Qualitative Inquiry for DS1 – 07.16.2018

This is a reading and writing response for Monday, July 16, 2018.

Topic: Methods, Practices and Representations of Qualitative Inquiry

Title: Relationships are not neutral

In qualitative research, relationships between researcher, participant, and collaborators e.g. transcribers, influences the outcomes. Relationships are not objective and need to be considered and captured in qualitative research. This can be seen when applying interviewing methods and in the transcription process.

Fontana & Frey (2005) contend that interviews in research “cannot be a neutral tool” since it is “inextricably and unavoidably historically, politically, and contextually bound” (p. 695). The interview is a dynamic collaboration where two people produce a negotiated and “contextually bound and mutually created story” (p. 696) that encompasses the ‘hows’ and ‘whats’ of everyday lives (Fontana & Frey, 2005). Researchers need an awareness of interviewing formats, structures and purposes in order to attend to the “implications, pitfalls, and problems of the types of interview” (Fontana & Frey, p. 722) since this information is articulated as part of researcher positionality in the summary report. To avoid the ‘world of secrets’ as suggested by Oakley (1981) in Fontana & Frey (2005), researchers need to “learn about people” and “treat them as people” in order to have them “work with us to help us create accounts of their lives” (p. 722). Qualitative research is enriched by the relationships between researcher and participants, yet bias, perspectives, issues and challenges need to be carefully considered in the design, execution, and reporting of the project.

Once the interview is complete, the relationship between researcher and transcriber can also influence the research. Since “a transcript is a text that ‘re’-presents an event” (p. 751), Tilley (2003) questions the current practice of hiring transcribers to document interview information since it is “not just talk written down” (p. 751). Tilley (2003) considers transcripts as a primary form of data, thus the transcriber “influences the research” (p. 750). Tilley (2003) probes the actions of transcription in order to examine how the “work of transcription is intertwined with analysis” and how the transcription document assists a researcher’s “interpretive thinking” (pg. 770) that is necessary when making sense of the data (Tilley, 2003). Tilley (2003) contends that there may be “educational advantages of assigning this work to graduate students attempting to shift from the periphery to more central positions in the research community of practice” (p. 770) yet, building relationships between researcher and transcriber need attention. Tilley (2003) suggests that transcription work “needs to be examined and articulated at the beginning stages of a research project …. not treated as an afterthought.”; “transcription conventions” need to be developed; instruction on protocols and procedures needs to occur; open lines of communication between researcher and transcriber need to be maintained; and “discussing decisions made during” the transcription process is essential to mitigate the complexities and enhance the relationships within the research project, as well as improve the “degree of research rigor” (p. 771).

In qualitative research, relationships between researcher, participant, and transcriber are part of the project and need to be recorded in the final report.

References

Fontana & Frey. (2005). Chapter 27: The Interview: From neutral stance to political

involvement (pp. 695-727). Handbook of Qualitative Research (3rd Edition)

 

Tilley, S. A. (2003). “Challenging” research practices: Turning a critical lens on the

work of transcription. Qualitative inquiry, 9(5), 750-773.