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Interviews: An Introduction to Qualitative
Research Interviewing by Steinar Kvale.
Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 1996.326 pp.
Reviewed by: LOIS SAYRS
Kvale’s volume is quite comprehensive in its coverage of what is perhaps the primary quali-
tative method used to generate data in evaluation. The author clearly exceeds the modest
expectations he sets for himself, namely (a) to provide new interview researchers with practi-
cal guidelines for how to do research interviews, and (b) to suggest, for novice and experi-
enced interview researchers alike, conceptual frames of reference for how to think about
interview research.
Kvale successfully weaves these rather simple goals into a rich theoretical and dense
pragmatic text that is accessible to a wide audience. Practitioners and researchers alike will
find the philosophy, theory, and practice offered in Interviews to be intellectually enriching
and immediately applicable to the everyday work of evaluation. Until now, Interviews
breadth and depth of coverage on interviewing has been unavailable in a single volume.
Interviewing is an important method in any social scientist’s methodological toolbox, but
essential to evaluators. With a general resurgence of qualitative techniques in the social sci-
ences, evaluators likewise have started to blend qualitative and quantitative methods in some
rather sophisticated ways. The interview has become the central component in the ethno-
graphic research now surfacing in published evaluations. Interviewing has also been the sub-
ject of several recently published methods texts, such as Patton’s (1990) Qualitative
Evaluation and Research Methods and McCracken’s (1988) The Long Interview. Indeed,
entire series of monographs (i.e., the Sage Qualitative Research Methods Series) have been
devoted to helping new and experienced researchers alike gain access to a full range of quali-
tative techniques, and interviewing is central to that endeavor.
Given the critical import of the method, what does Kvale’s text contribute? Without
doubt, his book augurs a second generation of texts on qualitative research methods. More
than simply an experienced researcher offering his/her guidance and insight to practitioners,
Kvale’s volume actually achieves a synthesis of theory and practice. He integrates the theory
Lois W. Sayra l Senior Methodologist, Office of the Auditor General, Performance Audit Division, 2910 N 44th Street,
Phoenix, AZ 85018.
American Journal of Evaluation, Vol. 19, No. 2. 1998, pp. 267-270. All rights of reproduction in any form reserved.
ISSN: IO98-2140 Copyright 0 1998 by American Evaluation Association.
267
268 AMERICAN JOURNAL OF EVALUATION, 19(2), 1998
and method of interviewing with appropriate and too-often-omitted philosophy. The reader,
especially the practitioner, can read with ease and understand the epistemology of interview-
ing.
Kvale wants the reader to think about the underlying architecture of interviewing, the
platform of thought that it stands on; to that end, he offers two metaphors for consideration.
The first is the interviewer as a miner: The interviewer “seeks nuggets of essential meaning”
(p.3). The second is the interviewer as traveler: The interviewer engages in an almost thera-
peutic exchange with the interviewee, creating a new experience for both. Kvale himself is a
“traveler,” and the book reflects this philosophy as well as his considerable experience in clin-
ical research. Together, his epistemological perspective and experience help the reader see the
interview as “an exchange of views”: an Interview.
The text is structured in a split-book approach wherein the theory and philosophy are con-
tained in the first two parts of the book and the practice in Part III. This approach widens the
utility and appeal of the text, but in an effort to widen appeal, the author may have inadvert-
ently given the impression that the reader need not venture into the philosophical to perfect his
or her craft. Obviously, the author thought it important enough to include and discuss first.
Readers who skip to Part III will miss what is perhaps the most important contribution of the
volume. In addition, the philosophy is not just put away after it is discussed. To the contrary,
even in the more applied discussions Kvale relies on his extensive training in continental
philosophical traditions to frame and explain issues. Kvale’s text strikes a hard-to-achieve bal-
ance between philosophy and practice, creating a true synthesis and making each part of the
book as valuable as any other. It is the synthesis that the reader will most benefit from, and the
upshot will be improved performance in application.
Because the book is written for the practitioner, when the author specifically discusses
practice, he excels. Kvale describes the entire interview process, from developing the initial
theme and design of the interview to writing the report and responding to critics. In between,
he offers chapters on ethics, the context or situation of the interview, how to set performance
standards for the interview to ensure quality, and how to record, transcribe and summarize
interview material (including computer-based software to manage text and analyze it). Part III
of the book is self-contained, as a thorough treatment going beyond current texts and offering
new insights on interviews in practice (e.g., the interview dynamic wherein researchers may
progress through a series of emotional stages as they apply the method). Some of the most
important contributions of the text to the practitioner are discussions of the actual methods of
interview analysis, interpretation of the data, and the social construction of validity.
Kvale’s text provides a valuable and needed source of qualitative methodological train-
ing. The author’s main strengths seem to be his classifications, his ability to provide examples
and offer detail that can only be gained from synthesizing large bodies of related material. I
like, for example, how the author categorizes and labels techniques of analysis, such as “con-
densing” interview data versus “narrative structuring” of interview data. His classifications
are, for the most part, mutually exclusive and analytically fruitful. For each approach, Kvale
shows the reader, through extended examples, how analysis is accomplished. The author does
not elaborate on the advantages and disadvantages of each approach, but instead, by providing
sufficient exemplars, permits the reader to draw his/her own conclusions. Some practitioners
may find the need to draw out the pros and cons a little frustrating, because the practitioner
may want to know as much about when to use a specific technique as how. But Kvale’s is not
a handbook, it is a textbook, offering the reader the opportunity to learn and do for him/her-
self.
Book Reviews 269
The text is replete with detail. Take, for example, the detail with which the author treats
ensuring the quality of an interview. He sets out performance criteria against which any inter-
viewer could measure him- or herself, such as being knowledgeable, clear, gentle, sensitive,
open, and critical, as well as structuring, steering, remembering, and interpreting. His discus-
sion of each of these criteria is just the kind of practical knowledge all interviewers need to
assess their performance and improve it. Similar!y, his treatment of ethics in interviewing
shows enormous deliberation and synthesis of research on related topics such as confidential-
ity and informed consent. He shows where ethics come into play at every stage of an inter-
view, from setting the theme to reporting. He links verification of the interview data to ethics
and not just validity. His scholarship takes the topics to the next level of discussion, making
every topic the book touches intellectually exciting and challenging.
The text makes an important contribution to methodology generally, not just to qualita-
tive methodology. For example, Kvale relates how the behaviorist tendencies of social science
created a mechanical conception of interviewing as stimuli (questions) and responses
(answers), and suppressed the tendency for the method to be one in which people told their
own stories in their own language. He suggests that interviewing can play an important role in
current methodological tensions, by helping qualitative researchers better anchor their work in
sound philosophy and methods. And, although he doesn’t cite evaluation research specifi-
cally, this book is a strong statement in support of mixed methods. Use of a text like this, that
fully considers the epistemology and methodology of a qualitative method, should surely
assist in producing better-trained qualitative (and in my opinion quantitative) social scientists.
To the extent that the book has any flaws, they must be overlooked, given the intended
audience, the author’s genuine desire to reach the reader, and how much the author is able to
accomplish with the text. For one example, the book is not intended to offer a full explanation
of hermeneutics, only an introduction. For another, the author’s use of text from Hamlet as an
example of certain interview issues is not as effective as he intends. Instead, the reader works
to analyze the Hamlet text, not what it means for interviewing. Lastly, the author’s omission
of when to use certain techniques may create a gap for practitioners. However, the extensive
detail, the well-developed examples, the full consideration of the why and how of interviews
is so overwhelming that any reader will find him- or herself very forgiving of the few flaws.
Virtually any topic Kvale touches in this book shows more than just a cursory consideration.
It shows the author’s considerable scholarship. It introduces a refreshing shift away from the
basic methods text, more reminiscent of those published by university presses. It has the
added benefit that over half the book is given over to practice.
The text succeeds at synthesizing theory and practice and will likely be a welcomed state-
ment on interviewing for years to come. It is no mean feat to introduce philosophy in a meth-
ods text, but the author succeeds in making the text truly accessible to researchers,
practitioners, and graduate and undergraduate students. The better trained methodologically
the reader is, the more he or she will cull from this text. I found his distinctly European
approach refreshing, synthetic and rich with ideas that will stimulate many enlivened discus-
sions on the role of qualitative methodology in contemporary evaluation. As a practicing
methodologist who trains government evaluators in a whole range of methods, including
interviewing, Kvale’s text should be a standard in any methods course on qualitative evalua-
tion or qualitative methods, enhancing what Patton (1990) or McCracken (1988) currently
offer as a basic training text.
270 AMERICAN JOURNAL OF EVALUATION, 19(2), 1998
REFERENCES
McCracken, G. (1988) The long interview. Qualitative Research Methods Series, No. 13. Newbury Park,
CA: Sage.
Patton, M. Q. (1990). Qualitative evaluation and research methods. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
