analysis through) Over-Quotation  or Isolated Quotation

Compiling of quotes.  Referring to quotes rather than analyzing them.  Using quotes as "self-evident".  

4.  Circular Identification of Discourses and Mental Constructs

Different speakers draw on the same repertoires/ideologies/discourses.   1-Quotes must be shared, 2-A claim must be made to the existence of these repertoires, etc, 3-Details of the interaction must be examined, 4-Commonalities between quotes must be explained in detail.  The same is true for mental constructs (attitudes, schemata).  If all of these steps are not taken there is danger of circular identification.  How does the speaker backtrack, justify or qualify his utterances?  What in previous research is relevant?  

5.  False Survey

Be careful not to attribute findings to the "group" represented by the participant. 

6.  Simply Spotting Features

How are discursive devices used in this particular example?  "Good analysis always moves convincingly back and forth between the general and the specific."  

Potter & Hepburn, 2011:  8 Challenges for Interview Researchers

Reporting of the Interview.

1. Make the interview set-up explicit.  What category have the participants been recruited under?  What task are the participants given?
2. Display the active role of the interviewer.  What was asked?  How was the talk delivered? (prosody, delay & overlap, emphasis, volume, tempo, etc.)  
3. Represent talk in a way that captures action.  What is of consequence to the interaction?  (overlaps, closing intonation, latching of turns to one another, rising and falling intonation, raised volume, stretched vowel sounds, different kinds of breaths, laughter, etc.)
4. Tie analytic observations to specific features of interviews.  How are links between claims and quotations made evident to the reader?

Analysis of the Interview.

1. Flooding.  What social science agenda(s) are (implicitly) present in the interviewers questions that could influence participants?
2. Footing.  What position do interviewers question/speak from?  What position do participants speak from?  As an individual?  As a member of a category?  What is relevant?  How do we know?  
3. Stake and Interest.  How and when do the interviewer and interviewees stake and interest appear during the interview?   What do agreements and disagreements do?  
4. Cognitivism and Individualism.  What role does the cognitive and psychological language used in interview play?  

"The irony is that qualitative interviews are massively overused, but their potential has been massively restricted."  (p.32)