Derrington 2012 thesis.pdf - Anglia Ruskin Research Online

5.9.1 Administration of interviews
Magazines about activities and hobbies, from motor sport, dirt-bikes, quad-biking,
street art, skate-boarding and internet applications, to drumming and wildlife, were
available to look at and read in the interview room. Their purpose was to help
students to feel comfortable and interested in the setting. Blair’s (2000) review of
protocols for child interviews suggests that drawing can be an aid to recall, so
coloured pens, pencils and paper were also made available. The interviewer suggested
students could draw pictures to illustrate what they are talking about or to do a time
line as they thought and chatted about their past. If students wanted to listen to music
they were able to use their own MP3 players or the CDs on offer 41 .
It was decided that using semi-structured interviews, rather than narrative interviews,
would be the most effective way to engage with the students. The need to lead and
follow could only be achieved sensitively in this way and it allowed students to talk
about what they wanted to and for the interviewer to feed the questions into the
conversation as appropriate (Coolican, 2009). This gave the interviews more internal
reliability and validity because both interviewer and interviewee jointly constructed
the interview (Mishler, 1986).
The school’s system for child protection would have been followed had a student
disclosed or said anything which gave the interviewer particular concern for the
student’s welfare. At the start of each interview, the student was reminded about the
audio recording, who would be listening to it and its purpose. They were told that
they could choose to stop the recording at any point and asked if they understood that,
before the conversation began. At the end they were thanked for their time, for
sharing their thoughts and asked if they had any questions.
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%" !Bottles of water were provided and sweets were offered as they left!
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