Semi-structured interviews

Another research method that was used was the interview. Kvale (1996) stated

‘an interview is an interchange of views between two or more people’ (Cohen et al., 2007, p. 368). He added that the exchange should be on a topic of mutual interest to both parties and is focused on the objectives of the research. Lain (1967) posited that ‘an interview is not solely subjective or objective, it is rather

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intersubjective’ (Cohen et al., 2007, p. 368). Through interviews, the subjects are able to discuss their own interpretations of the world and express their opinions.

‘The interview is a flexible tool for data collection’ (Cohen et al., 2007, p. 368).

‘Using interview method for data collection involves presentation of oral-verbal stimuli’ (Kothari, 2004, p. 97). According to King, Horrocks and Brooks (2018), an interview consists of a series of questions that the interviewer asks to get clarity about a phenomenon. The interview is a valuable tool as it allows the interviewees to share their beliefs, opinions and attitudes within their own contexts (McMillan & Schumacher, 2001). Moreover, during an interview, the interviewer has control over the sequencing of the questions, leaving space for spontaneity. Cohen et al. (2007) argued that ‘the interview is a powerful method’

but at the same time the researcher should be aware that it can be time consuming and ‘opened to interviewer’s bias’ (p. 368).

The researcher will explain the three most common types of interviews, namely unstructured, structured and semi-structured interviews. In an unstructured interview, the interviewer does not start the interview with predetermined questions. It is a flexible method of interview and the interviewer can ask questions in the order of preference. The main problem with this type of interview is comparability. It becomes tedious to compare the responses of one participant against another participant’s responses. However, a structured interviews follows a more rigid schedule of questions to ask during the interview (Cohen et al., 2007). It involves pre-set questions prior the interview and it is time consuming.

The problem with the structured interview method is that it is sometimes too rigid and the interviewer might miss important information that does not form part of the interview questions. Semi-structured interviews lie in between structured and unstructured interviews. The interviewer prepares a list of questions prior the interview but allow a degree of flexibility to the respondent to answer the questions set. Sub-questions are often formulated to assist the participants in answering the interview questions. However, one thing which is common in all the three types of interviews mentioned above is that the main objective of all the three is to provide information to answer the critical questions.

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The researcher used semi-structured interviews as the research method for data collection purposes and the informants were able to openly voice out their opinions about their learning of the concepts through the digitised resources.

During the semi-structured interview, there were fruitful conversations between the researcher and the participant regarding their learning. Deep and rich responses about how the learners were learning and why they were learning in such ways, emanated from the semi-structured interviews.

The questions set acted as a roadmap for the interview but eventually many other questions arose during the process to probe further into the phenomenon. All the questions set were geared towards answering the research questions. The interviews were based on drawings produced by the learners. The drawings showcased their learning. More information about the drawings is given in Section 4.4.6. The reason behind conducting the interview in parallel with the drawing activity was to set questions that would allow me to probe into the representations of the learners’ learning in the drawings. More information on the children drawings will be given later in Section 4.4.6 of this chapter.

It is crucial to look at the world from the children’s perspectives rather than those of an adult. According to Arksey and Knight (1999), children have different cognitive and linguistic development and they have a lower level of maturity than adults in answering questions (p. 116). Using the semi-structured interviews allowed rephrasing of questions to facilitate the learners of eight to nine years old to answer the questions. The researcher chose to combine the semi-structured interview method and the drawing activity to allow the children to give me authentic and trustworthy information about their learning. Moreover, the researcher prepared a sample introductory statement before conducting the interview. An example of the sample introductory statement is shown in Appendix 7. The reason behind drafting the sample introductory statement was to make the respondents (learners of eight to nine years old) feel at ease. It also helped me to establish trust with the children and to make the interview ‘non-threatening’

(Cohen et al., 2007 p. 393). It is noted that the researcher had to use creole, the first language, to address a few learners to build rapport with them.

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After the semi-structured interview, all the participants were grouped together and a group interview was conducted. The reason for conducting the group interview after the semi-structured interviews was to encourage interactions among peers. Cohen et al. (2007) argued that ‘group interviews might be less intimidating than individual interviews’ (p. 374). Eder and Fingerson (2003) stated that the ‘power and status dynamic is largely involved in interviewing children’

(Cohen et al., 2007, p. 374). The researcher had to ensure that the children were given a voice and were put in a setting where they were comfortable (Mayall, 1999). Prior to the interview, guidelines were set to ensure the smooth running of the group interview process and these sessions were moderated so that everyone had the opportunity to speak and not only one student dominated the session. The same introductory statement and the same interview schedule used for the individual interviews were used for the group interview. However, there was a greater degree of flexibility with regard to the group interview and thus there were more dynamics in the group interview. The next section explains how the interview schedule was prepared and piloted for refinement.