Researching Understandings of the Child in Intercultural Marriages: Trying Out a Hermeneutic Interview Protocol

Authors

  • Janine Tine University of Alberta
  • Julia Ellis University of Alberta

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.11575/ajer.v68i2.70433

Abstract

In interpretive inquiry, researchers need interviewing approaches that will create possibilities for insight and holistic understanding. A hermeneutic interview protocol was developed and refined over a number of years in the context of an interpretive inquiry course. In this study, one of the authors examines her experience with using this interview framework in a practice inquiry for her research on “understandings of the child” in intercultural marriages. The study identifies the misgivings and doubts she experienced before and during the interview. It also illustrates how the structure of the interview supported the interview participant in reflecting upon and reconstructing his experience and supported the researcher in accomplishing a fusion of horizons. The interview framework invited stories from different important contexts and having stories from across time, place, and activity enabled the researcher to identify themes. Clarity about themes meant that important stories could be interpreted with more confidence.

Keywords: hermeneutics; pre-interview activities; case studies; interpretive inquiry; open-ended interview questions

Dans le cadre d'une enquête interprétative, les chercheurs ont besoin d'approches aux entrevues qui créent des possibilités de compréhension holistique et de vision. Un protocole d'entrevue herméneutique a été développé et affiné pendant plusieurs années dans le contexte d'un cours sur l'enquête interprétative. Dans cette étude, l'une des auteures examine son expérience de l'utilisation de ce cadre d'entrevue dans une enquête pratique pour sa recherche sur les "conceptions de l'enfant" dans les mariages interculturels. L'étude identifie les réticences et les doutes qu'elle a éprouvés avant et pendant l'entrevue. L’étude illustre également dans quelle mesure la structure de l'entrevue a aidé le participant à réfléchir et à reconstruire son expérience et a aidé la chercheure à réaliser une fusion des horizons. Le cadre de l'entrevue invitait à raconter des histoires provenant de différents contextes importants et le fait d'avoir des histoires à travers le temps, le lieu et l'activité a permis à la chercheure d'identifier des thèmes. La précision des thèmes a permis d'interpréter les histoires importantes avec plus de confiance.

Mots clés : herméneutique ; activités de pré-entrevue ; études de cas ; enquête interprétative ; questions d'entrevue ouvertes

Author Biographies

Janine Tine, University of Alberta

Janine Tine is a recent PhD graduate from the Department of Elementary Education, University of Alberta. Her research interests include intercultural marriage and parenting, parental understandings of bicultural children, and Indigenous conceptions of childhood.

 

Julia Ellis, University of Alberta

Julia Ellis is Professor Emerita, Faculty of Education, College of Humanities & Social Sciences, University of Alberta. Her research interests include interpretive inquiry, interviewing, narrative inquiry with children and youth, teacher as researcher activities, children and place, perspectives of “difficult” students, using creative activities in the classroom, gender issues in the classroom, as well as mentorship, peer support, and student leadership programs.

Downloads

Published

2022-06-21

How to Cite

Tine, J., & Ellis, J. (2022). Researching Understandings of the Child in Intercultural Marriages: Trying Out a Hermeneutic Interview Protocol. Alberta Journal of Educational Research, 68(2), 150–175. https://doi.org/10.11575/ajer.v68i2.70433

Issue

Vol. 68 No. 2 (2022): Summer

Section

ARTICLES

License

UNIVERSITY OF ALBERTA COPYRIGHT LICENSE AND PUBLICATION AGREEMENT

If accepted, authors will be asked to sign a copyright agreement with the following points:

A. Where there is any inconsistency between this Copyright License and Publication Agreement and any other document or agreement in relation to the same subject matter, the terms of this Agreement shall govern.

B. This document sets out the rights you are granting in relation to publication of your article, book review, or research note entitled (the “Article”) through inclusion in the academic journal titled Alberta Journal of Educational Research (the “Journal”) published through the Faculty of Education, representing the Governors of the University of Alberta (the “Journal Editor”).

C. There will be no payment to you for this publication and grant of rights. In consideration of the agreement to publish the Article in the Journal:

1. You are warranting that:

  1. the content of the Article is your original work, and its content does not contain any material infringing the copyright of others; or, where the Article is not entirely your original work, you have obtained all necessary permissions in writing to grant the rights you are giving in this agreement;
  2. the content of the Article does not contain any material that is defamatory of, or violates the privacy rights of, or discloses the confidential information of, any other person;
  3. the Article has not been published elsewhere in whole or in part, and you will not allow publication of the Article elsewhere without the consent of the Journal Editor;
  4. the names of all co-authors and contributors to the Article are:

2. You agree to license the copyright in the Article to the Journal Editor, on a worldwide, perpetual, royalty free basis; and to the extent required by the terms of this agreement. You shall retain the right at all times to be acknowledged as the/an author of the Article.

3. You further agree that the Journal Editor has the entitlement to deal with the Article as the Journal Editor sees fit, and including in the following manner;

  1. The right to print, publish, market, communicate and distribute the Article and the Journal, in this and any subsequent editions, in all media (including electronic media), in all languages, and in all territories, ing the full term of copyright, and including any form of the Article separated from the Journal, such as in a database, abstract, offprint, translation or otherwise, and to authorize third parties to do so;
  2. The right to register copyright of the Journal;
  3. The right to edit the Article, to conform to editorial policy as the Journal Editor sees fit.

4. If any co-author or contributor to the Article does not sign this agreement, the Journal Editor reserves the right to refuse to publish the Article.