A counter-narrative of a ‘failed’ interview

Abstract

In a broader research project about students’ perceptions of their rights in New Zealand high schools, the first author conducted an interview with a group of students that was noticeably different from her interviews with groups of students at three other high schools. This article was prompted in the first instance by a sense of this ‘noticeably different’ interview being a ‘failure’ because of the limited spoken text elicited. In this article we demonstrate what we can learn from data regarding embodiment, the interview setting, silence, laughter and, in the process, we attempt to practise ‘uncomfortable reflexivities’ advocated by Pillow (2003). We argue that an apparently ‘failed’ interview has a great deal to teach us about the theory and practice of qualitative research and the tenuous nature of the production of knowledge. We finish by identifying how our experience of this ‘failed’ interview informs our current research.