I also feel a little lost with reviewing the literature does anyone have any examples or have they read anything that has helped?
Interviews
I have conducted half of my interviews and feel I have learnt so much already, I have taken a more general approach to the interviews and have no set questions. I am hoping this approach will aid me in looking at questions and surrounding topics I might not have considered had I only set questions.
The first interview lasted for an hour and I was feeding off the interviewee, we toughed on various subjects surrounding my inquiry and I became excited by the relaxed conversation, my mind starting flooding with questions from the interviewees responses and I found it somewhat difficult to just stop and actually let the interviewee finish talking. I am now concerned I could have missed answers that may have been valuable.
My second interview was completely different and having managed not use or even look at prompt questions in my first interview I assumed the second interview would follow and have a similar openness. The interview was much shorter and the interviewee found it hard to answer my question and felt under pressure to do so quickly. I decided to stop the interview half way through and we both took 5 minutes. Within this time I starting thinking back to my first interview and the questions I had asked. It is my job as an interviewer to get the best response out of my interviewee and I had to think fast in order to do this. When we returned we were both somewhat more relaxed, I had some set questions to ask, this helped my interviewee feel less under pressure.
I have learnt that you need to be prepared to change what you may had initially planed in order for the interviews to beneficial. Another example of this is when the first interviewee having read the consent form asked me what I meant by contemporary dance? This is now a set question I use at the start of the interviews as a way of opening up the conversation and relaxing both participants. I had not considered this as a question and it could now lead me to another door within my inquiry.
Has anyone any ideas for professional artefact? I would like to do a illustrated presentation/ several images creating a huge image- I just can not work out how this would adhere to the 3000 word count any ideas?
I have also forgot to mention the second interview was done via Skype so maybe this made it feel somewhat less open and comfortable.
Useful blog Nicole, I have my first interview tomorrow so you have reminded me of a few things here thanks. Unfortunately mine has to be done via a phone call too, do you think this affected your interpretation of what was said because you weren't face to face? Perhaps that is just something we shall have to factor into our analysis.
ReplyDeleteTo be honest I haven't had any ideas of the Artefact yet, it is great you already know what direction you want to take. Reading the part 7, it reminded me to perhaps think about it in relation to where we move professionally. Perhaps looking at more career options, then the implications this may have on our professional audience. Could you perhaps in corporate this somewhere in text form, as well as your presentation of images perhaps? Have you thought about which programmes and tools you will use for the presentaion its self? Lots of ethical consideration to think about if we film participants right?!
I just wanted to pick up on what you guys were talking about when conducting interviews via the phone or skype and tell you of my experiences. I took part in a pilot phone interview as an interviewee and so got to experience it from that perspective, sometimes questions were not quite clear and i felt a little on the spot to hurry up and give answers...i found more difficult to relax and feel comfortable with the process over the phone. For these reasons when i conducted my own interviews as part of the inquiry i choose (and luckily was able)to do them face to face with participants, i just felt his would help participants feel at ease and i could keep interviews fairly informal. It also allowed me to record all interviews as well as make notes on any facial or body language that was relevant.
ReplyDeleteI dont know whether you would have the opportunity to conduct any interviews face to face but from my experiences with them i would recommend it if at all possible.
The artefact might not have 3000 words in it!!! The word count is just the way the university underlines how important it is. Allow the artefact to reveal itself as the inquiry progresses. I know it takes a bit of courage to just hope for the best but at this point you need to allow for things to appear as the new question about contemporary dance did.
ReplyDeleteAdesola
Nicole, after reading your blog I feel exactly the same. I am learning about time management very quickly as in this time in my life I am extremely busy with work in London. I am conducting my Surveys and Focus Groups in the next week due to coming up with specific questions for them. I have spoken alot with Alan Durrant and he has suggested for me to do that as doing the general questions may conclude in a general answer which is not what I want.
ReplyDeleteAs to the Literature Review.. I am slightly concerned about the work load in this short amount of time..So have thought to look how other people have been working on to keep up??
As to your interviews..Have you given them a time limit? I did interviews as a prep and they were really time consuming? Did you find out specific answers you wanted??