The Research Interview

Research and Qualitative Interviews brings into focus the decisions that the interviewer faces by taking a data-led approach in order to open up choices and decisions in the process of planning for, managing, analysing and representing interviews. The chapters concentrate on the real-time, moment-by-moment nature of interview management and interaction. A key feature of the book is the inclusion of reflexive vignettes that foreground the voices and experience of qualitative researchers (both novices and more expert practitioners). The vignettes demonstrate the importance of reflecting on and learning from interactional experience. In addition, the book provides an overview of different types of interviews, commenting on the orientation and make-up of each type. Overall, this book encourages reflective thinking about the use of research interviews. It distinguishes between reflection, reflective practice and reflexivity. All the chapters focus on recurring choices, dilemmas and puzzles; offering advice in opening out and engaging with these aspects of the research interview.

If you want to use interview methods in your research project but are not sure where to start, this book will get you up and running. With hands-on advice for every stage of the social research process, it helps you succeed in every step, from understanding interview research through to designing and conducting your study and working with data. The book: Discusses eight methods of interviewing in-depth, including semi-structured interviews, narrative interviews, focus groups and online interviews. Features over 75 case studies of real interview research from across the globe, including Australia, Canada, Germany, Norway, the Philippines and South Africa. Spotlights strategies for conducting ethical, inclusive research, including indigenous research approaches. Packed not only with learning features - including learning objectives, checklists of questions to ask yourself at every stage of your project, practical exercises to help you put your learning into practice and further reading so you can broaden your knowledge - it is also supported by online resources such as annotated transcripts and videos of mock interviews to empower any social science student to use interview research methods with confidence.

Designed for students and practitioners within the world of research, this text covers such practical topics as the basic techniques of interviewing, preparing an interview schedule, and using tools such as questioning, prompting and reflecting.

This text provides comprehensive coverage of the key methods for analyzing, interpreting, and writing up qualitative research in a single volume, and drawing on the expertise of major names in the field. Covering all the steps in the process of analyzing, interpreting, and presenting findings in qualitative research, the authors utilize a consistent chapter structure that provides novice and seasoned researchers with pragmatic, "how-to" strategies. Each chapter introduces the method; uses one of the authors′ own research projects as a case study of the method described; shows how the specific analytic method can be used in other types of studies; and concludes with questions and activities to prompt class discussion or personal study.

The new edition of this landmark volume emphasizes the dynamic, interactional, and reflexive dimensions of the research interview. Contributors highlight the myriad dimensions of complexity that are emerging as researchers increasingly frame the interview as a communicative opportunity as much as a data-gathering format. The book begins with the history and conceptual transformations of the interview, which is followed by chapters that discuss the main components of interview practice. Taken together, the contributions to The SAGE Handbook of Interview Research: The Complexity of the Craft encourage readers simultaneously to learn the frameworks and technologies of interviewing and to reflect on the epistemological foundations of the interview craft.

Survey Interviewing; A field experiment on interviewer - respondent interaction; Questionnaire design in the context of information research; A multiple sorting procedure for studying conceptual systems; The content analysis of qualitative research data: a dynamic approach; Intensive interviewing; Life story interviews and their interpretation; Inferring from verbal reports to cognitive processes; The uses of explanation in the research interview; Scientists' Interview talk: interviews as a technique for revealing participants' interpretative practices.

For many students, the experience of learning about and using qualitative methods can be bewildering. This book is an accessible step-by-step guide to conducting interview-based qualitative research projects. The authors discuss the 'hows' and 'whys' of qualitative research, showing readers the practices as well as the principles behind them. The book first describes how to formulate research questions suited to qualitative inquiry. It then discusses in detail how to select and invite research participants into a study and how to design and carry out good interviews. It next presents several ways to analyze interviews and provides readers with many worked examples of analyses. It also discusses how to synthesize findings and how to present them. Doing Interview-based Qualitative Research equips readers in disciplines such as psychology, sociology, education, counseling, nursing, and public health with the knowledge and skills necessary to embark on their own projects.

Interviews are a frequent and important part of empirical research in political science, but graduate programs rarely offer discipline-specific training in selecting interviewees, conducting interviews, and using the data thus collected. Interview Research in Political Science addresses this vital need, offering hard-won advice for both graduate students and faculty members. The contributors to this book have worked in a variety of field locations and settings and have interviewed a wide array of informants, from government officials to members of rebel movements and victims of wartime violence, from lobbyists and corporate executives to workers and trade unionists. The authors encourage scholars from all subfields of political science to use interviews in their research, and they provide a set of lessons and tools for doing so. The book addresses how to construct a sample of interviewees; how to collect and report interview data; and how to address ethical considerations and the Institutional Review Board process. Other chapters discuss how to link interview-based evidence with causal claims; how to use proxy interviews or an interpreter to improve access; and how to structure interview questions. A useful appendix contains examples of consent documents, semistructured interview prompts, and interview protocols.