Decolonised Interviewing

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Chilisa (2019) says this method is more collective and different from the western style of interviewing which is more individualistic. For example, a decolonial interview favours more than one interviewers and more than one participants in one interview. In the western style interview, there is no real conversation, everything is structured and the researcher is expected to be rigid. A decolonial approach values relationships (ukama) between those being researched, the researcher and those being researched and relationship to the environment of everyone involved in the research. In decolonial approaches, it is the ethics and aspirations of the people that matter, not that of the researcher. For example, if the participant want their name to be revealed or associated with the research, that should be allowed. In western research, recognition is given to the researcher who becomes the owner of the knowledge revealed by participants. As Chilisa (2019) said, a story looses its power if the story teller is not revealed. If names are revealed, the participants become accountable to their families and communities, and the researcher becomes accountable in their analysis of data and reporting. The researcher becomes an author who will benefit from the knowledge as if it was theirs, these benefits including promotion at work or money. In decolonial interviewing, stories are constructed, interpreted and reported together. In decolonial interviewing, the participants are allowed to share the most important aspects of their life, including their relationships and should not be guided by questions constructed by the researchers. The participants can be reminded to include their full social system including their relationships, family (including identity, lineage etc), community, spirituality, environment etc. This is opposite to western research that starts with demographics, in decolonial research the participant will provide the demographics in the story, if they want. The steps of this method are: (1) Identify a preferred research gap (2) Revise the literature that is already there in your chosen field of study to inform the problem and question because most of the literature is colonial or was written from a colonial stand point even if it was written by authors from colonised countries. Use elders, leaders, opinion leaders, griots, sages, participants etc to critique the literature (2) Clarify the research gap with new information gained (3) Create research questions with the participants (4) Work with the community to identify who could be interviewed including family or small group interviews and who will interview (including two or more interviewers). (5) Decide with the participants how the interviewing will go. Options include dare, indaba or talking circles where everyone gets a chance. (6) Start interview by relationships not demographics.

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