Interviewing Elites

This article explores issues that arise when a relatively inexperienced researcher interviews people who have an elite position or status. These issues include making preparation, gaining access, establishing trust, and facing interpersonal challenges during interviews. Additionally, there remains t...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Xu Liu
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: SAGE Publishing 2018-04-01
Series:International Journal of Qualitative Methods
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1177/1609406918770323
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spelling doaj-111d3329bc22468ea82c283aed74b5df2020-11-25T03:18:54ZengSAGE PublishingInternational Journal of Qualitative Methods1609-40692018-04-011710.1177/1609406918770323Interviewing ElitesXu Liu0 Institute of Education, University College London, Bloomsbury, London, United KingdomThis article explores issues that arise when a relatively inexperienced researcher interviews people who have an elite position or status. These issues include making preparation, gaining access, establishing trust, and facing interpersonal challenges during interviews. Additionally, there remains the need as with any qualitative research of ensuring authenticity and reliability of the views being expressed and recorded. This article is based upon extensive experience of interviewing senior managers operating within private higher education institutions in China. The article makes a contribution to research which rest upon gaining access to and identifying the views of elites who exercise authority and power within institutions.https://doi.org/10.1177/1609406918770323
collection DOAJ
language English
format Article
sources DOAJ
author Xu Liu
spellingShingle Xu Liu
Interviewing Elites
International Journal of Qualitative Methods
author_facet Xu Liu
author_sort Xu Liu
title Interviewing Elites
title_short Interviewing Elites
title_full Interviewing Elites
title_fullStr Interviewing Elites
title_full_unstemmed Interviewing Elites
title_sort interviewing elites
publisher SAGE Publishing
series International Journal of Qualitative Methods
issn 1609-4069
publishDate 2018-04-01
description This article explores issues that arise when a relatively inexperienced researcher interviews people who have an elite position or status. These issues include making preparation, gaining access, establishing trust, and facing interpersonal challenges during interviews. Additionally, there remains the need as with any qualitative research of ensuring authenticity and reliability of the views being expressed and recorded. This article is based upon extensive experience of interviewing senior managers operating within private higher education institutions in China. The article makes a contribution to research which rest upon gaining access to and identifying the views of elites who exercise authority and power within institutions.
url https://doi.org/10.1177/1609406918770323
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