TY - JOUR

T1 - Using the telephone for narrative interviewing

T2 - a research note

AU - Holt, Amanda

PY - 2010/2

Y1 - 2010/2

N2 - Much social science research dictates that the most productive mode for producing narrative data is through face-to-face interviews, with other modes of data production assumed to be ‘second best’. This research note makes a unique contribution to this debate by reflecting on a research project which used telephones to produce participant narratives. It draws on data from both the researcher’s field notes and the participants themselves, who were asked after the narrative interview about their experiences of participating in a seemingly ‘strange’ research encounter. Furthermore, it describes the particular ideological, methodological and practical benefits that using telephones produced and reflects how such findings speak to Stephens’ (2007) recent work concerning telephone interviewing. This research note concludes that the use of telephones should be seriously considered as a preferred alternative to face-to-face interviews when considering how to conduct narrative interviews with particular groups of participants.

AB - Much social science research dictates that the most productive mode for producing narrative data is through face-to-face interviews, with other modes of data production assumed to be ‘second best’. This research note makes a unique contribution to this debate by reflecting on a research project which used telephones to produce participant narratives. It draws on data from both the researcher’s field notes and the participants themselves, who were asked after the narrative interview about their experiences of participating in a seemingly ‘strange’ research encounter. Furthermore, it describes the particular ideological, methodological and practical benefits that using telephones produced and reflects how such findings speak to Stephens’ (2007) recent work concerning telephone interviewing. This research note concludes that the use of telephones should be seriously considered as a preferred alternative to face-to-face interviews when considering how to conduct narrative interviews with particular groups of participants.

KW - narrative interviews

KW - parenting

KW - participants’ experiences

KW - telephone interviews

U2 - 10.1177/1468794109348686

DO - 10.1177/1468794109348686

M3 - Journal article

VL - 10

SP - 113

EP - 121

JO - Qualitative Research

JF - Qualitative Research

SN - 1468-7941

IS - 1

ER -