Getting beyond normative interview talk of sameness and celebrating difference

Abstract

The aim of this article is to problematise the use of the qualitative interview method within physical education (PE) research, but the discussion is equally relevant for the broader field of sport and exercise sciences. We argue that there is a tendency to pay lip‐service to the notion that knowledge is co‐constructed as multiple, contradictory, partial, cognitive, sensory and experienced in our research projects, whilst our interview practice can best be likened to a ‘form of opinion polling’. As critical, feminist researchers with an interest in matters of social justice, we explore the extent to which we are able to create interview encounters as arenas where researchers and informants can co‐construct stories of difference, and in particular, when faced with oppressive stories, whether they can create the space for alternative storylines to emerge? Drawing upon a critical analysis of our own interview practice, we suggest that a more ‘antagonistic’ form of interviewing may be appropriate if we wish to heed the linguistic turn in qualitative research and fulfil our ‘modest’ critical pedagogical objectives.

Keywords:

• qualitative interview
• narrative
• gender
• race
• physical education
• sport and exercise sciences

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Brett Smith as the editor and the two anonymous referees for their insightful comments on an earlier draft of this article.