Collecting qualitative data using interviews for PhD research – A complete guide

Have identified disciplinary orientations and design for the investigation, a researcher gathers information that will address the fundamental research question. Interviews are very common from data collection incase study research. Interviews are individual or groups allow the researcher to attain rich, personalized information (Mason, 2002). To conduct successful interviews, the researchers should follow several guidelines.

First, the researcher should identify key participants in the situation whose knowledge and opinions may provide important insights regarding the research questions. Participants may be interviewed individually or in groups. Individual interviews yield significant amounts of information from an individual’s perspective, but may be quite time-consuming. Group interviews capitalize on the sharing and creation of new ideas that sometimes would not occur if the participants were interviewed individually; however, group interviews run the risk of not fully capturing all parattrition in her school would need to weigh the advantages and disadvantages of interviewing individually or collectively select students, teachers administrators, and even the student’s parents.

Second, the researcher should develop an interviewguide (sometimes called an interview protocol). This guide will identify appropriate open ended questions that the researcher will ask each interview. These questions are designed to allow the researcher to gain insights into the study’s fundamental research question; hence, the quantity of interview questions for a particular interview varies widely. For example, a nurse interested in his hospital’s potentially discriminatory employment practices may qualify do you seek in your employees? How do you ensure that you hire the most qualified candidates for positions in your hospital? and How does your hospital serve ethnic minorities?

Third, the researcher should consider the setting in which he or she conducts the interview. Although interviews in the natural setting may enhance realism, the researcher may seek a private, neutral, and distraction-interview location to increase the comfort of the interview and the likelihood of attaining high-quality information. For example, technology specialists exploring her organization’s computer software adoption procedures may elect to question her company’s administrators’ separate office rather than in the presence of coworkers.

Fourth, the researcher should develop a means for recording the interview data. Handwritten notes sometimes suffice, but lack of detail associated with this approach inevitably results in a loss of valuable information. The way to record interview data is to audiotape for audiotaping , however, the researcher must obtain the participant’s permission. After the interview, the researcher transcribes the recording for closer scrutiny and comparison with data derived from other sources.

Fifth, the researcher must adhere to legal and ethical standards for all research involving people. Interviews should not be deceived and are protected from any form of mental, physical, or emotional injury. Interviews must provide informed consent for their participation in the research. Unless otherwise required by law or unless interviews consent to public identification, information obtained from an interview should be anonymous and confidential. Interviews have the right to end the interview and should be debriefed by the case study researcher after the research has ended.

Interviews may be structured, semistructured, or unstructured. Semi Structured interviews are particularly well-suited for case study research. Using this approach, researchers ask predetermined but flexibly worded questions, the answers to which provide tentative answers to the researcher’s questions. In addition to posing predetermined questions, researchers using semistructured interviews ask follow-up questions designed to probe deeper issues of interest to interviews. In this manner, semi structured interviews invite them to express themselves openly and freely and to define the world from their own perspectives, not solely from the perspective of the researcher. 

Identifying and gaining access to interviews is a critical step. Selections of interviews directly influences the quality of the information attainted. Although availability is important, this should not be the only criterion for selecting interviews. The most important consideration is to identify those persons in the research settings who may have the best information with which to address the study’s research questions. Those potential interviews must be willing to participate in an interview. The researcher must have the ability and resources with which to gain access to the interviews. When conducting an interview, a researcher should accomplish several tasks.First,she should ensure that she attains the consent of the interviewee to proceed with the interview and clarify issues of anonymity and confidentiality,Second,she should review with the interviewee may except to view results of the research of which this interview is a part.While asking questions, the researcher should ask only open-ended questions while avoiding yes/no questions,leading questions or multiple part questions .Finally, the researcher should remember that time spent talking to the interviewee .In other words,the researcher should limit her comments as much as possible to allow more time for the interviewee to offer his perspectives

Interviews  are frequently used when doing case study research .The researcher is guided by an interview guide and conducts the interview in a setting chosen to maximize the responsiveness of those being interviewed .Responses are written down or electronically for later review and analysis .when conducting interview,researchers are careful not to violate legal or ethical protections.While interviewees are widely used,other methods are also used to gather data in case study research.