Scenario-Based Interview: An Alternative Approach to Interviewing Children?

Abstract

Data in qualitative research are mainly derived through observations, document analysis, and interviews. The interview process in qualitative studies, however, can become challenging and complex when a group of children is involved as participants. This paper examines the methodological challenges faced by researchers when interviewing children and makes a case for the use of scenario-based interviews to obtain quality data from children in phenomenographic research.The discussion is based on a phenomenographic study that aimed at exploring and understanding children's experiences of learning in government primary schools in Brunei Darussalam. The processes that led to the development of two scenarios in a series of phenomenographic interviews are discussed in this paper. While there are limitations in the use of scenario-based interviews with children in phenomenographic research, it has the potential to address methodological concerns and, more importantly, to elicit quality data. Finally, the scenario-based interview offers an alternative to the in-depth interviews typically used in phenomenographic research. (2002) highlighted that pheomenographic data are typically collected through a series of deep and open-ended interviews, which are analysed through an iterative process of reading and rereading transcripts to produce an outcome space. However, based on the researcher's experience, attempting to elicit deep and rich data from children, especially in a context where education is highly-examination-oriented, traditional, and didactic, can be very challenging. This paper puts forth an alternative approach to interviewing children, using a scenario-based interview approach that is based on a phenomenographic study conducted with a group of eight to eleven years old children in Brunei Darussalam (henceforth called Brunei). In doing so, a brief background of Brunei and its education system is now presented to set the context for further discussions on the study. KeywordsThe study took place in Brunei, a small country located on the northwest coast of Borneo In these countries, including Brunei, children are tested regularly with examinations throughout their schooling years (Jaidin, 2009;Yeo & Clarke, 2006). In Brunei, the children's performances in examinations are significant indicators of school success (Jaidin, 2009;Scott & Fisher, 2002). This adds more pressure on teachers to complete a comprehensive syllabus and produce good results in examinations. Accordingly, teachers in Brunei choose to use traditional teaching methods that result in children being mainly passive in class where they rarely ask questions during lessons (Asmah, 2001;Attwood & Bray, 1989;Charleston, 1998;Scott & Fisher, 2002;Zaitun, 1997). The StudyThe main aim of the study was to provide a better understanding of the ways in which children experience learning in government schools in Brunei. The study adopted a In recent years, more phenomenographic studies have focused on highlighting children's views, opinions, and experience...