Therapeutic Inional Essays

The first group of interviewees that I targeted comprised of government officials and the second comprised of a group people living in slums.The elite interviews were generally semi-structured in nature and were based on open- and closed-ended questions.There were several instances where I also noticed that the translation process was not as effective as it should be during the fieldwork process.

This strategy, according to Denzin (1970), is known as methodological triangulation and it allows researchers to make use of various data gathering methods to ensure internal validity.

Based on the use of methodological triangulation, I specifically designed interviews targeted at both elite groups and slum dwellers in Rwanda to investigate the thinking behind the urban policies designed by political elites, and how it impacts marginalised slum dwellers.

As mentioned, I discovered that slum dwellers, after gaining their trust, provided a great deal of nuanced insight into my understanding of urban regeneration in Rwanda, which was very beneficial for my project.

Harvey (2011) has highlighted how field researchers must endeavour to earn the trust of their respondents to gain access to high quality data and looking at the results I garnered, I believe I was able to do this successfully.

Scholars such as Harvey (2011) have noted that this is the best approach for elite interviews because it allows flexibility and hence, maximises response rates.

Notably, scholars such as Aberbach and Rockman (2002), Hoffmann-Lange (1987) as well as Zuckerman (1972) have also shown that elites prefer to engage with open-ended questions so that they can articulate their views coherently.However, I learned some valuable lessons as a result of this too.During my fieldwork in Rwanda, I increasingly realised that it was important to incorporate primary research data into my study, but because of a lack of data on my topic, I made use of other sources of qualitative data to validate my findings.I tried to strike a balance between note taking and the interview process, but I found this to be a difficult endeavour.I was able to access more political elites than initially anticipated, however it often felt futile because I couldn’t source as much information as I had wanted from this sample group.In my opinion, this was indicative of the lack of training which the translator received and I learned to not just assume that job roles were obvious, especially in this context. In instances where omissions were obvious, I questioned the translator to gain further details. Reflections on interviewing foreign elites: praxis, positionality, validity, and the cult of the insider. I could have saved time and effort in sourcing this information from secondary sources such as government reports and books. I also would have employed a local researcher much earlier in the process as it paved the way for gaining the trust of respondents. I felt particularly irritated because the absence of a recording device meant I was unable to get hold of a verbatim record of my interviews.Because I had to write down observational notes while engaging with the respondent, it was difficult to record all the information and I lost out on some important points.