Fieldwork for the Semi-structured Interviews

In the following sub-sections I discuss the fieldwork for the qualitative data collection.

Semi-structured interview design and pilot study

I conducted face-to-face semi-structured interviews (Oakley, 1981) with 20 individuals; 13 women and 7 men.It was assumed that exploration of the attitudes of men towards DVAW would increase understanding of the issues highlighted with women. I first drew up a plan which included identifying who would be involved in the semi-structured interviews and to

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ensure that the research followed international and national ethical research standards (Boyce and Neale, 2006). Before starting the interview process, an interview guide was developed (see Appendix 5 for Interview Checklist). The questions focused on thematic areas, such as the concept of DVAW; attitudes towards DVAW in Libyan communities; and the influences of migration on attitudes towards DVAW. It was believed that these themes would prompt an understanding of DVAW in terms of cultural differentiation. The questions were structured in such a way to allow the interview process to flow naturally through the various themes. A number of additional questions or prompts were also used, dependant on the answer given by an interviewee to a specific question, such as ‘Would you like to say a little more?’ or ‘Could you expand on that point?’

Two face-to-face pilot semi-structured interviews were first conducted. The purpose of the pilot interview was to collate information about the research subject before settling on a somewhat more structured approach to semi-structured interviews (Fielding and Thomas 2008). One informant was a woman connected to the LWA whilst the other informant was contacted through a relative. This allowed me to adjust questions and think about appropriate terms and different ways of posing the questions.

Semi-structured interview sample

This section presents an overview of the participants in the qualitative part of this study. The sample was stratified by social class/occupation, age and marital status and selected from Libyan people resident in the UK, including both those settled permanently and temporarily resident. My research aims guided me to select my participants from all areas of life using

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snowball technique which was proved to be highly efficient as a number of people helped me in locating a sample. The sample was drawn (similarly to the above sample) from members of the LWA in Manchester; postgraduate students, doctors, also those involved in charities, housewives, single and divorced women, and women from different social and economic backgrounds. My contact with the LWA allowed me to gain access to interview some women in this group. A further three participants were also identified and contacted in person. This method of snowball sampling involved my identifying members of the population of interest.

The method is useful when it is difficult to identify individuals in the population (Robson, 2002: 265). However, one limitation of the method is that a sample could be defined by the pre-existing relationships of participants within the sample group (Downes and Rock, 2011).

Additionally, being a Libyan helped me to interview people with different backgrounds in the UK. Through my friends and my contacts, I was able to obtain access to middle-class and working-class women who were either housewives or working in shops or in childcare.

Participants were asked to identify other members of the target sample. Through the universities I obtained access to middle -class and some upper-class women. Apart from two participants (who were highly-educated, professional) the remainder were less-educated.

Analysis of personal details revealed variations in the ages, education, and length of time spent in the UK and marital status. It is interesting to note that some of the participants considered themselves to be middle-class even though they did not work in the UK. Because they came from wealthy families, they did not consider themselves to be working-class. One woman stated that they brought money from back home to the UK.

133 Overview of the women in the qualitative sample

The age of the thirteen women who participated in the study ranged from 31-54with the mean and median age being 41 years. All lived in Manchester. Seven women were married, five were divorced and one was single. The majority of married and divorced women had migrated to the UK soon after marriage in order to join their husbands, who were studying, working or were asylum seekers in the UK and were, in the main, permanent residents. One woman, however, came to the UK for educational purposes and was residing temporarily in the UK as she received funding from the Libyan government. In addition, a divorced woman had arrived with her children in the UK as an asylum seeker herself and she was permanently resident. In terms of educational background, five women graduated from secondary school and six women had a Bachelor’s degree. Two women had only primary school level education. Two women had been in the UK for two years, whilst five women had lived in the UK for 9-12 years and six women had been in the UK for 17-24 years. All the women in this study wore the hijab, the traditional head cover worn by Muslim women. One woman wore the niqab, the face covering which leaves only the eyes visible.

Overview of the men in qualitative sample

I made use of friends’ connections to find the male participants. The male participants were recommended by either friends or colleagues or by their wives (some of whom were students at MMU and Salford University). Initial contact was made with some participants who then suggested other individuals who could be willing to participate in the study.

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At the time the interviews were carried out, men aged between 33-49 years of age, with the mean and median age being 39 years. Three men had finished high school level prior to migrating, two men had gained a Master’s degree and one had attained a PhD. Three of the seven men were single, whilst four were married. Two men resided temporarily in the UK and five were permanent residents. Five participants were from the middle class in Libya, whilst one man considered himself to be upper class as a result of owning a business and possessing a large house in the UK and in Libya. Only one man considered himself to be working-class. Once the interviewee gave their consent, the interview was conducted, making use of active listening, patience, and flexibility to improve the quality of the interview experience.

Conducting the semi-structured interviews

The semi-structured interviews took place over a period of six months between October 2012 and April 2013. All the interviews were conducted in the respondents’ and my first language, Arabic. The interview commenced with thanking the participants for their time, introducing myself then advising the interviewee about the research. Oakley (1981: 33) stated that the interviewer should introduce herself as though beginning a conversation. I presented the participants with information about the interview and allowed them to ask questions, informing them that they could withdraw from the interview at any time. This was followed by asking them to sign the consent form. Semi-structured interviews were subsequently conducted at convenient dates, times and places. The interview setting can have a significant impact on the manner in which the interviews are conducted. The semi-structured interviews

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with women took place in many venues some were in women’s houses, and some at the university, some were in a mosque. Interviews with men, as noted, were all conducted in a public place, three interviews with men were conducted at MMU campus, and two were conducted at Didsbury mosque. The other two were in coffee shops.

The semi-structured interviews lasted, on average, one and a half hours each, with individual interviews ranging from around 45 minutes to three hours. At the end of each interview the informants were debriefed and each participant asked if there was anything else they would like to say.