Interviewing As Qualitative Research: A Guide for Researchers in Education and the Social Sciences

by SEIDMAN

Overview

Now in its fourth edition, this popular book provides clear, step-by-step guidance for new and experienced interviewers to develop, shape, and reflect on interviewing as a qualitative research process. Using concrete examples of interviewing techniques to illustrate the issues under discussion, this classic text helps readers to understand the complexities of interviewing and its connections to broader issues of qualitative research. The text includes principles and methods that can be adapted to a range of interviewing approaches. Appropriate for individual and classroom use, the new edition has been expanded to include: clarification of important phenomenological assumptions that underlie the interviewing approach presented in the book; new sections on Long-Distance Interviewing and its implications for the relationship between interviewers and their participants; a new section on the pros and cons of Computer-Assisted Qualitative Data Analysis Software; "The Ethics of Doing Good Work," is a new chapter which discusses the interplay between ethical issues in interviewing and how interviewers carry out their work as researchers.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780807754047
Publisher:	Teachers College Press
Publication date:	12/21/2012
Edition description:	New
Pages:	192
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Irving Seidman is professor emeritus at the School of Education, University of Massachusetts Amherst. He offers workshops and short courses and communicates with individual researchers who have questions about the methods described in this book.

Table of Contents

Preface ix

Acknowledgments xiii

Introduction: How I Came to Interviewing 1

1 Why Interview? 7

The Purpose of Interviewing 9

Interviewing: "The" Method or "A" Method? 9

Why Not Interview? 11

Conclusion 13

2 A Structure for In-Depth, Phenomenological Interviewing 14

What Makes Interviewing Phenomenological and Why Does it Matter? 15

Phenomenological Theme One: The Temporal and Transitory Nature of Human Experience 16

Phenomenological Theme Two: Whose Understanding Is It? Subjective Understanding 17

Phenomenological Theme Three: Lived Experience as the Foundation of "Phenomena" 17

Phenomenological Theme Four: The Emphasis on Meaning and Meaning in Context 18

How Do These Phenomenological Themes Matter? 19

The Three-Interview Series 20

Respect the Structure 23

Length of Interviews 23

Spacing of Interviews 24

Alternatives to the Structure and Process 25

Whose Meaning Is It? Validity and Reliability 26

Experience the Process Yourself 30

3 Proposing Research: From Mind to Paper to Action 32

Research Proposals as Rites of Passage 32

Commitment 33

From Thought to Language 34

What Is to Be Done? 34

Questions to Structure the Proposal 35

Rationale 39

Working with the Material 40

Piloting Your Work 42

Conclusion 42

4 Establishing Access to, Making Contact with, and Selecting Participants 44

The Perils of Easy Access 44

Access Through Formal Gatekeepers 47

Informal Gatekeepers 49

Access and Hierarchy 49

Making Contact 50

Make a Contact Visit in Person 50

Building the Participant Pool 52

Some Logistical Considerations 52

Selecting Participants 54

Snares to Avoid in the Selection Process 57

How Many Participants Are Enough? 58

5 The Path to Institutional Review Boards and Informed Consent 60

The Belmont Report 60

The Establishment of Local Institutional Review Boards 61

The Informed Consent Form 63

Eight Major Parts of Informed Consent 64

1 What, How Long, How, to What End, and for Whom? 65

2 Risks, Discomforts, and Vulnerability 66

3 Rights of the Participant 67

4 Possible Benefits 72

5 Confidentiality of Records 72

6 Dissemination 74

7 Special Conditions for Children 76

8 Contact Information and Copies of the Form 76

The Complexities of Affirming the IRB Review Process and Informed Consent 77

6 Technique Isn't Everything, But It Is a Lot 81

Listen More, Talk Less 81

Follow Up on What the Participant Says 84

Listen More, Talk Less, and Ask Real Questions 86

Follow Up, but Don't Interrupt 88

Two Favorite Approaches 89

Ask Participants to Reconstruct, Not to Remember 90

Keep Participants Focused and Ask for Concrete Details 91

Do Not Take the Ebbs and Flows of Interviewing Too Personally 91

Limit Your Own Interaction 91

Explore Laughter 92

Follow Your Hunches 93

Use an Interview Guide Cautiously 94

Tolerate Silence 95

Conclusion 95

7 Interviewing as a Relationship 97

Interviewing as an "I-Thou" Relationship 97

Rapport 98

Social Group Identities and the Interviewing Relationship 101

Distinguish Among Private, Personal, and Public Experiences 108

Avoid a Therapeutic Relationship 109

Reciprocity 110

Equity 111

Long-Distance Interviewing and the Relationship Between Participant and Interviewer 112

8 Analyzing, Interpreting, and Sharing Interview Material 115

Managing the Data 115 Keeping Interviewing and Analysis Separate: What to Do Between Interviews 116

Recording Interviews 117

Transcribing Interviews 118

Studying, Reducing, and Analyzing the Text 119

Sharing Interview Data: Profiles and Themes 121

Making and Analyzing Thematic Connections 127

Interpreting the Material 130

Computer Assisted Qualitative Data Analysis Software (CAQDAS) 132

Cautions Regarding CAQDAS 134

9 The Ethics of Doing Good Work 139

The Ethics of Doing Good Work 139

The Reciprocity Implicit in Treating Participants with Dignity 142

Conclusion 143

Appendix: Two Profiles 145

Nanda: A Cambodian Survivor of the Pol Pot Era 145

Betty: A Long-Time Day Care Provider 152

References 156

Index 169

About the Author 178