The slow interview? Developing key principles and practices

Abstract

Audio-recording an interview is often a taken-for-granted aspect of qualitative research. Alternative recording techniques are typically under-reported in the literature meaning that audio-recording interviews may be tacitly conceived as ‘best practice’. To address this gap, this article discusses the effectiveness and suitability of the slow interview recording technique by drawing on the empirical example of a qualitative study concerning African Australian health and wellbeing in Greater Melbourne. This article argues that ‘dialogue-based quality assurance’ is achieved during the slow interview by testing early interpretations with the participant/s as opposed to after the event via member checking of data. Furthermore, we discuss and contribute three foundational principles from whence a researcher may choose the slow interview, including aligning with social constructionism, qualitative validation strategies, and responsible researcher/participant relationships. We argue that while the slow interview is rooted in social constructionism as a theory of knowledge, the slow interview as ‘social practice’ may also facilitate the co-production of research by interpreting the data with the participant during the interview through ‘dialogue-based quality assurance’.