Established Relationships:
My relationships with a couple of my interview participants were more on a personal level as I have met them before. One participant is a friend from home--Palau--and whom we've gottten to know each other a bit better since we both moved to Hawaii to attend University of Hawaii at Manoa. The other participant is someone I have come to share common ideas and experiences in regards to education and home, and also someone I know from a club in which we are both members. The final participant is someone I also know from the club. Actually, we are all members of the same club, and that is how I was able to select my interview participants, thinking this would be a convenient start to recruit participants. Basically, the relationships between my participants and I were already established before. This was an appropriate and convenient way to find participants as members of the club are generally students of University of Hawaii at Manoa and are Micronesian--from the islands Pohnpei, Chuuk, Kosrae, Yap, the Marshall Islands, and Palau.
I chose to find participants this way mainly because of convenience, but I also thought that the closer relationships we had would lead us to a more open conversation about what motivates them to return home if they do want or have/will decide to return home after their studies at university.
What I learned! After the interviews, I learned that it is crucial that I ask the questions I have written down and that you really have to LISTEN in order to accomplish and ask successful probing questions. Throughout interviews, I would begin asking about other things that they have mentioned while responding, and this is when we veer off subject. This created challenges during the transcription process, first, because it caused me time and, secondly, all my interviews nearly went over the limited time my interviewees had in which I had to hurridly ask my remaining questions in order to properly thank the interviewees and discuss the aftermath of their participation and my research process.
After transcription of the interviews, I noticed I asked poor probing questions in which most of them led me to practically already mentioned responses or quite unrelevant data.
How I presented myself to the interviewees:
The participants already had knowledge of who I was, and this is how I presented myself: as a Micronesian student atttending UH Manoa. I hoped they would've been comfortable as much as possible to share their ideas with me this way.
Explicit and Implicit Understandings of the Research:
All the interviewees wanted to read the research. I explained I would notify them if I would quote them in the research, and all the participants asked to see these in the research as well. I asked them if they would like to see the transcribed interview and for member checking. They all agreed.
One participant actually wanted our interview to be posted on an internet news publishing website that published news and happenings about Micronesia and its people. I agreed to this because she had mentioned that one mission of the site was to create awareness on college education and their islands as well. For now, I am only thinking whether if our interview would be "valid" for others to read. I asked this or stated my concern about her request, she, however, felt it was necessary because students or other Micronesians will see how and what a student from Micronesia is experiencing in university.
Ethical Concerns:
There may not be any ethical concerns. However, if I were to publish the transcribed interview of one particpant, do I need to specify the purpose of the interview? Since this research study is for a course instead of an actual research study conducted for scholarly publishing, should I be concern about even have agreed to publish on the site? I think I will need to specify where my interviewee and I are coming from or why we conducted the interview in the first place in order to notify the readers and have them understand the the interview is not for an actual research study conducted.
What I learned about myself as an interviewer from my interviews:
After interviewing participants for my study of examining motivational factors influencing Micronesian students' to return home after completing their studies, I find that I made many errors on my part as an interviewer. First, I think I may have led or influenced participants' responses with my own blurting out of words or short ideas. Secondly, I veered away from the focus of my research on motivational factors and began asking questions about other interesting ideas that were brought up during the interview. Finally, besides the interviewee going off subject, I tended to go off subject as well stirring up a short conversation on unrelevant topics.
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