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The Art of Qualitative Interviewing: ASCN Workshop 7-8 December 2011, Yerevan, Armenia

Description


This two-day highly interactive course was designed to help participants become aware of and practice some of the techniques involved. As well as gaining a grounding in the principles of semi-structured and in-depth interviewing, participants now have hands-on experience of conducting interviews, acting as an interviewee, and giving and receiving detailed feedback.

During the course we covered:

- theories of interviewing
- when to use this method
- different kinds of interview and degrees of structure
- questioning and probing skills (how to criticise and improve on these)
- practical issues involved in setting up interviews
- interviewing different kinds of participant
- recording and transcription

Objectives

• To give participants an understanding of the qualitative research process
• To provide a thorough grounding in the skills required to design interview guides and conduct qualitative interviews


Learning outcomes
By the end of the course participants have

• a better awareness of key aspects involved in designing and conducting an interview-based qualitative study
• practical experience of carrying out interviews
• greater confidence and skills to conduct their own qualitative research


Venue


Armenia, Yerevan

Trainer


The tutor for these two days is Liz Spencer, who has specialised in qualitative research methods for over thirty years, working in both academic and applied policy contexts. Liz has conducted interviews on a wide range of topics and in many different settings, and is currently working on a project looking at the under-achievement of African Caribbean boys in school and the lure of street culture. She is a Research Associate of the Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER) at the University of Essex, and a partner in Q2 Training Complete, as well as an academician of the Academy of Social Sciences.

Author of Rethinking Friendship: Hidden Solidarities Today (with Ray Pahl), Liz has contributed chapters on the foundations of qualitative research and on analysing qualitative data to Qualitative Research Practice. As part of a team from NatCen, she co-authored a report for the Cabinet Office: Quality in Qualitative Evaluation: A Framework for assessing Research Evidence and has developed a teaching resource for critical appraisal in qualitative research. In addition to her research, Liz teaches on summer schools at the Universities of Essex and Hong Kong, and regularly delivers short courses for the Social Research Association.

fileicon WS-Qualitative-Interviewing (pdf, 108.0 KB)