The traveller,miner,cleaner and conductor: Idealized roles of the qualitative interviewer

Abstract

Qualitative researchers commonly receive simplistic advice on pitfalls to avoid when conducting interviews. The pitfalls include saying too much and saying too little, yet their cogency depends on the role of the qualitative interviewer. This paper distinguishes between the roles of the miner, traveller, cleaner, and conductor. These roles are ‘ideal types’ that construct, as problematic or not, the use of contested interviewing practices such as ‘leading’ and assigning meaning to informant responses. The paper emphasizes how the ‘cleaner’ attempts to enable informants to interpret their own ubiquitous metaphors and symbolic language. However, acknowledging that in reality the qualitative interviewer may play all three idealized roles (miner, traveller, cleaner), the interviewer as conductor can orchestrate different roles as potential ‘conversational partners’.