Qualitative Research in Practice : Stories From the Field - Blogs Unpad

In-depth interviewing
them or not must be made in relation to the nature of the data
sought and the practical constraints of the research context. The best
data collection approach for any study is that which will yield data
that best meet the research purpose and answer the research questions.
Sometimes interviews will be most appropriate, sometimes
observation or the analysis of existing records. These are unlikely to
be all-or-nothing questions, though. In many cases, a combination of
approaches will be indicated—to answer different parts of the
research question, or to provide an alternative data source that may
serve to strengthen the overall findings. Very often the researcher
will have to weigh up the pros and cons of a number of approaches
and make the best choice available in the circumstances.
In-depth interviews do, however, have particular strengths.
First, they share the general advantages of face-to-face interviewing.
Their immediacy and relational quality afford considerable flexibility
to the data collection process, both in terms of areas explored
and the direction of the discussion. On this point, Brenner, Brown
and Canter say:
Probably the central value of the interview as a research procedure is
that it allows both parties to explore the meaning of the questions and
answers involved. There is an implicit, or explicit sharing and/or
negotiation of understanding in the interview situation which is not
so central, and often not present, in other research procedures. Any
misunderstandings on the part of the interviewer or the interviewee
can be checked immediately in a way that is just not possible when
questionnaires are being completed, or tests are being performed
(Brenner, Brown & Canter, 1985, p. 3).
The advantage of being able to clarify what the other means, there
and then, is arguably more apparent the less structured and more
conversational the interview process.
Holstein and Gubrium talk of interviewing as an active,
meaning-making process.
Both parties to the interview are necessarily and ineluctably active.
Meaning is not merely elicited by apt questioning, nor simply
transported through respondent replies; it is actively and
communicatively assembled in the interview encounter. Respondents
are not so much repositories of knowledge—treasuries of information
awaiting excavation, so to speak—as they are constructors of
knowledge in collaboration with interviewers (Holstein & Gubrium,
1997, p. 114).
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