As I discussed last time, phenomenological interviewing
requires an understanding of both the context and the meaning that a participant
associated with a particular phenomenon. Seidman (2013) recommends the use of a
three- interview series, in order to delve deeply in the context and to
establish trust with the participant. Interview 1 establishes the context of
the participant's experience. Interview 2 allows the participant to reconstruct
the details of their experience within the context in which it occurred.
Interview 3 encourages the participant to reflect on the meaning of the
experience.
Interview One: Focused Life History.
In the first interview, the interviewer's task is to put the participant's
experience into context by talking about him or herself in light of the topic
of interest. The interviewer avoids the use of "why" questions –
using "how" questions instead. For example, "how did you come to
be in an online dissertation program?" By asking "how" you are
leading the person to reconstruct the event and place it into the context of
their family, school, and work experience.
Interview
Two: The Detail of Experience.
The second interview concentrates on the details of the participant's current
life in the topic area. Here you are collecting details on which their later
opinions will be built. As an example, you might ask online dissertation
students what they do each day related to their dissertation. You are trying to
get the person to reconstruct the many details of his or her life that make up
the experience of interest. Thus, you might ask about the dissertation
students' relationships with their chair, their committee member, other
students, their spouse or partner, children, work colleagues, and friends. You
might ask them to reconstruct a day in their dissertation life from the moment
they wake up until they fell asleep. You may ask for stories about their experiences
in school as a way to of eliciting details.
Interview
Three: Reflection on Meaning.
In the third interview, participants are asked to reflect on the meaning of
their experience. It addresses the intellectual and emotional connections
between the participants' work and life. An example question with an online
dissertation student, might be: "Given what you have said about life
before you started dissertation and what you said about your dissertation work
now, what does completing a dissertation mean to you in your life?" Making
sense or meaning requires that participant look at how the factors in their
lives interacted to bring them to their present situation.
Next time I will discuss the care and feeding of committee
members. Do you have an issue or a question that you
would like me to discuss in a future post? Would you like to be a guest writer?
Send me your ideas! leann.stadtlander@waldenu.edu
Seidman, I. (2013). Interviewing as qualitative research, 4th
Ed. NY: Teacher's College Press.
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