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(Bryman & Bell, 2003). Gorden (1980) introduces the phenomena of ‘time and space’; he
mentions that space may influence time. He uses the example that, it would not be
appropriate to interview a teacher in a classroom, which may be filled with bookwork or
notices on a bulletin board that reminds that teacher of being a week behind schedule.
Therefore, it is more appropriate to select a space to interview the participant free from
interference. For example, face-to-face interviews at one of the organisations took place in
their meeting room.
In this study, the interviewer used two recording devices during the interviews. Two
devices allowed one to serve as a backup device should either one potentially fail. The
recording device was placed out of sight during the interview so as not to distract the
respondent from answering the questions truthfully. It was important to record the
interview, as that freed up the researcher to concentrate on the responses, take additional
notes on nonverbal communication, provoke answers and ask further seeking questions of
the respondent (Bryman & Bell, 2003).
The researcher was aware that participants had the right to refuse having the
interview recorded. Usually a small minority of participants may decline to have interviews
recorded (Gorden, 1980). Therefore, in preparation the interviewer brought with him
writing material to record the interview on paper. However all participants agreed to have
their interviews recorded.
Recording an interview leaves the interviewer free to do any note taking. However,
this does not eliminate the note taking process entirely. Some note taking is important. For
example, the use of probe notes are made during the interview by the interviewer, which
enable specific phrases used by the respondent to be clarified at a later time (Gorden, 1980).
Note taking was kept to a minimum so as not to distract the participant. Recording offers
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