Wednesday, February 8, 2012
Interview Experience
I have to admit I have had little to no experience with interviewing people. Unless you count interviewing owners/teachers at preschools when I was choosing a school for my kids. While I did not set up a formal structure for the interviews like the book described, I did do some of the things recommended inadvertently. I chose my interviewees-- people in managerial/decision making roles at the schools. I had an interview guide, which is a set of questions I wanted to ask and more detailed questions about the ones I wanted more answers to. My primary questions were things like "what is your schools daily schedule with the children?" When told that at a certain time of the day it was nap time, a secondary question may have been "if my child doesn't nap what do they do during that part of the day?" I may have wanted to ask a leading question like "You prefer healthy snacks to be sent with the children right?" Instead I hope I chose a neutral question like "what kind of snacks do you prefer the kids to bring?" Neutral questions are better for making the interviewee feel comfortable and talkative. Its interesting to compare what I remember of these experiences I have had with the formal set up of an interview in the book. If I ever had to conduct an interview again I would take more time to write out my questions and potential secondary questions, think about how I would initially welcome my interviewee, and I would pay more attention to the tone in which the questions were answered. After reading Chapter 6 I would feel comfortable interviewing a source if that comes up for our next speech.
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When asked about my experience with research interviews, I was limiting myself to interviews relating to school. I too have interviewed preschool directors. My daughter is allergic to peanuts, eggs and strawberries. During my visit, I asked the preschool director how she handles children with allergies. She showed me a note they posted in the kitchen for another child. Because of her allergies, I prefer my daughter to eat lunch at home. One day, all the children at my daughter's preschool had begun eating lunch before I arrived to pick her up. Because she didn't have a lunch packed, she was given crackers...with peanut butter! That was extremely scary!
ReplyDeleteI think this is a very close step in conducting a research interview. I do not have children, yet I think you had a good time when talking with all those educated people. I am sure it was not easy to ask so many questions for each person in every preschool you went. Moreover, all the questions you asked were right to the point which is a good thing when taking an interview. I did not think of the tone of the voice, but this is a good idea, we should be calm when asking question because regarding to our attitude we will get the answer.
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