Interviews: Formulating a plan of action

For me, conducting an interview is something I have never done before. However, it is something I believe will be a great tool for my inquiry. From reader 6, Bell explained the advantages of an interview and how you "can follow up on ideas, ask the "why questions"directly to people who have knowledge, experience and perceptions about your topic" I am really interested to see what people's views are on my inquiry topic. 

For me, I think I will have to be careful and ensure bias does not enter into any of my interviews. It is difficult when you are having an informal interview with someone not to share your opinion, possibly because I love to talk!!

When thinking about who to interview, I decided it may be best to look at both teachers and professional performers. I want to speak to both as I feel learning involves two people the teacher and the student, some of these students will carry on their training to become professionals. But in my opinion we never stop learning. 

My questions for the teacher will definitely differ to the questions for the performer. 

I have also decided I would like to look at different styles of dance. I would like to interview a ballet teacher, who is teaching a syllabus and needs to teach students technical movements and how he/she communicates this technique to their students. What learning styles work best for them. I would then like to interview a teacher who teaches a creative movement class, possibly in the area of contemporary to see if their views differ and if other tools work for them. 

In terms of a professional. I have devised a set of questions based around performance and how they improve from each show they do. What mental routine they go through backstage, and if they think and imagine what they are going to do when they enter the stage. I also want to see if as a performer do they realise what works for them when they take a class in terms of learning? This is a vague outline of my interview questions but I find using my SIG to answer my proposed interview questions is very useful and helpful.

During the interview process, I want to follow a semi-structured approach, which will hopefully allow the person to think more about the matter and to possibly evoke new ideas which may lead to further discussion. However, I am not opposed to using a couple of closed questions if the interview needs to become more specific and relatable to the subject.

Finally, where possible I would like to conduct my teaching interviews face to face. In terms of my interviews with performers, this may need to be done over the telephone or skype due to schedules and distance.