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SRA Training

In-depth interviewing
Summary: In-depth interviews can provide marvellously rich accounts of people’s social worlds by exploring individual circumstances, stories, motivations and decision-making. In-depth interviewing skills also form the basis of the skills required for other qualitative techniques. This course is designed to give participants some first-hand experience of the art of asking open-ended, non-directive questions – only a fraction of which have been scripted in advance – and of probing for further depth and detail.
Objectives:

By the end of the workshop, delegates will:

  • understand the nature and purpose of different types of qualitative interview
  • be able to work from an interview guide
  • have practised asking open-ended questions, many of which have to be crafted on the spot
  • appreciate the difference between probing and prompting
  • understand the importance of sufficient probing in order to generate rich and nuanced data
  • have experienced both sides of the interview relationship, by acting as interviewer and interviewee
Topics:

Content includes:

  • theories of interviewing
  • when to use this method
  • different kinds of interview and degrees of structure
  • questioning skills and techniques (and how to criticise and improve on these)
  • practical issues involved in setting up interviews and interviewing different kinds of participant
  • recording and transcription
Who will benefit?

Researchers who are new to qualitative interviewing or who want to improve their interviewing skills

Learning outcomes:

Participants will appreciate the skills involved in conducting a valuable in-depth interview, and know how to criticise their work in future, ensuring that:

  • rapport is established with the interviewee
  • topics are explored in an open-ended and sufficiently detailed manner
Course tutor: Liz Spencer is a Sociologist and an Academician of the Academy of Social Sciences who has specialised in qualitative methods since 1973. She has held research posts at a number of British universities, including the London School of Economics, The London Graduate School of Business Studies, and the University of Essex, and was a Research Director at the National Centre for Social Research. She teaches a range of courses for the Social Research Association and for the Universities of Hong Kong and Essex, and has been a Visiting Professor at the Institute for Higher Studies in Vienna. Currently Liz is a Research Associate of the Institute for Social and Economic Research as well as an independent research consultant. Her recent methodological publications include chapters in Qualitative Research Practice and a report for the Cabinet Office on judging the quality of qualitative research and evaluation. Together with Jane Ritchie, she pioneered ‘Framework’, a matrix-based approach to data management and display
Date & Location: 12th May 2010, 09:00-09.30 - 17:00

Location: Cardiff
Programme Download Programme to follow and booking form (doc)

 

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