Establish Access To, MakingContact With, and SelectingParticipants

9210033A Sharon9310053A 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 StudentsBe 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!!