Learning From Strangers: The Art and Method of Qualitative Interview Studies

I thought this book was great because of the way he wrote it - if you've done a few interviews yourself, you may find (as I have) that he is bringing up ideas and issues as they come to your mind, and tackling them by sharing his own experience (e.g. interview excerpts), his own reflections (e.g. what happens to him as an interviewer and how he feels about it), as well as (in some parts) the different views on the issue by different researchers. I read this book after I'd done the majority of the interviews I needed for my PhD, and it was a very validating experience to know that what I'd gone through is similar to what others go through. The best thing about the book is how personal it is, but that also means I would not treat it as a textbook on interviewing, but more like a "guide", as the author says in the preface.

""Learning From Strangers" is a book that will greatly augment any coursework in anthropology, sociology, or education research methods. I rank it right up there with classic works like Powdermaker's "Stranger and Friend", Agar's "The Professional Stranger" and Van Maanen's ""Tales of the Field". This volume is well worth reading for those new to qualitative research methods, as well as for those who might question how well they're doing with interviewing as a data collection method. The author uses a conversational approach as he generously shares and reflects upon his many years of interview experience. This sharing isn't self-serving, but sensitively, (and importantly) covers all situations: the tricky, the awkward, and the difficult. The chapter on "Issues in Interviewing" resonated with me. For example, as I was alone in the field, doing the qualitative research for my dissertation in South Africa, I was astonished at how tiring I found my interviewing to be. I had been discussing the personal histories of rural educators who had themselves been educated under apartheid, and was completely exhausted by the process. Weiss put my mind to rest when he discusses the levels of emotion that are shared between interviewer and respondent ( at page 137). He also debunks some persistent research myths such as the need for a fixed set of questions (the process is iterative), or the so-called "interviewer-respondent match" (the insider-outsider dilemma). Interviewing is a technique that people frequently assume they "can do" but this book highlights the many intricacies of what are fundamentally social interactions undertaken in pusuit of research data. The only improvement I could suggest, and this is owing mainly to its publication date of 1996, would be to include a broader elaboration of computer-assisted qualitative data analysis software, of which there are now many examples of user-friendly software. Of course, one must conduct the interviews first to have any data, so I recommend that you help yourself in that effort by reading this valuable book.

Weiss's book mirrors the combination of seemingly unforced flow and attention to focus that are characteristic of good qualitative interviews. I appreciated that it tackled delicate questions of ethics, editing and developing analysis in a way that bolstered the reader's confidence in their ability to develop good judgment, while never minimizing the risks. The use of excerpts of transcripts showing exactly where interviewers' decisions had affected outcomes, and of specific examples throughout, made this book a compulsive "read" -- I wish that more authoratitive publications managed its grace and energy.

Learning From Strangers is the best introduction to how to do qualitative interviewing that I know of, and it's one of two books that I assign in my course on qualitative research methods (the other is Corrine Glesne's Becoming Qualitative Researchers). It is very readable, but also deeply insightful and informed by Weiss's many years of interviewing. The most valuable part of the book, and one thing that sets it apart from most other books on qualitative interviewing, is that it includes lengthy excerpts from actual interview transcripts, with Weiss's detailed commentary on what worked well and what didn't. The book also has excellent advice on developing interview questions, selecting interviewees, analyzing interview data, and writing the final report.

Probably the most valuable work I will read on the practical problems of designing and executing a qualitative interview study. It is usable as an outline and checklist for designing any study of this type. Weiss covers all the bases with a wealth of pertinent examples from his experience. He has managed to take a dry subject and create a readable, interesting piece.