Download Observation

INF5220 - 5
Lecture 2nd of January 2006
Last week’s assignments
• Observation
• Interview
• What did you learn?
Observation
• Values of direct observational approaches:
– Understanding context
– Inductive approach: less need to rely on prior
conceptualizations of the setting
– See things that are routinely ”taken for
granted”
– See things participants may be unwilling to
talk about in interviews
Observation
• Observing what happens:
– Activities: planned, unplanned
– People: characteristics, grouping
– What people say: quotations
– How they interact: patterns, frequency,
direction of communication, changes; formal
and informal
– Nature of physical setting (photographs?)
• Observing what does not happen:
– No conflicts?
Observation
• More than casual looking around
– Don’t think you are a ”natural” observer
• Requires preparation
• Training:
– How to write descriptively
– Practicing recording field notes
– Separations details/trivia
• What is unimportant?
• Not separation details/context!
Interviews
• Using interviews in your research? Here
are two questions that you need to think
about:
– What status do you allocate to the data? I.e.
what do you think about the relation between
the interviewee’s accounts and the world(s)
they describe?
– What do you think about the relation between
the interviewee and the interviewer?
(respondent, informant, interviewee, subject,
etc.)
What status do you assign to your
interview data?
• Are they facts (e.g. about attitudes and behaviour)?
– That is, if you have designed and conducted the interview
properly, and avoided problems such as bias.
• Do the interview give you accounts of authentic
experiences?
– That is, if you have managed to engage emotionally and
achieved understanding and ’depth’.
• Are the interviews ’jointly constructed encounters of
focused interaction’?
– Do you have your focus on how participants actively create
meaning and perform during the interview?
Corresponds to:
• The three categories (Silverman) and their focus:
– Positivism: Quality (reliability) more or less equal to ’nonbias’. Much use of prescheduled and standardised
interviews
– Emotionalism: Interviews of high quality have managed to
acquire ’depth’. Use of open-ended interviews
– Constructionism: Quality linked to reflexivity. Open-ended
interviews to be reported with adequate detail.
• Not one correct category, choice depends on your
purpose.
– Your practical concerns should guide your analytic position
– Ask yourself whether interviews really help you address
your research topic
What status do the data have?
• Geertz, 1973; p.9: ”What we call our data are
really our own constructions of other people’s
constructions of what they and their compatriots
are up to”.
• Van Maanen, 1979:
– Interviewee’s constructions: first-order data
– Researcher’s constructions: second-order
concepts, which rely on good theory and insightful
analysis
•
On interviewing and questioning
• Types of interviews:
– Structured: more or less fixed sequence of pre-formulated questions.
(Iterations (tests and feedback) during design of interview guide)
– Semi-structured: you want to cover some areas, but the sequence is not
important. Adjust the wording of the questions and ask follow-up
questions as you go along
– Open (non-structured): Maybe a pre-formulated starting question, but
thereafter the interviewee steers.
• Ways to question:
– Closed versus open questions:
• ”Would you say this project has been a success or a failure?”
• ”How would you evaluate the project?”
– Clear and short questions, one at a time
– Sequence: from the general to the specific
– How and What-questions versus Why-questions
• Ask questions on experience and behaviour before questions on feelings
and opinions
Probes
•
Eliciting response without manipulating: probing. Probes can be used in
order to get more details, or to get the interviewee to elaborate more and
clarify the statements
– The basic probe: repeat the initial question when the interviewee seems to be
wandering off the point.
– Explanatory probes to illuminate vague or incomplete statements:
• ”What did you mean by that?”
• ”What makes you say that?”
• ”Could you tell me more about this?”
– Focused probes to obtain specific information:
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What sort of…?
Then what happened?
What seemed to lead up to that?
Was this before or after..?
What else happened?
How would you compare this to..?
– Silent probe: when the interviewee is reluctant or slow to answer, just wait
silently.
•
An example of a leading probe: ”So you would say that you were really
satisfied?”
Probes
•
The technique of drawing out when the interviewee has halted or dried up:
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Mirorring or reflecting, expressing in your own words what is said, the interviewee
may then correct or add on.
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”Really?
Encouraging: give compliments
Giving ideas or suggestions:
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”Why is that a problem?”
”I am not sure I understand, could you explain why..”
Challenging: demand more information to prove a claim
–
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”Is that really so – I heard somebody say..”
Linking: connect the statement with a question on relevant information
Display puzzlement to have the interviewee elaborate.
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”What you seem to be saying is that …”
Contradicting: give an opposite opinion
–
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”Tell me more about that..”
”What happened then?”
”Have you thought about …?”
”Have you tried..?”
Showing understanding and allowing time for elaboration
Acknowledging: Nod, say ”yes” or ”uh-hmm” or repeat the answer to show attention.
Example of using probes:
• R: ”Why did you decide to further your studies in the UK?”
• I: ”The school I attended in Hong Kong was not very good. Also it is
rather difficult to enter a good secondary school there”
• R: ”Which school did you go to when you were in Hong Kong?”
• I: ”T S Government Primary School”
• R: ”Isn’t it a good school?”
(Contradicting)
• I: ”No. The English standard is low. Chinese is the best subject
there.”
(Linking)
• R: ”How was English taught there?”
• I: ”It was very different form here (UK). Here I am asked to write
essays. In TS Government Primary School, students were asked to
buy their own course books and the teachers taught us chapter by
chapter.”
(Fake being puzzled)
• R: ”Is there anything wrong with that?”
• I: ”Teaching was slow and our teachers taught things repeatedly”.
(Rita S. Y. Berry: ”Collecting data by in-depth interviewing”. Paper presented at the
British Educational Research Association annual conference, September 1999)
Example of interviewing technique:
The ’Reverse Laddering Technique’ (from cognitive
psychology, and consumer/marketing research) helps to
’dig deeper’ into people’s reasoning, to reveal their ’causal
maps’.
One asks ”Why (how, in what way) is that important to you?”
Concepts:
Example:
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concrete attributes
abstract attributes
functional consequences
psychosocial consequences
instrumental values
terminal values
(low fat)
(fewer calories)
(slimming)
(social acceptance)
(self-confidence)
(self-esteem)
On interviewing and questioning
•
Recording and transcribing:
– Recording devices (tape recorder, mobile, laptop): try it out before you use it
(sound quality, distance, background noise). Do also take notes in case
something fails.
– Interference in the interview situation: subject may get wary, but most tend to
forget about the recording device rather soon.
– Transcription takes a lot of time! (1 hour interview makes for 6-8 hours writing)
Don’t be too ambitious when planning your research.
– Transcriptions are useful (to share with collaborators/supervisors, allows you to
go back to material later with other aims, ideas).
•
Your own body language and engagement
– Convey attention and genuine interest through tone of voice, expressions,
gestures. Balance note-taking with attention.
– Dress and manners. Choice of location for interview
– How do you present yourself, as ’student’ or ’researcher’? Are you asking for an
’interview’ or a ’discussion’?
– Convey understanding and respect, and that you record the responses rather
than judge them
– Allow them finish what they are saying, let them proceed in their own rate of
thinking and speaking.