From Data Points to Faces : Reflections on Conducting Qualitative Interviews

When we do quantitative research with large datasets, especially using secondary data, we do not come into direct contact with the subjects of our research. Each subject, each individual, is just a line of data among thousands of others. They never see the researcher, and the researcher never sees them. But with qualitative interviews, the dynamic changes. Subject and researcher meet face to face, bringing a multitude of heuristics, perceptions, and emotions into play. In this blog entry, I share my experiences conducting qualitative interviews, what I learned about my own position as a researcher, and what that meant for my research.