Contextualising the Research Process: Using Interviewer Notes in the Secondary Analysis of Qualitative Data

Authors

John Goodwin, Centre for Labour Market StudiesFollow
Henrietta O'Connor, Centre for Labour Market Studies

Abstract

In this paper we argue that for the secondary analysis of qualitative data to be effective, researchers need to subject any accompanying interviewer notes to the secondary analysis process. The secondary analysis of interviewer notes can provide important insight into the research process and the attitudes, experiences, and expectations of those collecting the data. Such information is essential if meaningful analyses are to be offered. Using interviewer notes from a little known research project on youth transitions form the 1960s, this paper explores how the interviewers’ experiences of the research process and their perceptions are documented in the interviewer notes.

Keywords

Interviewer Notes, Secondary Analysis, Qualitative Data, Research Process, Interviews, Recording Data, Representations of Respondents, and Sources of Bias

Acknowledgements

This paper is part of an ESRC project, From Young Workers to Older Workers: Reflections on Work in the Life Course (R000223653). We would like to thank Ronald Chenail and the reviewers for their useful comments.

Publication Date

6-1-2006

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.

DOI

10.46743/2160-3715/2006.1679

Recommended APA Citation

Goodwin, J., & O'Connor, H. (2006). Contextualising the Research Process: Using Interviewer Notes in the Secondary Analysis of Qualitative Data. The Qualitative Report, 11(2), 374-392. https://doi.org/10.46743/2160-3715/2006.1679