Internet-mediated phone interviews for remote qualitative educational research in the Global South during COVID–19: a researcher’s and participants’ experiential reflections

Abstract

ABSTRACT The COVID-19 pandemic required social science researchers to adopt online research methods to avert the risks of face-to-face interactions. Yet, there is limited reflection on the applicability of online interviews in qualitative educational research, particularly those conducted in the Global South. This article, drawing on the researcher’s and participants’ experiences, reflects on internet-mediated phone interviews in a qualitative study that investigated the technology professional development of teachers in Ghana. Findings from the reflections include strategies (rapport building, prior environmental scanning, and use of prompts and probes) adopted to elicit quality responses and address enactment challenges, including network connectivity, lack of nonverbal cues, and physical presence. Benefits gained from the phone interviews transcend limitations faced, which impacted little on data quality. This article argues that beyond being seen as alternatives to in-person interviews, phone interviews have distinct strengths to stand as autonomous and first-route research methods for trustworthy qualitative research, including in the Global South.