Informant Interviews ILearning Objectives

– recount interviewing techniques, be familiar with the write up process, and be able to identify cultural domains in interview texts

– review the use of key informants in the qualitative research process

– observe an interview in class and write it up

Exercise 1University concerns re

– Liability from student activities– Subjects give consent– No identifiers

Exercise 2 due TuesdayDon't sweat coding but make a startBERNARD Has good section on coding

INFORMANT INTERVIEWINGOARS

Open ended

Affirmative

Reflective

Summarizing

Successful interviewlike an intimate and personal sharing of confidence

with trusted friend

Types of interviews:

–Unstructured interactive interview

–Informal conversational interview –Semi-structured interview

Toolbox of qualitative research

People

Language

Equipment : notebook, audio recorder, camera, microcomputer,

Field guide (one page)

Settings for interviewsLet informant select where, especially when starting

out

Setting should have:– Privacy– little opportunity for interruption– comfortable chairs at right angles, or at a table, – whatever the norm in culture of informant– Quiet (UNPLUG PHONE, TURN OFF CELL)

social niceties

Characteristics of a good interviewerfits in to the settinglistens intently, doesn’t appear disinterestedcalm, nervousness concealed, appears to have done

this many timesable to prompt and help the interviewee get on, if had

lost train of thoughtaccepts silence on part of participant,avoid trade jargon,

Interviewing techniques: Types of Questions, Grand tour question (typical day)How to discover questions: "If I wanted to find out

how she negotiated condom use with her clients, what would I say?"

Descriptive questions: "Can you tell me what happened when the woman came with her sick infant?"

Structural questions: "What are all the different illnesses teenagers have here?"

Contrast questions: "What is the difference between ghaano and mutu kanne?"

Main techniques of interviewingiteration

"I ……..""Tell me about …….."

probing

PROBE: a stimulus to get more info need culturally appropriate behavior silence

"what else"

repetition

directive probes (“tell me more” or “describe”),avoid “why” questions, or those answered “yes” or

“no” (often get NO for an answer)

Leading | Interrupting

• “you’re not still breast feeding your baby are you”

leading

Rephrase/Rethink questions that don’t seem to be working

Identify sensitive questions (may not be in your culture)

Identify sensitive questions (may not be in your culture)

People don't like to use the word poor in the US (low income is better)

INTERNATIONAL STUDENT EXAMPLES?

Using informant responses• train self to be a good listener• problem usually is of interviewer, not informant• common mistakes are leading or supplying answers

Responses“I don’t know”

“it’s the custom"

“Gods will”

“you’re the doctor, you tell me”

watch body language, take notes on it

1. Body2. Face3. Eyes4. Tone of voice5. What we actually say (~20% of

communication)

Speak in 5 different ways:

Ending the interviewDuration 30 to 90 minutes, ends when informant is

getting tired

Last Question

Ask if can contact again if have further questions

Key informantRather than calling it an interview, consider it as a

"conversation"

Develop a social relationship of communication

Health worker sometimes chosen, but may not be good for emic perceptions

Current member of cultural group of interestNative speaker: ideally should talk to you in their own

language & dialect

Good key informantKnowledgeable about topic (an expert)

Thoroughly enculturated

Currently involved in domain/activity of interest or recently experienced

Contemplative individual, makes comparisons, can explain discrepancies, but not someone who tries to make an analysis

Someone staying around for a while, not a migrant

Subjects in Qualitative Research Lecture 2, Table 1

DIFFERENT TYPES OF "SUBJECTS" IN QUALITATIVE RESEARCH

KeyInformant

RegularInformant

Respondent

# of subjecttype in av.ethnography

2-8 5-15 20-100

# of timesinterviewedin a study

4+ 1-4 1-4

amount ofstructure ininterview

little/some little/some much

Samplingmethod

purposeful (hasspecializedknowledge)

purposeful random

Use ofsubject type

general &specialized

interviewing

specializedinterviewing

representativeinterviewing

Locating & selecting potential key informants

Discuss with community leaders, others inc. people in power

Use informal/social networks

Consensus analysis (using pile sorts & computer analysis on a series of respondents/informants, get estimate of those who give more majority response)

Key informant relationship built over time

Use of key informant Repeated, iterative interviews

Worked with over lifetime of project

Language teacher

Cultural liaison, introduction to other people

Identify key elements in study community, including important subgroups, when & where to observe

Use of key informant Pretest of structured data collection instruments

Judges your work

Sometimes becomes data collector / research assistant

Sometimes paid for their time

Relationship often continues after you leave the field

Homeless youth in SF

Part Obs: June-Sept. 1997, Castro District, San Francisco

Led to finding key informant explained terms, clarified observed social interactions, site tours

Phase I Exploratory Interviews-unstructured ("what's it like")-written notes immediately afterwards-preliminary analysis (entering street life, exiting, and surviving on street)-> natural history model

Phase II Semi-structured interviews

Class Exercise I will interview Tony

• take notes in as much detail as possible

Look for Different types of interviewer questions

Probes

Cultural domains, cover terms, included terms, etc. IF PRESENT (often not)

After interview: what techniques were used?

types of questions? probes? leading?

non-verbal aspects, body language?

salient quotes?

how was it to take notes?

possible cultural domains

Summary• Open-ended interview techniques can gain different

perspectives than questioner driven methods

Each student bring in one question that they plan to ask in their interview.

We put 5-10 questions up on the boards

then we comment as a group on how to make the question more broad, less

leading.

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