Interviewing

Interviewing
At first thought, an interview brings to mind the drilling of a movie star for juicy gossip or a suppressed childhood to invoke strong emotion. Quite honestly, I hadn’t thought about interviewing as a tool for research. In order for an interview to be an effective tool for gathering data, certain planning must be taken and an interview protocol must be prepared. Developing the interview is as important as the interview itself.
While interviewing children, establishing a positive relationship and atmosphere is essential in order to illicit honest responses and receiving reliable data. Building relationships takes time. For researchers coming into a situation where they are unfamiliar with the participants, building a trustful relationship can be difficult. While reading Researching Children’s Experiences by Melissa Freeman and Sandra Mathison, I’ve discovered that in order to build relationships, researchers often set up a series of interviews over a course of time. Within these interviews, Freeman and Mathison describe strategies that also encourage a trusting relationship with participates. Some of the strategies include demonstrating empathy, being responsive to the children’s questions and desires, allowing children some control over the situation, facilitating clear communication, using open-ended questions, remaining non-judgmental of children’s responses and behaviors and redirecting behavior to refocus the conversation. As I prepare for the interview with a child from my own classroom, I have an advantage. Being the classroom teacher, the relationship and safe environment have already been established over these past seven months of the school year. The teacher/student relationship also puts me at a disadvantage. The child may be compelled to provide the “right” answers rather than the honest answers. It’s important to develop questions that elicit honest answers and overcome the need to provide “right” answers that please the teacher.
With this in mind, developing an interview protocol is essential to the interview process. First, it’s important to begin with setting the purpose and structure for the interview to set the interview participant at ease. For my interview, I plan to ask a child if they’d care to help me with our “March is Reading Month” challenge and answer a few questions. If the child agrees, I will call him or her to the reading table to sit with me. Children are called to the reading table in groups or individually on a daily basis. Following that routine should help to ease feelings of being singled out. Next, I plan to explain the process of asking questions, looking at and drawing pictures. I will then present a variety of open-ended and concrete questions along with questions that involve looking at pictures and drawing pictures. Eliciting responses through written or drawn responses are just as valid and important a strictly verbal responses. With a well thought out interview protocol, I look forward to a successful interview.