Sociology- Using interviews

Sociology- Using interviews

1. Uses: to gain trust and confidence of parents, pupils and teachers in school settings. This is particularly the case when exploring sensitive issues, like material deprivations, parental discipline and support for their children's education, or issues like bullying at school. This may lead to more honesty and openness in replies, providing more valid information than with other methods, and interpretivists would see this as providing more opportunities to develop hypothesis and explore meanings. Interviews may also help to overcome difficulties using self-completion questionnaires with young children, or with those having literacy difficulties or whose main language is not English.

2. Problems and limitations: Education settings require permission before conducting research. This means interviewers may be identified with authority figures like teachers, with consequent risks to the validity of the responses, as people may wish to not give too honest or critical answers to authority. The personal characteristics of the interviewers may influence the success and validity of the interviews. For example, adults interviewing school students may be identified as on the side of teachers; white people interviewing students from minority ethnic groups may not get as much cooperation or have as much of a shared understanding of their issues as an interviewer from the same ethnic group, who may also be able to conduct interviews in the first language of the respondant; male researchers may not be able to develop the same rapport with female students as a female interviewer would.

   • Interviews on sensitive issues may be seen as intrusive or threatening by those being interviewed. For example, parents may feel threatened by interviewers asking about how much support they provide for their children's education, and see such research as intrusive or unwarranted prying into their personal lives.