Quests for Questioners

“Quests for Questioners: Inventive Approaches to Qualitative Interviews is an invigorating collection of contributions from diverse perspectives about innovative understandings of interview practices. Whether you’re experienced or new to research, this accessible book will stimulate you to think ‘outside the box’ conceptually and culturally, and to experiment with moving beyond the standard question-answer talk. It’s a valuable resource that should be on every qualitative research reading list.”

Rosalind Edwards, Professor of Sociology, University of Southampton, UK

“Kathryn Roulston’s edited book is an important, timely, thoughtful, and accessible collection. As someone who designs, conducts, and teaches interview-based qualitative research, I appreciate how useful that the range of discussions here are for scholars across disciplines and experience levels, as the authors consider a range of methodologies, including culturally responsive focus groups, object-based interviews, photo and graphic elicitations, and place-based interviewing. The variety of engagements with interviewing offered here will be applicable across courses, contexts, research projects, and readers’ needs and interests.”

Stephanie A. Shelton, Associate Professor of Qualitative Research, The University of Alabama, USA

“In Roulston’s edited volume, Quests for Questioners: Inventive Approaches to Qualitative Interviews, readers are introduced to innovative approaches to qualitative interviewing, as well as foundational theoretical and practical considerations for this approach to data generation. The volume offers new insights about culturally responsive approaches to interviewing, as well as rich discussions on how to engage with theory when re-conceptualizing interviewing practices. From the use of graphics to mobile methods to photo elicitation, this volume maps out new possibilities for what remains the most common approach to generating qualitative data. Indeed, this volume is a key and essential resource for qualitative inquirers seeking to deepen and expand their qualitative interviewing practices.”

Jessica Nina Lester, Professor of Qualitative Research, Indiana University, Bloomington

List of Figures and Text Boxes

Introduction

Part I: Being Culturally Responsive in Interview Research

One: Culturally Responsive Interviews: The Negotiation of Cultures
Lorien S. Jordan

Two: Beyond Qualitative Interviews: Toward Synergistic Conversations as Relational and Nation Building
Emma Elliott and Timothy San Pedro

Three: Culturally Responsive Focus Groups
Jori N. Hall and Joseph-Emery Lyvan Kouaho

Four: Recruiting For and Conducting Virtual Focus Groups and Interviews With Low-Income Populations During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Brigette A. Herron, Darci Bell, and Jung Sun Lee

Part II: Being Inventive in Theorizing Interviews

Five: Cartographic Accounts: Qualitatively Mapping With Braidotti
Maureen A. Flint and Morgan P. Tate

Six: Intra-Action is For Everybody! (Re)Thinking the Qualitative Interview
Travis M. Marn and Jennifer R. Wolgemuth

Seven: Past, Present, Futures of Assembling Object-Interviews
Susan Naomi Nordstrom

Part III: Being Inventive in Eliciting Interview Accounts

Eight: Object Lessons: Considering Object-Interviews and Narrative Representation in Qualitative Research
Janie Copple

Nine: Experience in the Abstract: Exploring the Potential of Graphic Elicitation
Alison Bravington

Ten: Mobile Methods, Go-Alongs, and Walking Interviews
Kathryn Roulston and Maureen A. Flint

Eleven: Photo Elicitation With Native STEM Students and Professionals
Nuria Jaumot-Pascual, Tiffany Smith, Maria Ong, and Kathy DeerInWater

About the Authors

Acknowledgments

Index

Kathryn Roulston

Kathryn Roulston is Professor of Qualitative Research in the Mary Frances Early College of Education at the University of Georgia. Her research interests include qualitative research methods, qualitative interviewing, and analyses of talk-in-interaction. She is the author of Interviewing: A Guide to Theory and Practice (2022), Exploring the Archives: A Beginner’s Guide for Qualitative Researchers (with K. deMarrais, 2021), and editor of Interactional Studies of Qualitative Research Interviews (2019). She has contributed chapters to handbooks of qualitative research as well as articles to Qualitative Research, Qualitative Inquiry, the International Journal of Research and Method in Education, and the International Journal of Qualitative Methods, among other journals. In her spare time, she enjoys textile arts, including hand-dyeing, spinning, and weaving.