I am trying to understand a phenomenon with regard to urban transformation. As part of this, I will be conducting an expert interview with respondents across local, regional, and national levels.
What are the ethical issues, technical considerations, and methodological issues with sending an interview guide to an expert ahead of the actual schedule?
Kamaldeen - there are no ethical issues as such - but an ethical review committee may question your exact reasons for sending out an interview schedule prior. Just ensure that you have a clear rationale and justification. What you propose is generally unconventional. I assume that you are talking about collecting qualitative interview data? In that case, the intention is for a 'naturally evolving' discussion that captures illuminative and rich data. One could argue that a pre-meditated interview might 'stifle' that natural process i.e. in essence - creating a Hawthorne Effect.
Dear Kamaldeen Yussif Kamaldeen,
Dean Whitehead already answered in a good way.
When conducting qualitative interviews, especially low- or semi-standardized ones, it is always important to maintain a certain "openness". This includes, for example, the aforementioned "natural flow" of an interview, as Mr Whitehead has already mentioned and the acceptance of dynamic processes. In other words, following on in your questioning from what has been said and not in a form of "guideline bureaucracy". If the respondents receive the guide beforehand, there is a 'danger' that they will prepare for it like a test and that the open discussion will be 'deserted'. And most of the time, we as researchers do not only want to hear a prepared answer (even if we get information from it), but also want to tap into deeper knowledge treasures and sometimes 'challenge' the respondents or even question them with critical appreciation.
These were methodical and technical considerations on my part.
From an ethical point of view, there should also be no problem if you have already prepared a study information and sent it to the persons concerned, informing them about your intentions and the objectives of the research in general. A written informed consent should also not give rise to any complaints to the ethics commissions.
Good Luck for your research and kind regards
I think a key element is that you are conducting expert interviews. My experience is that experts are likely to appreciate or even demand to know the topics for the interview, so sending the question in advance could help with your recruitment.
Also, with experts, I would not worry too much about whether sending your questions in advance will have a major influence on their responses ( a "Hawthorne effect"). In particular, they are likely to have considerable self-conscious experience with your research topic, which will be the basis for what they say.
Great question. I would echo David Morgan’s comment. I’ve found for instance in the educational field that when interviewing principals or other leaders, they frequently request the questions in advance prior to agreeing to join the study. You could explain that the questions are guiding questions allowing the consideration for a flow of other subquestions to emerge it that is part of your protocol. Good luck!
I do not think I would send exact questions to be asked, but telling your participants in advance what topics will be discussed is reasonable.
Remember that in qualitative inquiry, the question protocol is just a starting place. You need to ask follow-up questions and go where the interview leads. You may not end up asking all of the questions prepared in advance. You may end up asking more questions not on your list.
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