Qualitative Research Interviewing
Biographic Narrative and Semi-Structured Methods
- Tom Wengraf - Middlesex University, UK
Qualitative Research
Qualitative Research Interviewing is unique in its conceptual coherence and the level of practical detail that it offers to the beginning social researcher. It provides a comprehensive resource for those concerned with the practice of semi-structured interviewing, the most commonly used interview approach in social research, and in particular for depth, biographic narrative interviewing, the interview methods of choice in qualitative research. It covers the full range of practices from the identification of topics through to strategies for writing up research findings in diverse ways.
The first part describes a coherent conceptual framework for understanding semi-structured and biographic narrative interviewing. It uses examples of good and bad practice from both published research and work by students and field researchers to clarify the following issues:
- The purpose of research
- The development of research questions
- The initial design of interview questions for differently-constructed interview sessions, including follow-up questions
- Generating narrative questions and note-taking
- Choices of random or theory-driven 'samples' of informants
- Managing contact during, and after interviews.
The second part deals with data analysis and writing up. The philosophy and politics of transcribing, coding and interpretation are dealt with in a highly practical way and the complex procedure of biographic-narrative interpretation -distinguishing lived life from told story - is described and illustrated in an accessible way.
The final sections deal with theorising and the writing up of a range of interview reports using a variety of textual strategies. Examples of good and bad practice from student and published research are included throughout.
Qualitative Research Interviewing is a unique and indispensable resource for learning the art and craft of a wide spectrum of methods and approaches in interview based research.
Excellent and detailed guidance on how to prepare for the biographical interview.
The purposes of ‘qualitative research interviewing’ are to introduce the reader to different approaches and frameworks for conducting structured and semi-structured interviews. This text is a fully comprehensive resource which discusses different conceptual frameworks available for analysing and making sense of interview transcripts. Examples of conceptual frameworks and guidelines are provided for conducting evaluations of transcripts and theoretical inferences from the data to build hypothesis or general models of typologies.
This text is recommended for researchers who seek to design research questions suitable for conducting in-depth interviews and make inferences from the data gathered. The level of the book is accessible to postgraduate and doctoral students as well as anyone working as part of a research team.
Great book for interview based research. great depth in semi-structured interviewing
This book offers students an in depth resource for certain methodological approaches
we would recommend it for any student undertaking narrative style research at masters + level
Tom Wengraf has produced a thorough and detailed guide to his biographical narrative method and the interviewing techniques which faciltate this approach. In this sense this text will be very useful, if not essential, for the student or academic researcher interested in following this specific method. This is a specialist text and not designed for students or researchers seeking instruction about general interviewing techniques. However, experienced researchers may find Wengraf opens up some new ideas and fresh ways of approaching narrative interviewing
Excellent for interview techniques
Excellent clear over view of this field. Valuable reading for students seeking to either understand or use this method in their research
An indepth consideration of a wide range of interviewing processes clearly described.
