B02-03AM: Qualitative Interviewing – Experts

This course provides in-depth knowledge, a critical understanding as well as more advanced skills for interviewing experts as key actors of knowledge generation in social research. A unique feature of the course is its emphasis on application of knowledge to designing, conducting and refining expert interviews in various contexts through practical training, hands-on experience, and reflective account of practice. The course teaches you how to navigate relationships, enhance data generation, and address ethical and legal issues involved in interview research. The course guides you through key phases of advanced expert interviewing. We begin with essential knowledge for designing interview research, including different philosophical, methodological and theoretical underpinnings and definitions of ‘experts’. We discuss fieldwork preparation strategies, ranging from the participant selection and gaining access to interviewing techniques, designing interview questions and ethics forms, and test them in practice. From there, we focus on navigating interviewer-interviewee relationships, interactions, positionality, technology and other factors of influence integral to the method. We critically examine them through practical experience of conducting interviews with experts and peers. We outline approaches to data management and engage in initial stages of analysis. The course concludes with discussions on quality criteria and critical self-assessment in relation to your own interview research and experience. The course is designed to equip you with specialist knowledge, skills and expertise for conducting advanced interviews with experts to generate valuable knowledge and mitigate the risks of biased data generation, misrepresentation and under-theorisation of data.

The Qualitative Interviewing – experts course equips you with an in-depth knowledge, critical understanding, core skills and hands-on experience for advanced interviewing of experts as key agents of knowledge generation in social research. The course guides you through key components of advanced expert interviewing, including defining your philosophical position, designing research and fieldwork preparation strategies, thinking through participant selection, gaining access and interviewing techniques, navigating relationships, interactions and positionality, developing reflexivity and ethical sensibility, and engaging with data management and analysis. A unique feature of the course is its emphasis on application of knowledge to everyday interview situations and training in designing, conducting, and refining expert interviews in various contexts.

The course begins with reviewing contemporary debates in expert interviews (which by definition use experts as participants), including key methodological questions, ontologies and epistemologies, types and forms of qualitative interviews, and ethical principles inherent to interview research. Through the lens of sociology of knowledge, we explore different understandings of ‘experts’ and ‘expert knowledge’, and discuss what distinguishes them from ‘elites’, ‘specialists’ and other social actors. We address specifics of expert interviews and their implications for your research.

We then shift our attention to a practical discussion of interview design and field preparation strategies. We outline different approaches to defining experts, on which we base the selection of participants, and persuasive techniques for gaining access to the field. We explore how to design interview guide and frame interview questions for achieving breadth and depth, while thinking through interview stages and strategies of enquiry. We discuss ethical and legal considerations, particularly in relation to GDPR, and ethics documents that we need to prepare before starting our fieldwork.

The field preparation strategies stage is followed by gaining understanding and hands-on experience in interviewing experts. We examine the art of interviewing as a social interaction and interviewer-interviewee relationships that are integral to the method. We discuss face-to-face and mediated interviews and consider different factors of influence, including trust, rapport, positionality, power, culture, language and technology, and critically evaluate their potential impact on data generation. If these factors are acknowledged, carefully considered, and managed, they can significantly enhance the quality of information revealed and knowledge communicated; in the opposite case, they have a potential to hinder or even jeopardise your research. We outline key interviewer skills and responsibilities as well as the importance of the reflective account of practice to learn from and theorise your experience and improve your interviewing skills. We apply this knowledge to real-life situations of preparing for, conducting and reflecting on interviews with experts and peers.

After the interview practice, we turn to the most ignored requirement of qualitative research; handling what comes as generated data. We gain appreciation of volume, richness and complexity of contextualised interview data and tackle its ‘messiness’. We delve into data management of ‘raw’ data and transcribing the interviews and engage in initial stages of interview analysis while outlining different approaches. The strengths and limitations of traditional ‘by hand’ vs. computer assisted qualitative data analysis are discussed. We address technological, ethical and legal issues related to data ownership, recording, storage and handling.

The course concludes with a critical reflection on interview research. We adopt ethical theory to summarise and (re)consider the ethical risks and dilemmas emerging from expert interviews and transactional theory to examine the role of reflexivity, critical self-assessment, researcher’s influence on the research process and ‘truthfulness’ of data. We review current methodological debates evolving around interviews and their quality criteria, strengths, risks and limitations in relation to your projects and experience.

Qualitative interviews as one of the most used methods in political and social research often run the risk of biased data generation, misrepresentation and under-theorisation of data. The course is designed to equip you with specialist knowledge, training and skills to recognise, navigate and avoid such risks, and generate valuable knowledge through reconstruction of social realities and latent meanings.

Learning outcomes:

1. Demonstrate and apply advanced critical knowledge and understanding of qualitative expert interviews.
2. Develop advanced skills in designing expert interviews, field preparation strategies, conducting interviews, and data generation.
3. Manage interview data at an advanced level and identify appropriate approaches and technologies for analysis.
4. Critically reflect on methodological, ethical and legal requirements and challenges involved in expert interview research.
5. Critically reflect on positionality and its implications for research and data generation process.

This description is subject to change at the discretion of the Instructor.

2 Credits

For completion of all work before and during the course, as outlined by the Instructor, and 90% participation and attendance of the course.

2 Additional Credits

Course specific extra assignments. These can include submitting assignments before the course, daily assignments, and/or a final assignment to be completed after the course as decided by the Instructor.  This description is subject to change at the discretion of the Instructor.