Establish Access To, Making Contact With, and Selecting Participants

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Establish Access To, MakingContact With, and
SelectingParticipants

• 9210033A Sharon
• 9310053A Jamie

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• THE PERILS OF EASY ACCESS
• ___________________________________
• ?Beginning interviewers
• ? Easies path to the goal
• ? The most difficult to the interview

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Interviewing People Whom You Supervise

• Choose your supervise
• ? Conflict interest of existing
• Hierarchy
• ? May not talk openly
• Interviewing Your Students
• Be respected
• ? Hardly be open to his or her teacher

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Interviewing Acquaintances

• Unpredictable
• ? Limit the full potential interview
• Follow up and distort
• ? Relationship broken
• Interviewing Friends
• ? Easy access
• ? Friendship
• ? Assume understand already
• ? Seldom to develop merit

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Taking oneself just seriously enough

• ? Not take themselves seriously as
• researchers
• ? Find easy access
• ? Establish by uncritical attitude
• ? Doing research as an elite occupation

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• Less practice
• ? Frustration
• ? Hard to find interest, status, method and
• usefulness instead of finish a requirement
• Purpose
• ? Establish equity in the interviewing
• relationship

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ACCESS THROUGH FORMAL GATEKEEPERS

• ____________________________________
• Gatekeepers
• ? Control access to the potential participants
• ? Range from legitimate to self- declared

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• 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

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• ? Research an experience or a process
• that takes place in a lot of sites
• ? Dont need to seek access through
• an authority
• Ex. One teacher who teaches in many cram
• schools
• Key point
• ? The more adult the potential participants,
• the more likely that access can be direct.

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INFORMAL GATEKEEPERS_____________________________
______

• ? Persons who are widely respected, but
• hold 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

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• ? Self-appointed gatekeepers
• ? Must be informed
• ? Must try to control everything

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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

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• Key point
• ? Establish access through peers rather
• than through people above or below them

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MAKING CONTACT___________________________________

• ?Do it yourself.
• ? Dont rely on third parties
• ? Have not internalized in it
• ? Do not have investment in it
• ? Seldom answer questions naturally
• might arise

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• ? Contact visit
• ? Select participants
• ? build a foundation for interview
• relationship

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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.

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? 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

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• 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

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• Participants understand
• ? The nature of the study
• ? How he or she fits into it
• ? The purpose of the three-interview
• sequence

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• 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

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• 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

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• 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

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• Selecting Participants
• Randomly selecting participants
• ? experimental quasi-experimental
• In-depth interview studies
• ? No randomness selection
• ? Need participants agreement

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• 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

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• Negative cases
• ? select participants outside the range
• ? check researchers studies not to draw
• an easy conclusion

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• Snare to Avoid in the Selecting Process
• Participants dont want to participate
• ? interviewer too easily accepting rejection
• ? interviewer too enthusiastic trying to
• convince reluctant participants
• Participants too eager to participate

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• 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

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• 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!!