Interviewing is an invaluable tool for the qualitative researcher. Steinar Kvale provides coverage of both the theoretical background and the practical aspects of the interview process, incorporating discussion of the wide variety of methods in interview based research and the different approaches to reading the data. Consideration is also given to the crucial issue of how to ensure scientific rigour.

Author Biography

Steinar Kvale (1938-2008) was professor of educational psychology and director of the Centre of Qualitative Research at the University of Aarhus, and adjunct faculty at Saybrook Institute, San Francisco. He was born in Norway and graduated from the University of Oslo. He continued his studies at the University of Heidelberg with an Alexander von Humboldt scholarship and was a visiting professor at Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, and West Georgia University, Carrolton, and the University of Bergen. His long-term concern was with the implications of such continental philosophies as phenomenology, hermeneutics, and dialectics for psychology and education.