Reflection on Stretch #1

My first venture into qualitative research involved interviewing someone on Google Hangout. I had many fears about this technique, but I had even more fears about the person I interviewed, and the type of questions I asked.


My major fear with Google hangout as an interview was interference. I anticipated interference from my children, or interference from barking pets. I also worried about a lag in the video. Both these things could affect my ability to accurately record body language or words. Luckily, neither of these impacted my study, but technological glitches did wreak havoc on recording the video.

I was most uncomfortable with the person I interviewed. I had set up to interview the college's new advising coordinator so that I could learn more about what she plans to implement regarding advising. However, her child was sick and so my colleague and fellow English Instructor, Ms. L., filled in. We are friends on social media, and when my original interviewee cancelled I asked a few friends to help out; she was the first to volunteer.

Ms. L is a mother figure at work; she is a very gentle soul who always does what is best for her students. We frequently attend meetings together, and often I am in charge of implementing unfriendly initiatives. I did not have time to really think about how our working relationship might impact the interview. When I asked her the question "what do you dislike about your job," she mentioned meetings. I instantly tensed up, knowing that a most recent meeting I led was met with very unfriendly faces. I hoped that it didn't show on my face, but I don't know that it didn't. She further explained why she didn't like them, and as such I tried to be sure to remain neutral and use very welcoming body language. I didn't want to influence her answers.

I learned a valuable lesson about qualitative research: be prepared to be uncomfortable. Sometimes, you will not hear what you want to hear, or what you enjoy. Your goal must be to record the person's message, and remaining welcoming to that message. Otherwise, you will taint your data and even damage your study. Worse than that, you could make that person lose all sense of self.

This meshes with what Robert K. Yin (2013) says about case study. Yin, in his book on case study research methods, urges that case study seems easier, but in fact, the intimate contact with humans makes it more difficult, and thus more imperative that researchers take it seriously.

References

Yin, R. K. (2013). Case study research: Design and methods. Sage publications.