Interactional problems in research interviews

By K. Roulston. 2014

119 citations recorded by the source corpus.

This article examines how speakers orient to interactional problems in research interviews. These are marked by disfluencies in talk, with interviewees asking questions of the interviewer, declining invitations to elaborate on questions posed, or providing minimal responses. The article argues that interactions in which interviewees choose not to elaborate or challenge interviewers by asking questions provide valuable insights into research topics that complement the ‘rich’ descriptions that are usually sought by researchers in qualitative studies and evaluation projects. By examining how speakers manage interactional problems, researchers can identify trouble sources and important issues for further exploration. This examination of interviewers’ and interviewees’ talk shows that the accomplishment of both intersubjective understanding and generation of data for topical analysis is sensitive work to which speakers keenly attune on a turn-by-turn basis, underscoring the collaborative work that is necessary to do research interviews.

Subfields: General Health Professions, Language and Linguistics, Literature and Literary Theory

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/9d810ec190b30e08e67a7a5d831a587c5827f723

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In General Health Professions

1. S. Shelton
2. P. Danaher
3. Alice V. Brown
4. K. Roulston

In Language and Linguistics

1. S. Shelton
2. P. Danaher
3. Alice V. Brown
4. K. Roulston

In Literature and Literary Theory

1. S. Shelton
2. P. Danaher
3. Alice V. Brown
4. K. Roulston

Citations in the corpus

• CHE Principles: facilitating authentic and dialogical semi-structured interviews in educational research (2017, background): “…simple to neophyte researchers, they often generate unexpected complexities and highlight broader research dilemmas, including interactional constraints (Roulston 2014) and the interplay between power and powerlessness (Jacobsson and Åkerström 2013; Plesner 2011; Vähäsantanen and Saarinen 2013).”
• Reconceptualizing Bias in Teaching Qualitative Research Methods (2015, methodology): “As one example, recent work has focused on unpacking what goes on in the generation of interview data (Danby, Ewing, & Thorpe, 2011; Mallozzi, 2009; Rapley, 2012; Roulston, 2011a, 2014; Roulston, Baker, & Liljestrom, 2001).”