Pilot Interview - Task 6a

Following on from my pilot Focus Group, I conducted a pilot interview. It seemed a logical tool to use next as the focus group was an excellent format for grounds of a platform of discussion. To develop my enquiry further, to really get into the individuals experience of Dance, one to one interactions would be necessary.

Interviews seem to have an advantage that the researcher can follow up on responses given from the initial focus group, clarify meaning of opinions share, or probe more responses and investigate motives for the answers that were discussed.

Really wanting to uncover potentially unexpected data as well here, interviewing as a tool seems to have capability of being adaptable is producing ways to probe my topic of what Dance means to the individual.

Decided on two types of interviews would be most beneficial to getting well rounded data. I have made some rough notes to describe my considerations before undergoing the pilot, as well as reflections and reviewing afterwards.

1 - Informal Interview with Programme Leader at a professionally established community dance company

- at the Ludus Studio - 'home' ground, creating a sense of comfort/ease/freedom to speak at ease/answers given in context and 'in the moment'

- informal/unplanned structure - alleviated potential of participant being affected by nerves about speaking to researcher. As an 'insider researcher' looking into a topic I have some knowledge previously attained, found the informality of unstructured interviewing suitable when interviewing a familiar colleague with similar interests in promoting community dance and dance accessibility.

- transcribing notes after the pilot, rather than recorded data seemed most appropriate - observation of facial expressions beneficial to really understanding how the interviewee was answering. Being able to retain eye focus felt more respectful in the situation.

-  consideration towards how I would direct questions - remembering I am talking with a professional who has worked for years on creating community based dance projects. Felt inappropriate to have pre structured questions - wanting to remain open and objective, also wanting to initiate a feeling that I had considered the power relation ships exposed. (I am undergoing the research for a project of my own interest, gratitude for her sharing her experiences through her years of experience to help me gain a wider insight into my enquiry.) Letting the conversation be lead in a way.

Reflections after the pilot:

- Pleased with decision to not record the conversation, gave me change to gain respect by maintaining engagement through eye focus.

- Perhaps for my actual enquiry, having a more negotiated form of accounting the information discussed as opposed to be writing notes afterwards would be effective. Notes I made afterword lacked passion/meaning experiences whilst the interview was taking place. When analysing the interview responses, creating a summery documented by both myself and the respondent would be the most beneficial way of collected reliable and valid data.



      After consideration into how time consuming interviews can be to organise and execute, deciding to pilot an interview over the phone was the next logical step into reviewing the tools on enquiry. Arranging a conversation via Skype with a fellow student on this BAPP Programme (thanks again Sonal) was a way of getting instant data from an accountable source.

Being in a work based learning situation, this was a learning curve for me to always consider in reality people do live busy lives with not much time to spare to be researched. Also, wanted to gain response from the widest range of people I can, people often live far apart, and gaining access to them face to face would be unrealistic. Sonal is also a work based learning student so this form of communication enabled me to contact her and collect reliable data with minimal inconvenience.

2 - Skype phone call - interview with fellow BAPP learner and dancer

- Fellow colleague with similar dance interests - underlying mutual respect already initiated

- my first consideration were to focus of the purpose of the call - wanting to get clean, unbiased data. Creating a situation where respondent feels entitled to share their own experience. Wanting to have the respondent open up to share their joy of dance, NOT to be confused wit thrusting MY experience on them with an expectancy of it being a shared one.

- no pressure situation, to alleviate feeling under pressure, emailing prior to pilot discussing suitable time convenient for both. Assuring knowledge of confidentially, Data Protection Act issued have been adhered to.

- piloting an interview with a colleague and a personal fiend can have advantages - one is able to get feedback after the interview itself, (feedback on my approach, how it could be improved etc)

- creation of a semi structured format to home in on the type of data I wanted to collect from the interview process, ensuring topics covered are of relevance to my enquiry. To do so, having a pre planned set of questions felt most appropriate. This creates a professional flowing format, but also allows room for flexibility of exposing and potential emerging issues

- Including some open questioning styles, for example:

What does Dance mean to you?

My aim here was to offer Sonal opportunity to contribute her personal interpretation not only of the question, but her answers too.

- Being sure not to include leading questions formulating inaccurate data. Questions must not be formulated in a way that makes the respondent feel obliged to respond in a certain way, remembering the solid foundation principle of my enquiry to to share someone else's experience in order to research answers to my enquiry question.

Reflection after the pilot:

-I noticed the interview as a tool does have some limitations. Because the information I want is sensitive, and personal to the individual, I was luck to have a willingly responsive interviewee. This may not always be the case. Following this, Sonal was happy to be recorded, again I should consider that this also may not always be the case. Here points out how the benefits of face to face interaction (noticing body language) can help stimulate more respectful relations with the 'researched', and ultimated producing the most reliable data.

- Having read about it before hand, (Campbell et al, 2004) I found the use of para - linguistic utterances encouraged the respondent to keep talking freely, almost as a way of the interview showing their support.

- I found the more open questions most helpful to finding the data required, using discussion in this way helped me to develop a more in depth understanding of their insight in Dance.


On reflection of the whole task, I feel interviewing will be a helpful tool in developing my enquiry to find varied but reliable data. Although I am glad to experiment with a phone interview, its limitations as an effective tool have confirmed I will not use this method during my enquiry. I feel face to face interaction most effectivly enabled me to develop understanding of the respondents thoughts, feeling and opinions in their world of Dance.

Has anyone else piloted an interview yet? Please share any thoughts!


References:

(Practitioner Research and Professional Development in Education), Campbell, McNamara and Gilroy, 2004