Shadowing and Narrative Interviewing Combined: The Advantages of Using an Observational Method in Higher Education Research

Abstract

This chapter aims to offer a focussed critical discussion of the combination of two qualitative data-collection methods used in a longitudinal multiple case study investigating the impact of intra-European mobility on the students' linguistic and intercultural development. The participant being the main (and often the only) source of data in higher education research, this chapter will centre on the use of shadowing as a data-collection strategy and on how this offered an other-report that favoured the co-construction and negotiation of meaning between the researcher and the research participant(s) in the narrative interview. Based on our experience shadowing and interviewing undergraduate students, we will stress: (1) the advantages of combining the direct and first-hand nature of the experience of the researcher with the participants' accounts of their experiences and (2) the need to not only rely on the participants' self-report(s) but also obtain an other-report about the phenomena being studied.

Citation

Mas-Alcolea, S. and Torres-Purroy, H. (2021), "Shadowing and Narrative Interviewing Combined: The Advantages of Using an Observational Method in Higher Education Research", Huisman, J. and Tight, M. (Ed.) Theory and Method in Higher Education Research (Theory and Method in Higher Education Research, Vol. 7), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 161-172. https://doi.org/10.1108/S2056-375220210000007010