Wait, Where Was I? Minimizing the Chaotic Moment Through Timeline Drawing Elicitation in Phone Interviews

Abstract

This research arose from a moment when one of the author’s interviewees said, “Wait, where was I?” Through 60–90 minutes, in-depth phone interviews, shared highly detailed accounts of their personal stories of entering underemployment in South Korea. However, the first six interviewees talked about many different topics during their interviews, and confused the chronological sequences of multiple episodes. The interviewer recognized these instances as emergent chaotic moments, so she decided to incorporate various methods into her interviews. Among the many elicitation strategies that can be employed in qualitative interviewing, the author applied timeline elicitation to more accurately document their life events. Timeline elicitation is useful for extracting narratives of individual journeys and delineating the meaning of specific events. This technique proved the most effective strategy for minimizing confusions and successfully completing the interviews. This study used comparative analysis to assess the transcripts of two different groups (with/without applying timeline drawing elicitation), and presents findings showing their different reactions to dealing with the transition of time. This study demonstrated the potential of visual timeline approaches to reflect and illustrate the complexity of women participants’ experiences of underemployment. Moreover, the efficacy of this timeline drawing elicitation method will be critically discussed, along with its limitations within the context of innovative qualitative methodologies.