Methods in context - Structured & unstructured interviews

Question 1

Practical issues- disadvantage

Answer 1

young interviewees may be less articulate or more reluctant to talk
- No understanding long, complex questions or some abstract concepts
- Have more limited vocabulary and use words incorrectly or differently from adults
- Have shorter attention spam & poorer memory retrieval and adults
- Read body language differently from adults
- Can lead to misunderstanding and incorrect answers- less valid
- Unstructured interviews may be more suitable than structured
- Schools have very active informal communication channels- can influence response given by later interview- reduce validity
- Time- Either outside of school or disrupt the school day
- Parents may only take part if they see benefits for their child

Question 2

Reliability and validity

Answer 2

• Structured interview - reliable data but students are unlikely to respond favourably to them due to formal style
• Di Bentley 1987- Overcome this by showing jokey pictures of her and daughter and maintained a relaxed atmosphere by nodding, smiling and making eye contact
• Personal interview style cannot be standardised

Question 3

Access and response rate

Answer 3

• Hierarchical institutions
• The lower down the hierarchy an interview is the more approval that has to be obtained
• Conducting interviews during lesson time may cause disruption therefore school may not allow this
• Parental permissions required to interview children. Depending on the subject of research may depend on whether parents grant permissions

Question 4

Interviewer as’ teacher in disguise’

Answer 4

Power and status inequalities can affect the outcome
- Interviewees may see it as in their interest to lie, exaggerate, conceal information or seek to please
- May be less self- confident in their response
- If pupils see the interviewer as a ‘teacher in disguise’ they may seek to win the ‘teacher’ approval by giving untrue but socially acceptable answers
- Social interaction- Inequalities may influence and distort data
- Working class- parents may perceive the interviews as having higher status. Find questions patronising or intrusive.

Question 5

Improving validity

Answer 5

• use open ended questions
• Not interrupt answers
• Tolerate long pauses to allow thinking time
• Recognise that children are more suggestible and therefore important to avoid asking leading questions
• Avoid repeating questions since this makes children change their first answer

Question 6

Theoretical advantage

Answer 6

Representativeness: Structured interviews are quick to administer which means the sample population reached by this method will be larger than for unstructured interviews. This means it is possible to make a generalisation from the research findings to the wider population.
-Reliability: Structured interviews are seen as being a highly reliable method of gathering data. This is because the questions have been standardised- every participant is asked the same questions- which makes them objective as there is no researcher to influence the person answers.

Question 7

Limitation of theoretical

Answer 7

-Limited insight: Interpretivists tend not to use structured interviews. There is no opportunity to probe deeper beyond the limited pre-set answers.
- Restrictive in that they force people to answer closed questions. There is limited choices so people cant answer as they wish

Question 8

How can this be used in education research?

Answer 8

• Pupil subcultures
  -Pupil experience of health and sex
  -Class, ethnicity and language
  -Gender and identity
  -Class and parental choice of schools.