Structured Interviews as a research method in art & design education

With the use of a common observational method a researcher can record people’s behaviour, like actions and words, but unfortunately he can’t record people’s thoughts, like personal beliefs, preferences, ideas, dreams, aspirations, etc. Therefore, if a researcher decides to rely exclusively on observational data, this may lead him to false assumptions or to the attribution of false intentions, motives and perspectives to people which studies. So, we’ll examine the method of interviews, and more specifically the method of structured interviews, as a method that allows people to speak and express their thoughts, feeling, preferences etc. So, somehow, interviews seem like a supplement to typical observational methods.

Interviews vary considerably in a number of ways, like in the number of interviewees, the formality, the location, the duration, the purpose etc, but the most often mentioned variation concerns the degree to which, interviews are structured. Structured interviews involve asking all the interviewees the same fixed set of pre-specified questions and in the same sequence. The researcher can either provide close-ended questions followed by a set of alternative answers or he can provide more open-ended questions, encouraging the interviewees to speak more freely and extensively. But in both cases, the questions are determined and arranged in a strict order.

At first sight, structured interviews seem advantageous because they allow a rather accurate planning of the process. Indeed, since the number of questions and answers is fixed, then consequently the length of time of each interview is more or less predictable and therefore a researcher can create a sound schedule/timetable arranging for example all the planned interviews, the rest of the appointments, the breaks etc. Even in the case of open-ended questions – the researcher still can organize effectively a timetable, estimating a sufficient free time between the sequential interviews. Moreover, structured interviews that contain mostly closed-ended questions can be normally converted into postal or on-line questionnaires giving to the researcher additional flexibility in order to collect the opinion of possible absentees.

Timetable Duration: 1 day
appointments	Name	Present / Absent (In case of absence it will be sent a questionnaire by post)	Notes
10:00 - 10:45 a.m.	Georgia	Present
11:00 - 11:45 a.m.	Anna	Present
12:00 - 12:45 a.m.	Scott	Absent (health problem)
13:00 - 13:45 a.m.	Peter	Present
Break
16:00 - 6:45 a.m.	Michelle	Present
17:00 - 17:45 a.m.	James	Present
18:00 - 18:45 a.m.	Melissa	Absent (personal problem)
Additional free time
20:00 end
Paradigm of a possible timetable

But, structured interviews, especially those that contain mostly closed-ended question with predetermined answers have been accused that restrict and manipulate the interviewee’s judgment. However and under a different perspective, the showing of multiple alternative answers is not necessarily a manipulative feature, but in contrast it may stimulate positively the interviewee to opt for things that he wasn’t aware before they existed or he didn’t have a personal experience or he couldn’t imagine and illustrate by himself. Indeed, in many cases, people tend to defend and reproduce constantly the same ideas and beliefs exactly because they are unaware of other possible alternatives. Moreover, a  researcher conducting a structured interview not only can keep the interviewee focused on certain issues but he can also encourage him  to deal with subjects that he normally wouldn’t find interesting or he would prefer to avoid, as could happen for example in a free discussion or in an unstructured interview. 

In order to further elucidate the above estimations about structured interviews, I decided to reflect on an imaginary research, beyond the course videos, and create a few hypothetical questions, as presented below.

Hypothetical interviewer’s question: What do you thing is the most advantageous furniture arrangement for six young children in the early years setting? A)      The Round table B)      The Rectangular table C)      The Hexagon table D)     The Heptagon table E)      Other.  Describe freely another alternative.  You can also consult the sketches below.

The question is mostly closed-ended with 4 fixed answers and 1 “other”. Comment: In the above example, by preparing a structured interview, I’ll have the advantages: —   To keep the interview focused on the research question. —  To prepare a set of “visualized” answers and help the interviewee extent his vision, which is probably restricted from his limited knowledge about architectural design of educational spaces. By contrast, If I opt for an unstructured interview, perhaps I will deal with difficulties such as: —         I would not be able to insist, for a long time, on the issue of furniture arrangement. —         Most likely, the interviewee won’t know anything about furniture design issues, so he’ll probably give me the most “common” and “obvious” answer.

Finally, the majority of the responses collected from highly-structured interviews can be easily compared with each other, summarized in specific categories or analysed in order to extract percentages and numerical statistical evidences. For this precise reason, structured forms of collecting data, especially those with closed-ended questions are being selected mostly by the quantitative researchers, while the unstructured forms by qualitative ones.