20 The Tools - 01 About the Tools - TfLN Tools Rationale: Interviews for Inventories (Interviews for Inventories)

Abstract

Rationale for conducting interviews in the TfLN: A common pattern in small scale research projects is the administration of a survey followed by case studies or interviews involving a small number of participants. While the latter may be very illuminating, they are often used to generate post-hoc rationalisations of patterns in the survey data, or may actually generate further hypotheses or avenues for exploration of which the original survey design took no account. An alternative (or additional) role for interviews is the generation of more robust and conceptually grounded inventories of items for use in surveys.