The semi-structured interview was chosen as the initial medium of data
gathering for this study, in line with IPA guidelines (Smith, Flowers & Larkin, 2009), as
it is sufficiently structured to enable the researcher to address specific aspects of the
research question while still leaving space for participants to offer new meanings
(Galetta, 2013). The semi-structured interview enabled the participants to give their
stories freely, with minimal direction from the researcher. In line with suggestions on
good practice in IPA (Smith, 2007; Smith, Flowers & Larkin, 2009; Pietkiewicz &
Smith, 2014), this involved the creation of a schedule to encourage the participants to
feel at ease, to be open and expansive and to talk at length. The medium of the semi-
structured interview enables participants to 'describe the meaning of experience for …
lives' (Maykut & Morehouse, 1994, p. 5). Some parents of children with autism in an
educational context may be considered as marginalised as 'parents’ contribution to …
partnerships and education ... [is] marginal, relative to professional view points' (Reed,
2009, p. 26). This study gives these parents of children with autism a voice. As such,
the consideration of participants' individual stories, the opportunity which voicing these
stories gives and the potential for meanings to emerge from the stories are all central to
the study.
The design of the interview is made using IPA guidelines (Smith, Flowers &
Larkin, 2009) and advice described by Galetta (2013). The questions are structured into
three main parts. The opening section of the interview aims to settle the participant, to
check levels of understanding and to ensure that consent has been given and that the
participant is aware of his or her rights within the interview context. It aims to create
space for the narrative to begin and to ground the content of what is described within
the participant's experience (Galetta, 2013). The initial questions seek to confirm
specifically that the consent forms have been signed, that the participant is happy with
the recording, and with their rights to stop recording or to choose not to answer any
questions, and that there is understanding that anonymity will be maintained in the
transcription of the interview. The schedule allows for the reiteration that the interview
is semi-structured, but confirms that the participant will have an opportunity to add
anything that they have not covered at the end of the interview. The first introductory
questions are:
How old was x when you got a diagnosis?
How were his/her early experiences of school?
What made you decide to start sharing education?
The first two of these are factual, and are therefore designed to be non-
threatening and 'easy' to answer. They aim to help to take the participant's thoughts
back to before the shared education took place, setting the scene for the second pair of
questions and giving the suggested 'space' to move into explanations for the decision.
The middle section of the interview includes questions of greater specificity
designed to allow the researcher to attend to nuances in the narrative, to shift into
questions that are more specific as they relate to the research question and to look back,
where appropriate, to the participant's narrative material as it connects with specific
questions (Galetta, 2013). This supports two central questions: How does the
participant arrange shared education between home and school for their child with
autism, and how does the participant believe that this meets their child's autism needs?
First to be explored are the practicalities of the shared education. Questions are:
How do you share his/her full-time education between home and school?
How does school communicate with you about what they have been doing there?
How do you communicate with school about what you have been doing at home? Has
communication between you and the school altered since you have been sharing education?
Have you used any particularly autism strategies or techniques at home during your shared time
that you know they use at school? Would you like school to help you with any strategies?
Has the school adopted any particular strategies or techniques that you use at home? Would you
like school to adopt any strategies?
There is one further question about the wider family:
What (if anything) do you think you, or the wider family, gain by sharing your son/daughter's
education?
The concluding segment, constructed according to Galetta, revisits the opening
narrative for important connections and moves towards closure (Galetta, 2013). This
gives the opportunity to check that the participant is happy that they had covered all the
points that they wish to, and also aims to give the opportunity for information about
what is going to happen next in the study to be imparted.
Finally, the schedule thanks the participant for taking part and asks if she is
happy to be contacted for the next stage of the research. The researcher is prompted to
inform the participant that she will receive feedback on the study at its conclusion,
which is likely to be between two and six years from the time of the interview, and to
formally terminate the interview.
Each interview took approximately one hour. In order to respect the preferred
communication style of the participants the interviews were conducted either face-to-
face in the participant's home or in a place of their choosing, or via electronic exchange.
interview take place electronically through email exchange. Of the four who preferred
face-to-face communication, three chose that this take place in their homes, and one in a
neutral venue (the autism therapy centre which she had co-founded).
Transcription
The recordings of the semi-structured interviews were transcribed verbatim as
soon as possible after the event to allow the researcher to recall the context of what was
said while the conversation was fresh in her mind. All recordings will be retained for
the duration of the study.
Green suggests that, ‘What is represented [in a transcript] is data constructed by
a researcher for a particular purpose, not just talk written down' (1997, p. 172). As
such, consideration was given both to what degree it was useful to record in the
transcript non-verbal content such as pauses, non-verbal communication (laughter,
sighing etc.) and inaudible and/or off topic material (for example, the content of an
incoming mobile phone call).
Analysis in IPA aims to interpret the meaning of the content of accounts rather
than to analyse language as seen in conversation analysis, and therefore does not require
the detailed transcription of prosodic elements of the recording (Smith, Flowers &
Larkin, 2009). The transcriptions in this study are reproduction of the words in the
recording onto the page, retaining word order and adding punctuation as it is inferred
and as it aids readability (Tilley, 2003). Indication of unvoiced pauses is retained
through the use of ellipsis ('I have to work, and, I don't know... I can teach so much, but
I couldn't commit to ... It's just not something I could do' - CY), but not indication for
length of pause. Repetitions and 'false starts' are transcribed ('So he was - basically with
psychology - basically, he’s not good with tests. He doesn’t - he finds it very, very -
DN), as are fillers ('Several fixed-term exclusions and things like that so, yeah’ - GE).
However, non-verbal elements are only recorded when they were deemed to add
significantly to meaning (as with GE's laugh to acknowledge the inconsistency of her
rejection of help from the school) and non-standard pronunciation recorded only when it
carried inherent meaning (for example, SS's use of the ironic 'Yers!' to indicate how she
felt when doctors initially stated that her son was not autistic).
TE's transcript is copied across from her own typed words, as exchanged in
email.
Some elements of the recordings were changed in transcription. These included
the use of pseudonyms and the removal of identifying details including school names,
the names of teachers and doctors and geographical references (see 4.3.5).