The interview reconsidered: context, genre, reflexivity and interpretation in sociological approaches to interviews in higher education research

Abstract

The paper makes a number of arguments about the research interview and maintains that, despite the near ubiquity of the method in higher education research, the interview remains under-theorised and mis-described. We argue that by virtue of being ‘insider’, higher education research involves a form of tacit ethnography where multiple sources of data impact on the interpretation of events. The ‘interview’ therefore needs to be understood in its rich contextual setting. The paper critiques the genre of journal writing and the tendency to under-describe methodology, with a reliance on a description solely of method. Papers that challenge this practice are discussed as offering alternative ways of writing research. Finally the paper analyses the role of reflexivity in interviews, both the researcher's and the researched. It points to the contradictions involved when the forms of reflexivity evoked are tied to the very policies and practices (for example, ‘employability’) we are attempting to critique. The paper concludes that we need a much richer understanding of our methodologies and of knowledge making.

Keywords:

• academic writing
• higher education research
• insider research
• reflexivity
• research interview