The Application of Semi-structured Interviews in Different Modalities During the Context of the Pandemic

Abstract

Part of the methodological design of any qualitative research may vary during the research process. In this case study, the critical reflection on the methodological decision to modify the way of applying certain interviews under the context of pandemic (2020- first academic semester) is proposed.
The interview is a powerful tool to obtain descriptions of the world lived by the interviewees. The possibility of grasping, understanding and interpreting the experience of the participating subjects from their own perspective emerges from the approach of the interviewer and the interviewee. Both are generating interactions loaded with meanings. What would happen if a semi-structured interview script of the semi-standardized type, created to be applied in person, were to be applied in this way to one part of the sample and to another to be applied in a virtual way? Would it be lost in the interviewee’s ability to express himself? Would the interviewer be less able to capture non-verbal communication? Would the interviewee feel more, less, or equally strange in the interview process?
The situation raised in questions occurred, revealing epistemological, methodological and ethical concerns that are progressively explained.