Qualitative Research Basics: A Guide for Engineering Educators

solving, stress critical thinking, and use technology?” It is better to phrase these into
separate questions. Internal bias is also something to avoid. The question “How does
being the only woman on your design team cause conflict?” assumes that the conflict is
caused by there being only one woman. A more appropriate question is “What factors do
you see as causing conflict on your design team?” This question allows the participant to
fully articulate her own view of what causes conflict.
Another important aspect of developing interview questions is ensuring consistency with
your epistemological perspective and overall research design. Consider as an example a
study of critical thinking of engineering students. If one were conducting this study from
a constructivist perspective, one interview question might be:
What kinds of engineering problems require critical thinking?
This question goes to the constructivist aspect of the study, in that it probes the student’s
own view of what is meant by critical thinking and how it can be applied in engineering.
The following question, although important, would not be consistent with a constructivist
perspective:
How do your engineering professors teach or demonstrate critical thinking?
Asking the student about how they have learned critical thinking from their professors
moves beyond the constructivist perspective towards social constructionism. Keeping the
interview protocol focused within the areas of the general research design ensures that the
specific research questions will be answered. In this example, while asking about the
professors may seem important, including that question in the protocol can lead to a study
that is unfocused and does not provide the data needed to answer the research questions.
Conducting the Interview
Preparing for an interview takes considerable planning. Punch (1998) lists several issues
to consider (p. 180):
• Who will be interviewed and why?
• How many will be interviewed, and how many times will each person be
interviewed?
• When and for how long will each respondent be interviewed?
• Where will each respondent be interviewed?
• How will access to the interview process be organized?
Each of these aspects represents an important part of the research design process, and
depends on the epistemological perspective and research questions of the study. A
phenomenological study may involve single, one-hour interviews with 5-20 participants,
while a narrative study might involve many hours of multiple interviews with a single
person.
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