| Qualitative
vs Quantitative
A key methodological decision made at the
beginning of the study was to gather information from in-depth interviews,
and to utilize qualitative, rather than quantitative, research methodology.
According to Professor Light, qualitative and anecdotal data gathered
from personal interviews offer “a special depth and richness
in [the] responses that is so important and so valuable…we
could never capture [this depth and richness] if we did statistical
check-box surveys or questionnaires.”
Multiple Interviewers
Sixteen hundred in-depth interviews were
done over a ten-year period, one-on-one, lasting between two and
three hours each. Professor Light conducted 400 of the interviews
himself. The other 1,200 interviews were conducted by other faculty
members, in addition to 30 carefully trained undergraduates of all
races, consisting of 50 percent men and 50 percent women. The information
derived from these interviews was then pulled together, synthesized
and shared with colleagues at Harvard and in the rest of the country.
Multiple interviewers, rather than an individual interviewer, were selected
to conduct the interviews for the study. This decision was made
to prevent bias or the appearance of bias in the resulting data.
All interviewers worked independently and went through formal group-training
sessions. |