Interviewing teachers by telephone

Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung

This paper presents specific and useful suggestions for successfully using phone interviewing as a means of data collection in research studies. The lessons and insights are intended for anyone conducting research with phone interviews, particularly the novice researcher. The authors speak directly to the reader and offer numerous practical recommendations, generally absent from the traditional research methods literature.

WIT Transactions on the Built Environment, 2013

Face to face (intercept/at home) and telephone surveys have been thoroughly investigated in the service industry literature. Regardless of this, the so far limited studies in the public transportation sector do not state clearly which method yields the better results. Besides, evaluating the more appropriate datacollection mode is a complex task, due to the many constraints imposed (e.g. time, budget, and so on). This paper will critically compare the results of two different surveys conducted in 2012 within the Cagliari metropolitan area by the local transit agency CTM, with the chief goal to evaluate which of the two administration methodologies produces the more reliable results. A total of 500 fairly long interviews with CTM's users and 714 short interviews with non users were collected through the telephone survey, whilst the on-board intercept survey resulted in 3173 interviews. The most significant strength of the telephone methodology referred to the possibility to reach non users and to elicit information on the reasons behind their decision to rely solely on private transport. On the other hand, the main strongpoint of the on-board methodology has regarded the high representativeness of the data collected, rich in information and qualitatively reliable. Therefore, the two approaches do not exclude each other, with on-board and telephone surveys that might be targeted at users and non users, respectively. Finally, this paper is expected to improve the knowledge of existing and likely demand for bus operators and offers valuable lessons for public transport agencies worldwide.

Evaluation and Program Planning, 1986

Computer-Assisted Telephone Interviewing (CATI) is a tool designed to assist interviewers in almost every aspect of a telephone survey. This article reviews the current status of CATI with special attention to microcomputer-based systems. Most of the literature in this area has focused on the implementation and design of CA TI systems. This paper takes a broader perspective by examining the adminktrative, methodological and research issues surrounding the use of CATI. The primary conclusion is that CATI systems can aid in the administration of telephone surveys in addition to reducing sources of survey error. However, these systems are neither inavpensive nor easily implemented. Perhaps the greatest potential for CATI is in the area of research, where their structured use can lead us to a better understanding of the survey research process in general.

International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 2012

"The use of telephones as a medium for conducting interviews is becoming an increasingly popular data collection method. Despite both the frequency of use of this data collection method and the many advantages conferred to researchers, this method is often considered suspect within the academic community. In methodological discussions of interviewing, the use of the telephone is frequently ignored. The purpose of this article is to explicate the key differences between interviewing by telephone and interviewing in person and highlight three specific challenges to interviewing over the telephone—the sample, the tools, and the medium. This article considers specifically how recent research in management and communications on distanced leadership provides insight into the tradeoffs associated with interviewing through this medium. This data collection medium has clear and distinct advantages, such as providing researchers with flexibility and access that is unavailable through traditional methods, and many of the challenges of telephone interviewing may simply be the result of a natural trade off that exists with respect to all research methods. In order to safeguard against some of the inherent weaknesses of this method, this article provides several lessons that can better inform those researchers who wish to engage in telephone interviews."

1999

In July 1995, Social and Community Planning Research (SCPR) began a programme of research to take an in-depth look at the role of interviewers in the survey nonresponse „process. The programme is divided into three sub-projects. This article describes the analysis undertaken for Sub-Project 2 which deals mainly with the noncontact component of non response. The analysis is based on call record data from the random half of the 1995/96 Family Resources Survey (FRS) undertaken by SCPR. The particular aim of the analysis is to examine how day of week and time of day of calling affect (a) the probability of contact and (b) the probability of subsequently achieving a productive interview. Combining these estimates with information on costs and survey designs, definitions of efficient calling strategies can, in principle, be developed.

amstat.org

Computer assisted telephone interviewing, and to a lesser degree, computer assisted face-to-face interviewing, are by now widely used in survey research. Recently, self-administered forms of computer-assisted data collection, such as web surveys, have become extremely popular. Advocates of computer assisted interviewing (CAI) claim that its main advantages are improved data quality and lower costs. This paper summarizes what is currently known about computer assisted data collection methods. The emphasis is on data quality and the influence of technology on the respondent.

Qualitative Research, 2013

This article considers spoken interaction in semi-structured qualitative research interviews, comparing those that are conducted by telephone or face-to-face. It draws upon recent empirical research that illuminated some of the differences that may be observed between these two interview modes. Methodological techniques drawn from Conversation Analysis were used to conduct a systematic and transparent comparison of the interview interactions, focusing on the spoken interactional devices that researcher and interviewee employ in order to pursue and maintain a collaborative and comprehensible dialogue. The article begins with an overview of previous discussion on the interactional effects of the telephone in qualitative interviews. Here, we find that while instructional texts have traditionally advised that the telephone mode is not well-suited to the task of qualitative interviewing -primarily because the lack of face-to-face contact is said to restrict the development of rapport and a 'natural' encounter -researchers giving personal accounts of conducting telephone interviews tend to offer more nuanced or critical reflections on the extent to which the lack of visual cues affects the interaction in practice. Empirical findings are then presented on: formulation and completion, clarification and comprehension, acknowledgement, interviewees' checks on the 'adequacy' of their talk, and the Downloaded from 88 Qualitative Research 13(1) duration of interviews. Key findings were that: completion or formulation of interviewee talk by the researcher was more common in face-to-face interviews; interviewee requests for clarification were slightly more common in telephone interviews; vocalized acknowledgements given by the researcher were less frequent in telephone interviews; interviewee checks on the adequacy of their responses were more common in telephone interviews; and telephone interviews tended to be shorter than those conducted face-to-face. The article discusses possible explanations for the findings that emerge alongside consideration of some potential implications.