Metodifestivaalit 30–31.5.2017Jyväskylä
SessionRefiguring interviews1
Session coordinator: Matti Hyvärinen, School of Social Sciences and Humanities, University of Tampere.
Qualitative research has rendered interviews exceedingly popular in social research. With this steady and growing popularity, interviewing has almost become a methodological token, suggesting that i) all students can conduct interviews without further training, ii) asking pre-formulated questions constitute competent interviews and iii) that thematic interview is the generic term for all qualitative interviews. This session challenges these assumptions and highlights the awareness about different forms of interviewing, and sensitivity as regards of different categories of interviewees. The session focuses on the fact that interviewing requires sophisticated theoretical understandingand practical, interactional skills, and invites lively discussion on the topic.
Paper givers:
Session 1. (Target groups)
Short introduction: Matti Hyvärinen (University of Tampere)
RaijaRaittilaNiinaRutanen (University of Jyväskylä): Interviewing children
We will discuss particular questions related to interviewing young children. How does interview as an interactional event unfold when children who are under seven-year-old are being interviewed? Instead of an ‘interview’, we would like to emphasize that the researcher engages in a conversation with children where the attempt is to produce data. This joint conversation should enable children to be able to express their views and thoughts in their way and their language. Our challenge is to give space for children so that they can narrate about the research topic, chosen by the adult, in their particular way. With the concept of ‘conversation’ we want to emphasize that the data is jointly produced by the researcher and the child within a certain situation and context. In our presentation, we will use some examples from research projects to illustrate children’s narration, and particularly, provide accounts of the unpredictable and rich themes, that are linked to everyday life of children.
Kirsi Lumme-Sandt (University of Tampere): Interviewing older people
Kirsi Lumme-Sandt is going to discuss the double-task an interviewer must bear in mind while interviewing older people. An interviewee might have some age-based limitations which have an effect on the interview situation. At the same time, an older interviewee has to be considered as a regular adult, not just an old person.
KirstiLempiäinen (Lay): Interviewing experts
Although all interviews could be called expert interviews, there is an extra speciality about expert interviews. KirstiLempiäinen will discuss on expertise and expert knowledge on basis of her interviews of academic people. The presentation will focus on the benefits of conducting expert interviews and on the methodological and ethical questions that one faces when interviewing experts.