Teaching Interviewing Techniques to Undergraduate Students

• In Event: Teaching Qualitative Methods in Undergraduate Political Science

Abstract

Interviewing is one of the most widely used methods in the social sciences, including Political Science. Nevertheless, the emphasis on teaching quantitative methods means proper training for qualitative methods in general, and interviewing specifically, is lacking at the undergraduate level. Introducing undergraduate students to interview techniques is important for two reasons. It disabuses them of the notion that interviewing is an easy casual, method of collecting data. Additionally, it provides them with a rigorous methodology that will be valuable to their current academic research and their futures as academics, public administrators, political staffers, or activists. In this paper we seek to contribute to the literature on teaching and learning by providing tangible tools for instructors to better prepare their students to conduct interviews as a method. More specifically, we introduce an assessment rubric for interview questions development, designed to measure the quality of student-generated questions. Anchoring our discussion on the development of good and ethically sound interview questions, our paper explores best practices in teaching interviewing techniques in four courses from four institutions with distinct characteristics: a regional comprehensive university, a medium sized public university, a public historically black institution, and a private small liberal arts college. We provide a quantitative analysis of the interview questions assessment rubric and a case study analysis of the four courses in which the rubric was introduced. We explore how varying class and course characteristics (class size, school size and type, institutional support for qualitative methods, course type, among others) can influence the teaching of interviewing techniques. We conclude by providing tangible suggestions for rigorous and ethical development of interview techniques.

Authors

• Mary P. McGuire, SUNY, Cortland

• Pedro G. dos Santos, College of Saint Benedict

• Xiaoye She, California State University San Marcos

• Carmen Victoria Walker, Bowie State University