Reciprocal Peer Interviewing

Abstract

Feminist researchers are acutely aware of the difficulties facing researchers as they try to bridge social locational differences between interviewer and interviewee. What we call reciprocal peer interviewing offers a significant opportunity for interviewees to speak in their own voice and exercise control over the interview process. This paper reports on the application of this method to a study of women's contributions to provisioning within a low-income community. It involves women interviewing each other in dyads after both underwent a brief training session. The celebratory dinner that proceeded the interview session had complementary effects but is not integral to the method. Comparable in some ways to focus group interviews, this method provided space for women to co-construct their experiences in response to the research questions. The qualities of the text produced through this dialogical form of active interviewing are illustrated and evaluated. Also examined are issues of interpretation and representation.