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This introductory chapter describes the semi-structured interview, which addresses specific dimensions of the research question while also allowing for study participants to offer new meanings to the topic of study. It is particularly instrumental in creating openings for a narrative to unfold, while including questions informed by theory. It also leaves a space through which one might explore with participants the contextual influences evident in the narratives. To illustrate this methodological approach and philosophical orientation, the book provides a qualitative study focused on a particular social problem with a long history in education and psychology. Referred to throughout as “the desegregation study,” its inclusion is intended to illustrate in a concrete and detailed manner the use of the semi-structured interview within a multimethod qualitative study.

Five profiles of religiosity that describe the landscape of adolescent religiosity in America are presented in this chapter: the Abiders, Adapters, Assenters, Avoiders, and Atheists. The five profiles come from a latent class analysis conducted with the NSYR survey data, and the stories and quotes from five youth who participated in the NSYR semi-structured interviews are used to illustrate each profile in depth. Discussion of these five profiles of religiosity reveals that while there are some youth with religious profiles or mosaics that are characterized by very high religiosity in every dimension measured (Abiders), or very low religiosity in every dimension measured (Atheists), the other adolescents have pieced together religious mosaics that rely on certain dimensions of religion and not others. This chapter provides an enriched understanding of the forms of religiosity as lived by American adolescents.

This chapter underscores the actual making and purpose of the semi-structured interview. The interview incorporates both open-ended and more theoretically driven questions, eliciting data grounded on the experience of the participant as well as data guided by existing constructs in the particular discipline within which one is conducting research. Formulating and ordering questions requires considerable time and trial and error through the field-testing of the protocol, which is the set of questions guiding the interview. As such, some interviews are carried out in several sessions, reflecting a continuum of structure over the course of the sessions. Therefore, it offers insight into the type of deliberation that can occur in efforts to respond to research questions through a well-crafted interview protocol.

Chapter 6 of Performing Music Research sets out the characteristic features of research interviews, introducing four types of interview: open interviews, which often arise spontaneously or informally and which are largely unstructured or explore an overarching topic of interest; semi-structured interviews, an approach often taken in music research that relies on a predetermined yet flexible set of principal questions; structured interviews, which make use of fixed and unchangeable questions within an entirely predetermined format; and focus group interviews, which take place with groups of participants rather than individuals. The chapter addresses some of the challenges of using different types of interviews, presents ways to design and conduct interviews effectively, and considers ways to write about and report them.

This concluding chapter recapitulates the aim of the book: considering the possibilities that are available in conducting qualitative research. In this regard, the versatility and strength of semi-structured interview can allow for an exploration of specific dimensions of the research question. The interview is instrumental in creating openings for a narrative to unfold, while also including questions informed by theory. As such, this method is particularly suited to assist researchers in attending to the depth and complexity of their data. In addition to serving as a resource for research endeavor, the book hopes to inspire to researchers to take seriously the nagging questions, about the underexplored dimension of pervasive social problems.

This chapter presents the results of analysis of the data generated by the qualitative research, especially the long, semi-structured interviews. In the first section of the chapter, the approach to the data is governed by the conceptual categories derived from Tillich’s theoretical account of revelation. In the second section, the conceptual categories taken from the theoretical account are set aside and analysis concentrates on identifying unexpected themes and developing fresh categories out of the data. A new way of looking at the possibility of revelation through film emerges. Now the emphasis is on the community rather than the individual, and on sustained life-practice rather than momentary experience. This move results in the reinstatement of certain of the social and political aspects of Tillich’s thought.

This chapter discusses some methodological implications of a sociocultural developmental perspective of children’s disabilities, the implementation of the ethnographic research, and the first author’s reflections on her experiences collecting data on a culturally-sensitive topic. This chapter begins with a cultural analysis of Japanese policies relevant to the design and implementation of formal special education services for children with developmental disabilities. Then, the chapter describes the field research, conducted in 2009-2010. The first author conducted participant observation as a teaching assistant for children with developmental disabilities. Educators and parents participated in in-depth, semi-structured interviews focusing on their socialization and educational beliefs and practices in relation to the new special education system. In-depth longitudinal study was conducted over two school years with three children as they transitioned into special education.

This chapter describes where and how the author conducted her ethnography, including her methods (long-term participant observation, semi-structured and informal interviews, and textual analysis) and how she adapted them to suit the geography, loose organization, emerging themes, and sensitive political context of the London Salafi community. Over more than two years, she participated as fully as possible in the life of the community, attending religious lessons and social gatherings. The chapter ends with a vivid account of her fieldwork among a community under suspicion and reeling from being targeted by an undercover reporter who secretly filmed them for a 2008 documentary. The author reveals how as a white, non-Muslim researcher, she negotiated access to the community, gradually built up trust, and sought to balance close involvement and objective detachment in order to provide a first hand, richly detailed understanding of the women’s world.