Interviews as A Methodology of Obtaining Information Discussion All students are required to conduct a twenty-minute (20) interview with an acquaintance or

Interviews as A Methodology of Obtaining Information Discussion All students are required to conduct a twenty-minute (20) interview with an acquaintance or someone they are interested in learning about. Interview questions should be open-ended. 1) The body of the paper should include a discussion of the literature on interviews, 2) a discussion of the actual interview and 3) a discussion of what you learned from conducting the interview about this method. The transcript of the interview should be included with this assignment in the appendix. This assignment should be between 5-8 pages excluding the title page, references of cited literature and follow the format rubric. Fifth Edition
Becoming Qualitative
Researchers
An Introduction
Corrine Glesne
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Glesne, Corrine.
Becoming qualitative researchers : an introduction / Corrine Glesne.
   pages cm
ISBN 978-0-13-385939-3—ISBN 0-13-385939-8
1. Social sciences—Methodology.   I. Title.
H61.G555 2014
300.72—dc23
                           2014031201
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
ISBN 10:
0-13-385939-8
ISBN 13: 978-0-13-385939-3
About the Author
A qualitative research methodologist and educational anthropologist, Corrine
Glesne has conducted ethnographic research in Saint Vincent and the ­Grenadines,
Costa Rica, Mexico, and the United States. Her text Becoming Qualitative
­Researchers (in its various editions) has been translated into several languages.
Corrine was a professor at the University of Vermont for seventeen years. Later,
as a traveling professor with an international educational program, she taught and
accompanied undergraduates to India, the Philippines, Mexico, New Zealand,
and England. In 2011, she embarked on a year-long, multisite qualitative study
of the “exemplary” academic art museum for the Samuel H. Kress Foundation,
resulting in her book The Exemplary Museum: Art and Academia (2013). Corrine
did her doctoral work at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Her home is now in Asheville, North Carolina.
iii
Introduction: A Sense
of Things to Come
In qualitative research, you translate life into text. It is not an exact translation, a
mirror image, but a product inspired—or breathed into—by the lives you observe
and by what you, as researchers, bring to the setting and research interactions.
A friend told me about a conversation she had with her niece Emily, who was taking a required humanities class in literature. Emily had had to read a poem about
a woman and a storm, and then write an essay. “The poem made me think about
the big storms here in Nebraska, and so I wrote about those storms coming across
the prairies,” Emily said. She added, “I got it all wrong.” When her aunt asked her
to explain, Emily sighed, “Did you know that a storm in a poem means an affair?
I missed the whole point.”
Emily brought her experiences of storms in Nebraska to the poem—that,
and her very limited experience with poetry. If she reads (and writes) more
poetry and receives additional instruction in poetic interpretation, Emily probably will write very different essays. Although not necessarily right or wrong,
some portrayals can be better informed than others. This book is meant to help
you become better informed about translating your research experiences—your
observations and interviews—through analysis and interpretation into
informed and useful texts.
New to This Edition
“What can be involved in updating a textbook on research?” my nonacademic
friends continue to ask. “How is it possible that the process for doing research
changes?”
I reply that methodological perspectives continually change, specifically in
qualitative research, an approach noted for its variety and complexity, particularly during these times when issues of difference, plurality, justice, and meaning
demand our attention. When the first edition of this text was published (1992),
relatively few qualitative methods texts were available, particularly in disciplines
other than anthropology. Twenty-three years later, the qualitative research literature is vast, with thick handbooks on topics barely imagined in the early 1990s.
This development is exciting, signaling that people in multiple disciplines have
turned to qualitative inquiry as a means for exploring and understanding aspects
of social life. In the process, however, approaches to and critiques of qualitative
methods have proliferated. This expansion is overwhelming for a writer of an
introductory text.
iv
Introduction: A Sense of Things to Come
v
One text cannot address all issues that are now part of qualitative research
lore. What I can do is to clarify where this text is situated among the array of qualitative theories and methodologies, so you, the reader, are better informed about what
you might be getting into through reading this book. I point the way to other books
and authors that will help you deepen your knowledge of topics only mentioned or
briefly described in this text. I also try to reflect on the methods and procedures discussed in this text and present ways in which they are embraced and challenged in
theory and in practice. I also introduce several newer aspects of qualitative research
(such as arts based research) that are less discussed in other introductory texts.
Some of the specific changes to this text since the last edition (2011) include
the following:
1. New textual narratives, figures, tables, and visual imagery have been added
throughout the book to exemplify or stimulate thought about the accompanying discussions.
2. To better inform readers about the array of qualitative methodological possibilities, this edition includes discussion of more methodologies within the
text, as well as in an appendix.
3. Chapter 2 has been reorganized and expanded to better assist novice
researchers through the steps of creating research proposals.
4. Chapter 3 includes more discussion about fieldnotes, along with new
examples.
5. In Chapter 4, the section on developing interview questions has been
expanded.
6. Chapter 6 on research ethics has been reorganized and extended to address
the history and concerns of Institutional Review Boards. It discusses the
codes of ethics of various disciplines in the United States and elsewhere.
7. Chapter 7 on data analysis pays more attention to coding procedures, along
with new examples.
8. Chapter 8 on writing up research includes discussion on research representation and explores some of the issues associated with the “crisis of
representation.”
9. Chapter 9 has been revised to focus on arts based research, including examples of various creative ways to approach and/or represent qualitative work.
10. A section on presenting at conferences and an expanded discussion of publishing have been added to the last chapter to encourage new researchers
to widely share their work.
Suggestions for Using the Text
Chapters tend to compartmentalize thoughts, giving the impression that data
collection, for example, is distinct from data analysis. Although the activities of
qualitative inquiry tend to be ongoing and overlapping, I use chapters to focus
vi
Introduction: A Sense of Things to Come
upon one research aspect at a time. My guiding principle throughout these
pages has been to create a book I would want to use as a primary text to help
others learn to conduct qualitative inquiry. The book therefore guides you
through the research process, with separate chapters on philosophical foundations (Chapter ­1), research design (Chapter 2), participant observation and document collection (Chapter 3), interviewing (Chapter 4), data analysis
(Chapter 7), and writing (Chapter 8). Other chapters focus on issues of field
relationships, rapport, and reflexivity (Chapter 5); research ethics (Chapter 6);
and the relatively new area of arts based research (Chapter 9). The final chapter
both summarizes and looks forward to ways in which the research and its process may be applied and helpful to you and to others.
Some reviewers have suggested that the order of the chapters be rearranged
so that all the “foundational” ones come first (i.e., the chapters on philosophical
foundations (Chapter 1), design (Chapter 2), field relationships (Chapter 5), and
ethics (Chapter 6). This makes logical sense and the book could easily be read or
taught in that order. For me and some of my colleagues, however, the semester
time-limit and our desire to include the assignment of a pilot project to accompany the text imposes the order of the chapters as they are. By jumping into reading about research methods after the chapter on research design, students can
more quickly conceive a plan for a pilot project, begin gaining access, and start
scheduling times for data collection while the class reads and discusses chapters
on field relationships and research ethics.
The chapters pose subjects, questions, and quandaries with which students,
colleagues, and I have struggled. As students in my classes have noted, my most
frequent answer to questions raised by qualitative inquiry is “It depends.” In class
discussions and in this book, I provide no solutions or absolutes. My goal is to
raise questions, thereby indicating what is problematic, and to suggest guidelines
for developing your own judgment in order to learn from and manage the complex issues you may encounter.
Because many of you will be working on theses or dissertations, I periodically address some of the particular problems that you might encounter. Many of
the text examples are drawn from educational settings, but the book is not limited
to the context of schools nor to the needs of scholars of education. The sources of
examples are the experiences of students, my own inquiries, the research of colleagues, including Alan Peshkin (who I invited to be coauthor of the first edition),
and published works. I am most indebted to my students; they have taught me
much about qualitative inquiry. With permission, I identify their examples by
their first names, or, for some, by pseudonyms.
From my perspective, acquiring the skill and understanding for conducting
qualitative inquiry has three dimensions: reading, doing, and reflecting. Preferably,
all three are done simultaneously so that the outcomes of each continually interact.
Read widely and deeply about your topic and about the conduct of inquiry throughout the research process; you might want to begin with the “Recommended Readings” sections at the ends of the chapters. Practice qualitative research techniques
on problems of significance to you as you read about doing qualitative research.
Introduction: A Sense of Things to Come
vii
Ideally, the course is an occasion for supervised pilot studies. Reflect before and
after each step in your research journey (from developing your research statement
to completing your research report) by keeping a field journal and by holding
­discussions with peers, supervisors, and research participants.
Keeping a field journal that describes your practices and, no less important,
your critical reflections on these practices is crucial for doing good research.
The field journal, in effect, becomes a personal methods book that contains the
insights that result from the interaction of reading, reflecting, and doing research.
Learning to reflect on your behavior and thoughts, as well as on the phenomenon
under study, creates a means for continuously becoming a better researcher.
Becoming a better researcher captures the dynamic nature of the process. Conducting research, like teaching or dancing, can be improved; it cannot be mastered.
Personal Positionings:
My Methodological Ground(ing)
My background and experience is in ethnographic and case study research, as
well as various forms of action research, including participatory action research
and collaborative research. I have lived and worked in various parts of the world
and have maintained an interest in theories of development and globalization.
Even though I attempt to inform myself on inquiry paradigms and methodologies
of qualitative research with which I am less familiar, I cannot do justice to them all
or even to a portion of them. This section, therefore, delineates some boundaries
for this text.
This book is rooted in the interpretive tradition of qualitative inquiry.
Although I briefly introduce and make reference throughout the text to critical
and postmodern/poststructural traditions, this book is not meant to be a methods book for those seeking to do research within those paradigms—although
they may find some of the advice in this text fitting and useful. Within the interpretive tradition, different research approaches developed historically,
­geographically, and by discipline, including sociology (symbolic interactionism,
grounded theory), psychology (phenomenology), and anthropology (ethnography). Ethnography is perhaps the term that is most widely used, whether correctly
or not, to refer to research in the interpretive tradition. It also carries with it a lot
of baggage in its ties to colonial anthropology. Nonetheless, the research methods
associated with ethnography (fieldwork, interviews, observations, document collection) are used in many other qualitative methodologies (although expectations
for fieldwork, kinds of interview questions, analysis techniques, and so forth can
vary widely). This book focuses on methods used in ethnographic research,
including current critiques, challenges, and changes.
I believe in the wisdom of local people, whether in a farming community in
Illinois or a barrio in Mexico City; I believe that there are “organic” intellectuals
everywhere, working to keep traditions alive and also to shape a changing
future. I am partial to inquiry approaches that involve research participants
viii
Introduction: A Sense of Things to Come
in the work, particularly in identifying the overarching research question and,
thereby, in designing research that will be useful to the people involved. I also
believe that much is to be learned from conventional qualitative methods, that
you can learn and practice basic techniques and then adapt them as your skills
and inclinations guide you. This book, therefore, is meant to be an introductory
text to the ethnographic research techniques of data collection, analysis, and
writing. Along the way, however, I have added sections that are meant to probe
into and complicate some of these practices.
Communicating the process of qualitative inquiry provides me some of
the same kinds of rewards that teaching swimming did years ago. At the end
of a semester (or, better, two semesters), students no longer fear to jump in, nor
are they at risk of drowning in data. With careful, sure strokes, they stride
through data collection, analysis, and writing—albeit not without the occasional stormy day. Students gain useful skills that can serve them beyond the
thesis and dissertation stages. In return, I have learned much from students
about both the process of doing qualitative research and their topical areas.
They educate me, for example, about the social construction of developmental
disabilities or about the workings of effective partner team-teaching in middle
schools. I believe that qualitative research can provide a forum for reflection
and communication that results in better programs, gives voice to those who
have been marginalized, and assists researchers, participants, and readers to
see the world in new ways. For comments, suggestions, or questions, please
contact me at ceglesne@yahoo.com.
Corrine Glesne
Acknowledgments
Acknowledgments for this edition begin with Kevin Davis of Pearson, who convinced me to revise the text yet again. Although reluctant, I know now that he was
right. Being institutionally unaffiliated, I thank him, too, for making available
texts that were useful as I reworked the book. I also appreciate the support of
­Carrie Mollette who was quick to answer my sundry questions, and Margaret
Ritchie for her care in copyediting. Many thanks to the reviewers for their suggestions and insight: Lynne Hamer, University of Toledo; Michelle Lorraine Jay, University of South Carolina; Kimberly A. Truong, Northeastern University; and
Anita Wadhwa, Harvard University.
I am continuously grateful to Kelly Clark/Keefe, teacher extraordinaire and
wonderfully creative friend, who keeps me supplied with captivating artwork
and with intriguing examples and thoughts. In addition to thanking colleagues
and prior students who graciously allowed me to use their words or photographs
in previous editions and that remain in this edition, I want to specifically acknowledge those who have provided images or words appearing for the first time in this
edition. Heartfelt thanks to Jane Amundsen, Anna Fariello, Caroline Manheimer,
Massimo ­Schuster, and Jonathan Treat, who provided images and, in Anna’s and
Jonathan’s cases, examples from their work for use in this text. Jacob Diaz, Eve
Krassner, and Fran Oates kindly allowed me to include selections from their own
research, providing inspiration for others. I am indebted to Max Marmor and the
Samuel H. Kress Foundation for supporting my desire to repurpose data and
research notes from the academic art museum study as examples in this book. I
am grateful as well for how my involvement in the museum project whetted my
interest in museum ­education and art history and led me to access images of art
from open-source resources of the J. Paul Getty Museum and the National Gallery
of Art for inclusion in this book.
In addition to those who have contributed images and examples, others
have assisted me in a variety of ways. Thanks to fiber artist and friend Caroline
Manheimer, whose work graces the cover and who often enticed me away from
the computer for a walk or to share a meal. Appreciation goes to friend Carol
Lawrence, who eased my worries by responding to several chapters I was finding
particularly troublesome. In the midst of dissertation work at a university many
states away, Skip Grieser e-mailed to thank me for writing the book and suddenly
found himself with the added job of responding to some draft chapters for the
new edition. Rod Webb provided sage advice and support. Marleen Pugach, Kelly
Clark/Keefe, and Caroline White are my dependable, responsive, and brilliant
go-to’s when I’m struggling with any sort of question or dilemma. I am grateful.
ix
Brief Contents
CHAPTER 1
Meeting Qualitative Inquiry 1
CHAPTER 2
Research Design and Other Prestudy Tasks: Doing What
Is …
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