Respondents

Upon receiving a reply from a potential respondent, I followed up with a telephone call. I was immediately taken by surprise when he told me that he was actually not too keen to entertain my request ( to be interviewed). This was because he and others in the committee member had once helped a previous phd student in her thesis by being a respondent but never received any news after that session….in other words the question of `So what do we get by helping you? ‘ was implied but unstated…

Quickly I assured him by informing him that `I’m not that kind of student…I will share the findings later with my respondents keeping anonymity and confidentiality…and requesting for an opportunity to meet up…this I guess might have changed his perception about me which led to today’s meetup with a few committee members at a seminar arranged by them for their residents. Meeting with them opened another possibility to interview them as a focus group either next week which I will confirm with their association’s secretary…

Lesson learned from this event in my phd process and as a researcher:
Have to maintain a sense of humility with everyone and anyone
Have to follow up contacts through all media:emails, telephone calls, informal meetups
The suggestions made by my uni’s Human Ethic committee about making transcriptions available to all respondents (which I missed initially in my application) is really happening in my situation
Be prepared with a short and precise description to the so often asked question `so what is your research about’…
I guess I will face other situations which I many not have anticipated. I am after all dealing with the complexity of humans in complex situations...may Allah help me with this challenge...