Guide to Interviewing

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Guide to Interviewing

• Nutrition 531
• Winter 2009

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Why do qualitative interviews?

• Quantitative information may not be sufficient
  for decision-making.
• Qualitative information can be used to understand
  motivation, behavior and perspectives.
• Interview data can help to generate
  recommendations to improve a situation.
• During the interview respondents understandings
  can be enhanced and they can be encouraged to
  think about an issue in new ways.

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What makes a good interview?

• Interactivity
• Neutrality- dont
• express surprise, approval or disapproval
• laugh too much or make the interview seem like a
  chat you might have with a good friend
• seek clarification in a way that leads toward a
  particular answer
• Iterative questioning (use of non-leading probes
  to get more in-depth responses)

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What makes a good interviewer?

• Establishes good rapport friendly, warm
• Calm and confident
• Easily understood Speaks clearly, reads slowly,
  provides clarification when needed
• A good listener shows interest, listens
  actively, probes for clarification or more
  in-depth coverage
• Accurate documentation
• Professional conduct

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Multi-tasking while interviewing

• Make sure that all key points on interview guide
  are covered.
• Listen carefully, ask for clarity for areas of
  uncertainty.
• Guide/revise the direction of the interview
  (dont need to ask a question if answer already
  volunteered with earlier question).
• Keep the interview on track, but dont eliminate
  chances to collect new information.

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Ethics of Interviews

• Confidentiality
• Respondent has right to refuse to answer any
  question.
• Time is valuable interviewer has obligation to
  use respondents time wisely.

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Before the Interview

• Practice the script.
• Know the name of the person you are calling.
• Choose a quiet place.
• Have the script and pen in front of you.
• Be flexible if the respondent asks to need to
  reschedule.
• Have your availability in front of you.
• Be sure that you can call exactly on time to
  start the interview.

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Starting the Interview

• Hello, Im _____, a graduate student from the
  University of Washington Nutritional Sciences
  Program.
• Were working with the King County Board of
  Health to learn about school nutrition policies
  in King County school districts. We sent you a
  letter about this and scheduled an interview with
  you today. Is this still a good time for you?

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Assurance of Confidentiality

• Anything you tell us will be confidential. The
  report to the BOH committee will not include
  information about individual respondents or
  single school districts.

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During the Interview

• Anticipate possible questions and have responses
  ready.
• Dont offer your own opinion or experiences.
• Use non-committal responses to show you are
  listening.
• Keep the interview on track, and cover all
  topics.
• Remain polite, calm, flexible.
• Ask questions if a response is not clear.
• Write down specific quotes of interest.

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At the End of the Interview

• Scan your notes to see if you need any further
  clarification.
• Thank the respondent for their time and insight.
• Tell respondents that the report to the BOH
  committee will be posted at the class web site.

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After the Interview

• Review your notes.
• Add comments, details or clarifications.
• Add notes about anything that distracted from the
  interview.
• Re-write if needed for others on the team to
  read.
• Reflect about what went well, how else you might
  have handled anything that came up.

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Scheduling Conducting Interviews with Very Busy
People

• Positive and Persistent vs. Pushy
• Practice your introduction, be prepared to answer
  questions about the project.
• Secretary/Administrative Assistant as
  gatekeeper-your best friend in scheduling
• Be as available and flexible as possible- early
  morning or late afternoon may be best times-even
  weekends.
• Be punctual-call on time.
• Expect cancellations-be prepared to send
  materials again.
• Dont take anything personally-these are really
  busy people!

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Plan for Challenges.Examples from the Field

• You call a superintendant of a large district for
  your scheduled phone call, but find out that one
  of the districts high schools is in lock down
  because somebody brought a gun to school and the
  superintendant's secretary tells you that the
  superintendent can't take the call right now.
• The nutritional services administrator expresses
  frustration when you ask about the official
  school policies because she feels that they are
  doing the right thing for kids without policies.
  She seems to be offended about the whole concept
  of policies that determine what foods she can
  offer to students

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more challenges from the field

• The Health and Fitness Curriculum Coordinator for
  the district actually is a classroom teacher with
  added responsibilities but no release time or
  financial compensation for the extra work as a
  coordinator.  The coordinator resents being asked
  to do the survey by the superintendent and just
  gives very short answers, or says "don't know" to
  most of the questions.
• You ask the Health and Fitness Curriculum
  Coordinator about successes in implementing the
  Nutrition Education curriculum. She is extremely
  enthusiastic and begins to talk about how much
  weight shes lost, which vitamins shes taking,
  and how her husband used to eat Fruit Loops for
  breakfast and how he eats oatmeal every day and
  then she begins talking about her children's
  eating habits.

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..and a couple more..

• You are put on hold, waiting to speak with the
  Superintendent at the scheduled interview
  time-which has been rescheduled twice now. When
  he comes on the phone, he says that he has 15
  minutes and didnt receive any materials ahead of
  time.
• You are following your interview script and begin
  asking the nutrition services coordinator about
  specific standards and her perception of how
  often they are followed (never, sometimes,
  always, N/A). She begins to explain in great
  detail why certain ones arent followed. Your
  script doesnt specifically ask for reasons, what
  do you do?

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Practice Interview Questions