The Art of Interviewing Intercultural Parents: Methodological Challenges and Opportunities

This paper explores various aspects related to methodological challenges and opportunities that have emerged from in-depth, qualitative interviews with intercultural couples. According to the literature, most research related to intercultural couples has utilized conjoint interviews, in part for convenience of the interviewer. However, to gain rapport and to understand the perspective of participants, it is important to enable them to select a setting and structure that is most comfortable for their needs rather than those of the interviewer. Very little research, if any, has been conducted on the benefits and consequences of interviewing couples separately, together, or both. This paper is part of an ongoing research project that utilizes a grounded theory approach to investigate the experiences of intercultural parents and the construction of transcultural families. In this continuing study, each participant is encouraged to select an interview structure or configuration of individual, conjoint, or sequential interviews based on their preference, logistics and/or convenience. Although it was not an intended outcome of the research design, the choice of interview structure has illuminated different methodological challenges and opportunities when interviewing couples.