Dialogic Interviewing and Flickers of Transformation

Abstract

This article identifies practices in qualitative interviews that evoke research participant reflexivity and change. By engaging interviews in a dialogic manner, researchers can encourage participant perspective-taking and non-judgmental involvement that can lead to flickers of transformation. The study draws on empirical material from three different projects to locate critical incidents of dialogic interviewing. We propose a typology of dialogic interviewing strategies that accompany reflexivity—namely, (a) probing questions, (b) member reflections, and (c) counterfactual prompting. These strategies illustrate the transformative power of dialogic interviewing and serve as a guide for researchers who desire their interviews to not only be methods for gathering knowledge but also methods for intervention and critical reflection.

Keywords

dialogue interviewing qualitative methodology reflexivity transformation

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