Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
“insider's” perspective. At this point, questions are more likely to conform to
the native's perception of reality than to the researcher's (see Schensul,
LeCompte, & Schensul, 1999).
Informal interviews are the most common in ethnographic work. They seem
to be casual conversations, but whereas structured interviews have an explicit
agenda, informal interviews have a specific but implicit research agenda. The
researcher uses informal approaches to discover the categories of meaning in
a culture. Informal interviews are useful throughout an ethnographic study in
discovering what people think and how one person's perception compares with
another's. Such comparisons help the fieldworker identify shared values in the
community—values that inform behavior. Informal interviews are also useful
in establishing and maintaining a healthy rapport.
Informal interviews seem to be the easiest to conduct. They do not involve
any specific types or order of questions, and they can progress much as a
conversation does, following the turns of the participant's or the questioner's
interests. These interviews, however, are probably the most difficult to conduct
appropriately and productively. Issues of ethics and control emerge from every
informal interview. How does the fieldworker establish and maintain a natural
situation while attempting to learn about another person's life in a relatively
systematic fashion? How can a completely open form, ripe for discovery, bal-
ance with an implicitly shaped structure designed to explore specific issues and
concerns? Finally, when is the time to take advantage of a golden opportunity
and when is it best not to pry further? Done well, informal interviewing feels
like natural dialogue but answers the fieldworker's often-unasked questions.
Informal interviews should be user-friendly. In other words, they should be
transparent to the participant after a short period of time. An informal inter-
view is different from a conversation, but it typically merges with one, form-
ing a mixture of conversation and embedded question. The questions typically
emerge from the conversation. In some cases, they are serendipitous and result
from comments by the participant. In most cases, the ethnographer has a series
of questions to ask the participant and will wait for the most appropriate time
to ask them during the conversation (if possible).
Informal interviews offer the most natural situations or formats for data
collection and analysis. Unfortunately, some degree of contamination is
always present. However skillful the interviewer, certain questions will impose
an artificiality. An experienced interviewer, however, learns how to begin with
nonthreatening questions deeply embedded in conversation before posing
highly personal and potentially threatening questions and to develop a healthy
rapport before introducing sensitive topics. Sensitivity to timing and to the par-
ticipant's tone is critical in interviewing—informal or otherwise. The chance
to ask a gang member about illegal activities might be lost if during the
