Interviews

In August and September 2003, interviews were conducted in Oman with the 52 participants, representing the nine participant categories selected for the research (see Table 4.1 Interview Categories and Participants). These meetings, conducted at a time and place the respondent suggested, were approximately 60 minutes in duration. Many of the interviews took place on the Sultan Qaboos University campus: for SQU students, SQU MCD lecturers, and SQU management. Meetings with government policymakers and employers were conducted at their respective workplaces, and parents were interviewed at their homes. The process of the interviews was significantly enhanced by the participants’ interest and willingness to be involved; especially gratifying with initial concerns by members of the parent category, as noted in s4.3.2.

4.3.4.1 Interviewing Issues: Females As a male researcher, my preference to interview women and parents in private was not culturally appropriate, as Islam does not encourage meetings of men and women in private and Arab women spend little time alone. Therefore, three female lecturers were nominated from the SQU Language Centre to help conduct interviews when any female participant requested to be interviewed by a female interviewer; a situation which would add a third party influence to this study. Prior to an interview, female participants were given the option of being interviewed by a woman. Fortunately, all female participants in this study agreed to be interviewed by this

researcher. This implies trust between the researcher and the female participants, indicating that expected participant reluctance resulting from Oman’s high bonding social capital environment was mitigated through this trust.

4.3.4.2 Interviewing Issues: Interpreter All interviews were conducted without an interpreter; as expected, Arabic was used. This entailed translating the English language research questions into forms that were linguistically and culturally relevant as well as a true and accurate translation of the English questionnaire. Similarly, the accurate

this thesis provided further challenge (see 4.3.3 regarding translation of the interview guides for the participants).

4.3.4.3 Interview Technique As noted, open-ended questions were used to build upon answers and thus to explore complex issues related to Omani mass communication graduates’ employability. The questions sought to explore factors relevant to the research questions by probing participants’ experiences, views and reasoning, with further

questioning eliciting concrete examples and deeper explanations of certain issues. The intention of this strategy was to compare and contrast recurring themes.

During the initial telephone contact with interviewees, this researcher introduced himself and the research topic. The majority of the participants expressed a desire to participate in this study, to the extent that some wished to be interviewed immediately. However, interviews of participants by category were planned to gather information from a range of category participants to add weight to technique and questioning for following interviews. As an example, discussions were undertaken with those from the unemployed graduates’ category prior to the employer category, in order to widen interview topics with employers. This enriched the data and added depth and credibility to the research method.

Prior to an interview, each participant was provided with a research consent form explaining the purpose of the study. As noted above, participants were assured that confidentiality procedures were, and remain, in place; and permission to tape-record the interview was obtained in all cases. The participants were further assured of the erasure of responses when the research is completed. All interviews were conducted in the Arabic language, common to this researcher and all participants.

4.3.4.4 Testing Questions To further enrich the data and open new lines of enquiry, this researcher sought to test the impressions gained in earlier interviews and in different categories of stakeholders by using them as additional prompts in later meetings with participants (s.4.3.4.3). Within the context of human capital theory, the complexity of the cultural, organisational and educational conditions associated with the employment of the MCD graduates from SQU in Oman was expected to be revealed.

4.3.4.5 Tape-recording Interviewees’ Contributions All participants agreed that the researcher could audio-tape the interviews. Two audio tape-recorders were used in case one failed to operate, an event which occurred twice. During the transcription stage, the

recorded tapes proved clear and the transcription process effective, preserving the sequences and conduct of the interviews.

In the interest of confidentiality, this researcher transcribed the interview tapes and then translated the transcriptions from Arabic to English, with the added advantage of greater absorption of the information: responses, nuances and side issues that arose. The Arabic versions of the anonymous transcripts were checked by the relevant participant and approved. To add validity to translations and transcriptions, three lecturers at the SQU Language Centre listened to three randomly chosen interview tapes (with names and references deleted) then read the translated and transcribed hard copies for comment. Their approvals of the translation and transcribing are at Appendix 2, Data Collection

Transcribing and Translation. The transcripts were interpretatively coded into categories. The following section discusses the actual data analysis.