Training and Development

Potter and Hepburn claim (2005: 300) that students ‘often perform open-ended interviews with almost no training’. Richards (2011) has pointed out the lack of attention given to interviewer training generally. Uhrenfeldt et al. (2007: 47) also express the concern that ‘strategies to assist novice researchers in developing their interviewing skills have been limited to date’. Novice researchers are sometimes given general guidelines and checklists but rarely engage in training which focuses on interview interaction, strategies, and dilemmas. This chapter offers ideas for working with transcripts, either researchers’ own data or secondhand data. It also features tasks designed to raise awareness of interview choices and interaction. The last part of the chapter offers guidance on suitable reading for novice researchers.