Re: [ARUME] Reasonable sample size for in depth interview study?

[Barbara Edwards <edwards@MATH.ORST.EDU>]

Hi Margaret,

In my experience doing what you propose in one semester (including a
careful analysis of the interviews) is going to be a big job with only 10
participants. I can't imagine doing it with 30.

Barbara Edwards


On Wed, 7 Mar 2001, Margaret L. Morrow wrote:

> Date sent:  7-MAR-2001 14:42:58
> Dear All,
>
> I am planning a research project based on in depth interviews (one to one
> and half hour long) with students.  I envisioned this as a one semester
> project (with course releases to complete it).  I proposed doing the
> interview with 10 students, and completing transcription of interviews and
> analysis of results by the end of the semester.
>
> Response to my application for course releases is that I should beef this
> up by increasing my sample size to 30.
>
> Can anyone give advice and comment on this?  From this perspective, I find
> it hard to imagine conducting 30 interviews, and completing transcription
> and analysis of these in a three month period.  Isn't 30 rather a large
> sample for an indepth interview style research project?
>
> Thanks-
> Margaret Morrow
>