Active Interview

Active interviewing is a qualitative research method that departs from standardized approaches in its level of reciprocal engagement between interview participants. The typical advice in standard interviewing is that interviewers strive to be dispassionate and neutral, so as not to influence the answers to their questions. Instead, the active interviewer is encouraged to intentionally seek to provoke and shape responses to their questions as a full participant in narrative production. The active interviewer strives to stimulate respondents by introducing or suggesting competing narrative positions, different points of reference, and interpretive resources. In turn, the interviewee is encouraged to select from among the resources available a salient vocabulary for producing one’s own narrative. Emphasizing cocreation of life stories and experiences, the diffusion of the method of ...