Semi-structured interviewing as a data collection method in PR

I've already mentioned doing interviews a couple times in the previous posts, but this entry will be dedicated to the topic itself. Semi-structured interviews are one of the main tools used in participatory research approaches, The reason why this method is called 'semi-structured' interviews, is because the questions determined a priori to the actual interview are merely used as a guide for the researcher, not a strict list that must be followed. Many of the questions are determined in the midst of the interview itself, determined by what the participant wants to talk about and what seems interesting to the researcher. Sometimes, the questions that are written before hand are deemed irrelevant in the particular interview, and can thus be skipped if the researcher thinks this is so.

There are two specific types of interviews that can be used effectively in participatory research; these are (a) individual semi-structured interviews and (b) key informant emi-structured interviews. I'll start off, as most people do, with (a).

Individual interviews are used to obtain representative information. As information that is obtained from individual interviews is more personal when compared to group interviews (for obvious reasons) it has a higher probability of revealing conflicts within the community as respondents may feel that can speak more freely without their neighbors present. One should attempt to interview as broadly representative a sample as possible; as participatory research places emphasis on those individuals who are at the very bottom of the society in which they are working, these individuals must be included in the interviews as well. One can also interview random people that happen to pass-by the researchers  as these may reveal useful information and unexpected viewpoints.

The other type of interview that I will be talking about are interviews with individuals who are deemed 'key informants'. These types of semi-structured interviews are used to obtain special knowledge, as a key informant is anyone who has a special knowledge on a particular topic (such as a merchant on transportation and credit, midwife on birth control practices, or farmers on agricultural practices). Key informants are expected to be able to answer questions about the knowledge and behavior of others and specially about the operations of the broader systems in which the individual and their community is immersed. While it is possible that the information garnered by key informants may be misleading, they are still a may possible source of information for the participatory researcher. Valuable key informants are outsiders who live in the specific community, such as teachers or doctors, people from different communities, and individuals that have 'married in' to the community. They types of individuals usually have a more distanciated perspective on the practices within the community, and can thus offer more objective information on the community than the community members.

Thus concludes this post on semi-structured interviews and how they are essential to collecting data using the participatory research approach. This post was by no means a comprehensive account of interviews, as they are unexpectedly complex things to do correctly - however, it was just a basic idea of what they can provide a good researcher.