Establish Access To, MakingContact With, and SelectingParticipants

9210033A Sharon

9310053A Jamie

THE PERILS OF EASY ACCESS___________________________________

★Beginning interviewers

Easies path to the goal

The most difficult to the interview

Interviewing People Whom You Supervise

Choose your supervise

Conflict interest of existing Hierarchy

May not talk openly

Interviewing Your Students

Be respected

Hardly be open to his or her teacher

Interviewing AcquaintancesUnpredictable Limit the full potential interviewFollow up and distort Relationship broken

Interviewing Friends★ Easy access Friendship Assume understand already Seldom to develop merit

Taking oneself just seriously enough

★ Not take themselves seriously as

researchers

Find easy access

Establish by uncritical attitude

Doing research as an elite occupation

Less practice

Frustration

Hard to find interest, status, method and

usefulness instead of finish a requirement

Purpose

Establish equity in the interviewing

relationship

ACCESS THROUGH FORMAL GATEKEEPERS____________________________________

Gatekeepers

Control access to the potential participants

Range from legitimate to self- declared

Gatekeepers Parents, guardians, teachers,

principals, superintendents to be respected

Key point

Face to the person who has responsibility

for the operation of the site and gain the

access

★ Research an experience or a process that takes place in a lot of sites Don’t need to seek access through an authorityEx. One teacher who teaches in many cram schools

Key point The more adult the potential participants,the more likely that access can be direct.

INFORMAL GATEKEEPERS___________________________________

★ Persons who are widely respected, buthold moral suasion without having formal authority

seeking access without using formal way,but to gain their participation as a sign of respect

help researchers gain access to others

★ Self-appointed gatekeepers

Must be informed

Must try to control everything

ACCESS AND HIERARCHY__________________________________

★ Difference between research and

evaluation or policy studies

The latter are often sponsored by an

agency

Affects the equity of the relationship

between interviewer and participant

Interviewers appear higher instead outside

Key point

Establish access through peers rather

than through people “above” or “below” them

MAKING CONTACT___________________________________

★Do it yourself.

Don’t rely on third parties

Have not internalized in it

Do not have investment in it

Seldom answer questions naturally

might arise

★ Contact visit

Select participants

build a foundation for interview

relationship

MAKE A CONTACT VISIT IN PERSON_______________________________

Telephoning is the first step

Avoid asking yes or no questions

Major purpose

To set up a time that the interviewer can

meet participants in person to discuss the

study.

★ Contact visit

Most important purpose

To build a basically interactive

relationship with participants

Group contact visit :

Save time

Explain the project to whole group once

Effect the attitude of others in the group

Second important purpose

Decide whether the potential participant is

interested

Allow interviewers

Familiar with participants live and work

Try to keep interviewing appointment

Building mutual respect

Explain the nature of interview study

Participants understand:

The nature of the study

How he or she fits into it

The purpose of the three-interview

sequence

Building the Participant Pool

Choose the right participants

subject related to participants’ experience

Keep record of suitable participants’ key

characteristic

make a pool of suitable participants

Some Logistical Consideration

Develop a data base of participants

Facilitate communication

To inform final choice

Follow-up after interview

Participants’ information

Home, address, phone number and when

to contact or not to contact with them

Pay attention to the details of communication

avoiding missed or confused appointment

Contact visit

decide time, place and date

be flexible to accommodate participants’

choice

Thank cards or letters

Selecting Participants

Randomly selecting participants

experimental & quasi-experimental

In-depth interview studies

No randomness selection

Need participants’ agreement

Purposeful Sampling

Maximum variation

the most effective basic strategy

maximum range of sites and people

ex : Students’ oral reading fluency would

influence their reading comprehension

determine the range of school sites

determine the range of students’ age

Negative cases

select participants outside the range

check researchers’ studies not to draw

an easy conclusion

Snare to Avoid in the Selecting Process

Participants don’t want to participate

interviewer too easily accepting rejection

interviewer too enthusiastic trying to

convince reluctant participants

Participants too eager to participate

How many participants are enough?

Sufficiency

enough number to reflect the range of

participants and sites

ex: Students’ age, girls, boys, their

background and experience of oral

reading

Saturation of information

the information is nothing new at all

The number of participants is different for

each study and each researchers

time, money and other resources

Not learning anything decided new

+ the process becoming laborious

ENOUGH!!