Reciprocal Peer Interviewing

Abstract

Feminist researchers are acutely aware of the difficulties facing researchers as they try to bridge social locational differences between interviewer and interviewee. What we call reciprocal peer interviewing offers a significant opportunity for interviewees to speak in their own voice and exercise control over the interview process. This paper reports on the application of this method to a study of women's contributions to provisioning within a low-income community. It involves women interviewing each other in dyads after both underwent a brief training session. The celebratory dinner that proceeded the interview session had complementary effects but is not integral to the method. Comparable in some ways to focus group interviews, this method provided space for women to co-construct their experiences in response to the research questions. The qualities of the text produced through this dialogical form of active interviewing are illustrated and evaluated. Also examined are issues of interpretation and representation.

Elicitation as a Multilayered Process

“…Regardless, in order to maximize quality, researchers should closely attend to the ways in which structure and flexibility are shaping the data and make adjustments along the way. For instance, our structural approach of alternating interviews, rather than questions (as was the case in Porter et al, 2009), did not allow the first interviewee to revisit her own responses, stories, and conversations in light of hearing the second interviewee’s account (though Margaret’s interviewing style may have been an attempt to amend her own responses as an interviewee). While we did conduct a debrief focus group, we did not ask participants explicitly whether there were topics they wanted to revisit.…”

“…In reciprocal peer interviewing, there is generally a greater sense that conversation is important and that "advice-giving" and other forms of non-researcher-style participation (prohibited in Devotta and colleagues' peer interviewing, for instance) are allowed and even encouraged (Devotta et al, 2016). As Porter, Neysmith, Reitsma-Street, and Collins (2009) have written, this method "addresses the social locational difference between the researcher and those who are the focus of the research by withdrawing the researcher even further into the background during the data collection phase and giving freer rein to the verbal expression of women participants" (p. 292). However, it is still worth noting where and how external researchers exert influence on the design of research and in the interview (for instance, through their presence, the development of interview guides, etc.).…”

“…A small subset of studies involving peer interviewers have used reciprocal peer interviewing specifically, in which each participant takes a turn functioning as interviewer and interviewee (Donaghey, 2014; Hesse-Biber, 2013; Porter, Neysmith, Reitsma-Street, & Collins, 2009). 2 Such approaches may address some of the critiques of standard peer interviewing described above (specifically, those related to power relations between interviewer and interviewee) and have been linked with aspirations toward engaging in “nonhierarchical research” (Porter et al, 2009, p. 292). At the same time, researchers recognize that in practice, nonhierarchical research is impossible, since these projects are created and facilitated by external researchers to varying extents.…”

“…This is acknowledged, however, it is counter-balanced by the rich quality of the dialogue and the opportunity for digressions that were as surprising as they were thought-provoking” (2014, p. 102). Reciprocal peer interviewers are thus “in a position to exchange knowledge with one another and to build on that knowledge” (Porter et al, 2009, p. 294).…”

Igniting the statistical spark in the social sciences – abilites, student feedback and teacher observations

“…The teaching associate interview (Appendix 3) was added to the techniques used in this research project, to enable a two-way conversation to take place between the interviewee and myself. Specifically, a reciprocal peer interview technique was used, providing a significant opportunity for the interviewee to speak candidly and exercise control over the interview process [46]. This type of interview also enables the interviewer to participate in the conversation, and be included in the data being collected.…”