Experiences of Conducting Qualitative Interviews
Many of us working with qualitative research methods may have undertaken field interviews for our research questions. Interviews like any other method require preparation. This means preparing questionnaires in accordance with research questions and research participants, along with ethical review of these questions. Researcher's prior assumptions or experience with the field/participant community shapes the nature of questions and its language (including style and tone). However, carrying out the actual interview with people in their own context requires additional attention and knowledge on themes that can only be acquired during the interview process. Ways of building trust with the participant, reactions of the community to the questions or the interviewer, communicating the rationale of the research to different people, skilfully engaging an unresponsive participant or leaving the site ensuring no harm comes to the participants are only some of the many facets of the interview process that require careful consideration.
Engaging in the qualitative interview process is very much like learning a new form of art. One that takes a keen sense of observation, patience and most importantly practice.
In learning this form of art, I used qualitative interviews to understand the lives of people in the old city of Hyderabad, school teachers' perceptions of their own authority, questions around the safety of women at a crowded bus depot, phenomena of body part covering among young women (of different religions) in Hyderabad and a Dalit student's struggle to access knowledge at a university. Each interview was unique given the topic, context of our conversation as well as the opportunity to practice and hone my qualitative interview skills.
Below I describe some crucial facets of the process, my mistakes and things I learnt in the process.
1. Introduction to the Participant/s
A friend's father was a school principal in a state run school. Through them, I was able to access all the teachers in that school. On the day of the interview, the principal introduced me as a Doctoral student in a reputed university who wanted to talk to them about their work. The interviews were held in the principal's office. The office was quite spacious with a sofa and chair in one corner and, a desk and chair in the middle of the room. While for the most part I was able to talk to teachers without any disruption, from time to time the principal and other administrative staff also used the room for discussions and other work. Given the nature of space and presence of the principal during our conversations, I was skeptical whether teachers will be able to speak openly. However, to my surprise teachers and the principal shared a very healthy relationship wherein teachers criticised the general working conditions of teachers and parents' lack of involvement in children's education. Although, no mention was made about the day-to-day functioning of the school.
It is during one of these interviews, a teacher questioned my knowledge of Hindi, taunted me on my lack of preparation and my privilege that brought me opportunities. I found out during the course of the interview that the said teacher was unable to fulfil his own desire of pursuing higher education. He was held back because of responsibilities towards his family that required him to take up a job. My visit to the school and affiliation to the principal had triggered unpleasant memories, unfulfilled expectations and anger. This teacher's responses were sharp as a knife that made a deep cut. He detailed the way poor are taken advantage of in a market economy and then are blamed for not doing enough to better themselves. It felt as if, he was reliving moments from his life while he spoke to me about the living conditions of poor children. His responses were charged with emotions.
In that moment, being deeply aware of my position (i.e. class, caste and researcher), I garnered the strength to overcome my embarrassment and listen to him. The teacher's words and perspective made me uneasy and disheartened. I wondered if my presence at the school had been rather disruptive. Why should this teacher not have the opportunity to pursue his dreams? The unjust nature of our society stared at me through that teacher's eyes. While I went through an array of emotions during that interview, I was also aware of the four more subsequent interviews I had planned for the day. It was difficult in that state of mind to carry on. However, the other teachers I spoke with, were different people and so were their perspectives. A young teacher lamented similar issues in the school but she also shared situations and ways that she was overcoming or negotiating the issues. This sense of purpose and hopefulness made it a little easier to carry out the interviews. This teacher clearly helped me find purpose in my work that day.
2. Subjectivity of the Interviewee
As a novice, I was fortunate that people often trusted in me to share their thoughts and stories. Especially, when I interviewed people who were let down by our institutions. They were very keen to share their side of the story. Nonetheless, I also met people who understandably did not trust me.
Few years back, I was trying to interview a 18 year old girl in a marginalised area of a city about her ideas on education. We met in a non-profit organisation's office. She seemed very guarded. Before I could speak, she had several questions for me to respond to. These included the way I would use the interview data, the nature of my interest in her life and my own background or affiliation. When my responses did not satisfy her she refused to engage. I tried to humour her, changed the way I asked her my questions however, she sat there determined not to speak. Ultimately, I gave up. That's when I saw a smile on her face. With having decided to end our conversation, I wished her best and parted ways cordially.
In a second interview at the same organisation, I interviewed another 20 year old girl. During the course of the interview I got to know that she had been married off when she was barely 14 and had lost a child when she was only 15. My questions reminded her of a life that could be, her unfulfilled expectations. The tears in her eyes could not measure up to her years of unbearable pain. Had I known her circumstances, I perhaps could have made informed choices about the way and kind of questions I asked or have someone familiar from the organisation accompany me during the interview. In that moment, I tried to reassure her, gave her some water, reminded her of the steps she is taking to take control of her life through the organisation but I knew deep down I had unsettled her.
This incident brought me face to face with a very troublesome reality of our society. I did not expect the occurrence of child marriage in urban areas however, here I was facing a victim who had been traumatised by this evil. It is important that we keep in mind that individual's subjective identity is shaped by their circumstance. As researchers we need to develop the skill to interview different individuals with their unique identity and way of interaction.
3. Maintaining Objectivity
Qualitative interviews like any human interaction require connecting with our participants at an emotional level. Researcher's response to the interviewee's words can be a deciding factor if the participant feels judged or comfortable. This has repercussions on the kind of information the participant is willing to share or not. This response can be as subtle as a change in tone or a sly smile that may last a second but may reveal a lot about the individual's state of mind and thought. This means that while the researcher will have to develop an emotional connect with the participant, on the other hand, she will also have to check her own response.
I remember talking to an old woman sometime back who during the interview mentioned her drinking habit. I did not say anything in response but she had noticed the surprise on my face that had perhaps lasted barely a second. She chuckled and said, "why, are you the only one who can?" This certainly embarrassed me however, it also made me question my morality that shaped the way I saw the world and people in it.
The process of research requires an open mind to new ideas, thoughts and patterns that may be drastically different from the researcher's own socialisation. One confronts this value most frequently during the data collection process.
4. Researcher's Background and Implications
On the field, it is important to realise that when one enters a communal space, one is under constant observation and scrutiny by the participant and other community members. One's behaviour and actions determine the way community members may interact or not. Actions however are not the only things under observation, one's clothes and accessories (devices or jewellery) which may suggest the economic status, caste, class of the researcher are all noticed.
Long time back for my research, I used to visit the office of an organisation on a daily basis for almost a month. One day the woman in the office asked me about my fascination with black salwars. I was a little surprised, as I had not noticed until she pointed out that I had only been wearing black salwar with my kurtas to their office. From my perspective, black was an easy and cheap way to rotate it with varied coloured kurtas but from the perspective of women in the office who often discussed clothes in the office, my attire was certainly odd. Irony is, instead of blending in, I had made myself stand out.
On a different occasion, my laptop became a source of attention in the field which although helped to establish affinity with the participant also end up wasting crucial of the limited interview time.
5. Understand Reality and not Change it
I visited a muslim household with only the mother and girl child home. My intention was to speak to the 12 year old girl however, the mother continued to interrupt and continued to respond to questions addressed to her daughter. At one point I intentionally asked for tea so that the mother could leave the room for a while, letting me speak to the daughter alone. However, the house was small and the mother continued to speak from the kitchen. The girl also continued to look to the mother for any response. I left extremely frustrated believing that I may have to very well discard this interview set. When I returned back to my institution, I narrated the whole incident to my guide. He pointed out that the idea of an individual with views of the world and the way qualitative interviewing is taught in institutions is a western construction. He also added that many feminists doing qualitative research see women in the house as a single unit who have developed shared understanding with each other.
This incident and subsequent others that involved interviews with women on public safety at a bus depot; ideas of education with men training to be professional electricians all made me question the imagined interview space and people or communities in it. It also made me question the epistemological and ontological process of research and implications on knowledge creation.
6. Responding to Interviewee's Questions
During a focus group interview with teachers in a school's staff room where everyone in the room was older than me, one of the teachers asked me the question I had posed to her some moments back. In that moment, I was not sure what should be my response. I did not want to stir the conversation into a different direction. I was also aware that my response may influence the way others respond to my subsequent questions. Being put on the spot, I replied with what I truly thought on the topic. As I had expected, some teachers did quiet down. They did not speak much during the course of the interview. However, there were also others who immediately disagreed with me. Teachers' who were more experienced spoke freely while the younger teachers were a little more guarded. Given this was a government school, the job security also helped many speak frankly.
I think if we expect participants to trust us to share their thoughts with us which may place them in a vulnerable position, it is only right that we meet them half the way. One cannot escape the power play between the interviewer and the interviewee. Asking questions involves taking a position of power. When a researcher enters spaces where he/she may have no business, very often than not, interviewees are going to subvert the authority that the researcher assumes. This very often will involve that the researcher is subjected to questions about their life, and other intimate details which are a way for interviewees to find out the person behind the researcher and build trust.
Working on a project in erstwhile rural Andhra Pradesh, I was made fun of the way I sat on the motorcycle. I was living in the village with a student's family and would often need to go to a nearby town to make some photocopies and use the internet. The teacher from the school offered to drive me there. One of the evenings we were sitting with my host family and the teacher joked how as a girl I did not know 'the right way' to sit on the motorcycle which is with both legs on one side of the bike. Coming from the city, I had always sat with both my legs on either side of the seat. I found the whole thing stupid and let it go. But when the joke continued for a while and refused to die down, I got angry and fought back. My reaction also came from the knowledge that humour is often used as a tool to get women to comply with social norms and is one of the ways patriarchy works. However, I soon realised that I was outnumbered in that context as others agreed with him. To my frustration, I became the target of jokes which I could do nothing about. Very soon I stopped reacting and continued to sit the way I knew best on the motorcycle. I am sure, I was still made fun of, but atleast it was not in my face.
7. Language
In our on-going research practices we tend to design our questionnaires in English. This is mainly a result of the medium of instruction at the institution we are affiliated with. However, if one intends to conduct research in a regional language or among participants who either do not understand English or use it for limited purposes then it is useful to translate the questionnaire in the language of interview. In case, one intends to interview people of multiple languages, then it is useful to translate questions in all of these languages.
For a research, I interviewed teachers proficient in Hindi who used English bilingually. These teachers' world view and identity was connected with the regional culture. I was asking them "what they thought was their authority as a teacher?". In Hindi "authority" translates to अधिकार, रोब, हक़,
or प्रमाण. Teachers reacted differently to the question based on the meaning of authority they associated with. Some teachers who associated authority with rights mentioned it to be dwindling. others who associated with रोब were very defensive and got angry when I suggested that teacher could have any authority. Given that my own ideas of authority were shaped by my readings in English, in my interviews I often try to associate authority with a teacher as a professional. However, I noticed that teachers did not see themselves as professionals.
In my case, the diversity of meaning unearthed an interesting set of data. In a different research however, the multiple meanings can create misunderstanding. Translation of questions in regional languages and even dialects can help circumvent part of the problem.
8. Developing Interview Skills
It is certainly useful to read research literature on qualitative interviews that may familiarise one with the ethical dimensions, data collection and storage techniques, transcription and translation of interviews, among others. Additionally, I have found observing skilled researchers carry out interviews a very educative process. Talking to people who are different from us and often with diverging world views is also useful. This forces one to find a common ground for conversation while overcoming one's own biases and reservations. Connecting with other qualitative researchers with experience in interviews can sometimes also help learn important tricks and tips of the process.
In any case, the above suggestions point at two crucial ideas, 1) close observation of human interaction and 2) learning ways to communicate with different people.
Conclusion
I hope this post was able to detail some of the facets of qualitative interviews that are necessary for researchers to be aware of and prepare for. These by no means are comprehensive and are limited by the context of my work and research focus. Researchers working with vulnerable groups like union leaders in a factory or with people who identify as transgender or gay, will have additional or varied dimensions to add to the interview process. In the end, only way to master the art of qualitative interviews are observation and practice.
P.S: Do you have experience in carrying out qualitative interviews? Do take the time to share any unique situation that left you with some learning about the interview process.
