Phase F—Direct information, models & experience

Goal

"I have gained direct information, models, and experience not readily available from other sources."

Background

The opportunity to interview or observe someone whose work is central to your subject may arise at any time during your project. This phase is inserted here not to say you should refrain from interviewing until now, but because it usually takes some time to find out what can be learned from other sources and to formulate the questions that can best be answered by directly, that is, by getting access to the kinds of experiences that are not often written down.

Processes

Interviewing
Questionnaires and Surveys
Observation
Evaluation
Participant Observation

Interviewing

moves you out of the library and internet and into the world of actual people you can talk or interact with about your projects. The goal is to get answers to questions for which you cannot easily get answers from the published literature. (If you want suggestions of what to read, who to contact, or other guidance, think of that as talking with an initial guide, not as interviewing.)

By session 7
Write down five questions you would like someone to answer for you—not just any questions, but ones for which you can't easily get answers from published literature.
During session 7
Draft an interview guide.
Practice interviewing.
Refine the interview guide based on the practice. (Do this only if it helps you actually interview someone who would help you meet the goal of this phase.) Write out fully your opening and closing "script," but an outline is usually sufficient for what lies in-between.
After session 7
Identify practitioners or activists who can help you interpret the controversies and politics around your issue.
Establish contacts with some of these people and schedule interviews.
Prepare interview guide; practice mock interviews using equipment; conduct interviews; and digest recordings or notes.

Refer to a conventional text on social science research methods, such as Schloss and Smith (1999) for detail on the following items:

Questionnaires & Surveys

Conduct a pilot survey or questionnaire, revise it in light of how it went, then implement the revised version.

Observation

Identify practitioners who can demonstrate their work.
Attend demonstrations of practices that might be incorporated in project.

Evaluating

Prepare evaluations, conduct them, and analyze the data.

Participant Observation

Arrange participant observation at workshops on practices that might be incorporated in project.

Follow up

After the interview, observation, etc.
Prepare a brief written report on interview conducted, participant observation, or workshop attended. Write this report in a form that is useful to you in drafting your project report—do not address it to the advisor. There is no need to give blow by blow or a full transcript. Focus instead on the "direct information, models, and experience [you gained] not readily available from other sources."

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