What Does The Three-Interview Series Include?

Jan 09

It is toilsome to explore a topic by conducting a one-short interview. This is when the concept of three-interview comes into the picture. This blog shares what three series it includes and what they outline.

Interview one – focused life history

At the first stage of an interview, you have to ask your participants to tell you about their experience in the context of the topic. During this stage, you can ask them to reconstruct their early experience. For example, you are to study the experience of teachers in their professional life, you can ask your participants to share their real-time experience that they had felt during coaching, counselling, and camping before they stepped into school teaching life. Make sure your questions are not restricting them to share their feelings. For instance, try to ask them “How did they choose this profession?” instead of ‘Why did you become a teacher?” By asking “How”, you will be able to help them constitute their experience that they had in their family, school or work experience.

Interview two – the details of experience

The second stage of the interview requires you to ask your participants to discuss their present but not the past experience. If you take the same example mentioned above, you should ask your participants “What do they do in their jobs?” Here you are not supposed to talk about their opinions rather their experience upon which their opinions will be built. The questions must cover a wide area such as the relationship with students, their mentors, students’ patents, other faculties of the school, and administrators.

Interview three – reflection on the meaning of the experience

In the third stage, you will ask questions that will reflect on the meaning of their experience. Here “meaning” addresses the intellectual and emotional connection between participants’ work and life. This stage revolves around participants’ understanding about their experience. The questions, at this stage, may include, for example, “What sense does teaching/mentoring make to you?” or ‘Where do you see yourself in the future?” These questions will ask your participants to ponder how factors brought them to their present situation. This stage requires a combination of the historical account of participants’ experience and concrete details of their current experience. Therefore, it is paramount that you lay a strong foundation at stage one and two.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.