reflection on my semi- structured interviews

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 I have now completed 4 semi-structured interviews for my inquiry topic- 1 more to go!

What went well:

- I kept the interview on/ around the area I wanted to explore

- I used follow up questions that responded to certain words and topics that arose to expand answers

- it felt like a conversation more than an interview

- I completed each interview in an hour

- I think I have come away from them having learnt so much already about my inquiry topic and the dance world in general.


what didn't go as well:

- struggled to phrase some questions because I was conscious about not asking leading questions.

- when a question resulted in a dead end, the flow of the interview was halted slightly while I asked the next pre-prepared question to encourage them to talk about another topic. This may not have been as much of a bad thing as I had initially thought, but I think this could have been improved.

- i feel like I haven't picked up on some topics in the interviews, so I think next time, availability permitting, I will spread the interviews over a few more days so that I have more time to reflect and transcribe each interview before the next one.


what I have learnt through this whole process:

- I think I have learnt that how you phrase a sentence is so important- even one change in a word can alter the response.

- giving a participant time to think and pause can result in interesting avenues of questioning that I hadn't considered as much before.

- This maybe less so much what I have learnt but what has affected my other interviews. When a word that had been mentioned previously in an interview cropped up again I asked if the person could expand on it and tell me their thoughts on that topic, like I did in the other interviews. I think this process has made me more aware of seeing patterns overall already and through self-reflection honing the interview process so that it is fruitful.

- The importance of listening and responding. I have found that by really listening to the participants I have been able to pick up on a phrase or word they have said and ask questions that help expand their answer. This made the interview feel more like a conversation and also helped me to gain a more in-depth answer.

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