Write up a report following the guidance provided. Read the instructions for each task carefully and discuss your plans with your seminar tutor.
You may provide appendices for your methods exercise and these are excluded from the word count. We have suggested what these appendices might comprise, but you can include other relevant material you need to refer to in your writing. We have distinguished between essential and optional appendices. Optional appendices should only contain material you have referred to in your writing.
Ensure that you have appropriate ethical approval for your task BEFORE you conduct your research. Please note that you will NOT receive ethical approval to work with children under the age of 18 or vulnerable adults.
Remember that you are being assessed based on your understanding of methodological issues so you should include relevant literature and reflect on your experience of using the method, not just your findings.
B. Formulating, Conducting, and Transcribing In-depth Interviews
Develop a research question and an interview schedule then conduct either:
· 2 x 20 minute semi-structured interviews
· Once completed, you should transcribe 15-minutes of one interview.
Your assessment consists of a report on your interview practice and reflections on interviewing
Comment on your interview guide. How useful was it? How did interviewees respond to different kinds of questions? What use did you make of prompts (verbal and non-verbal) that weren’t on the original interview schedule?
Reflect on the content of your interviews. What did your interviewees tell you about the topic? Were you able to answer your research question? Make use of both your interviews and provide appropriate quotations as evidence.
If you were to conduct another in-depth interview, what would you do differently? Think about how you could improve your interviewing technique as opposed to changing the research design.
Reflect on the interview process. What was the most difficult part of the interview process for you? What did you learn? What were you good at?
Show an awareness of some of the key issues in interviewing which might include responding to the dynamics of the interview, selecting interviewees, the researcher/respondent relationship etc.
Essential appendices: Transcription of interview; interview guide, clean copy (not filled in by a respondent of your participant information and informed consent forms.
Optional appendices: different versions of interview guide; analytic memos.
· Note: We have provided sample participant information and informed consent forms on Moodle that you can adapt.