Pursuing Culturally Responsive Interviews

By Destiny King

As an emerging music educator, culturally responsive teaching is a concept that is relatively new in research, but is being integrated into education studies because of scholars (and educators) such as Zaretta Hammond and Dr. Constance McKoy. Exploring culturally responsive interview literature was a must before beginning my capstone project, Amplifying the Voices of Black Pedagogy. As a Black, Queer woman, this research was imperative for me to embody before beginning my interview process. 

To inform my process, I focused on community-led research practices: I read the below two articles, which explore how to interview holistically, investigate your own biases, and explore how you can circulate this information in the communities you’re seeking to serve, through African American and Indigenous worldviews. I also examined the Wallace Foundation’s In-Depth Interview model.   

Racial Difference in African American Interviews

The feminist perspective on qualitative research pushes the notion of power to the forefront of discussions between the interviewer and interviewee. Rather than trying to dig to find the “value-free, objective ideal,” we must recognize we all carry value that influences the way we hear, think, and interpret stories with others and the issues that we study. This has widely been the norm for how we walk into interviews that has, for too long, catered to white male subjectivity. While white feminists focus on the unique standpoint of women, Black feminists argue an elitism that is imposing a white lens as the universal standard. 

There are three historic models of conducting research of African-American heritage
(Abrams and Gibson, 2008), which can influence our design today:

  • Emergent Model: emphasizes cultural aspects that stem from African Americans’ African heritage

  • Structural-functional Model: espouses the strengths of African American families while describing their differences with white families

  • Pathological Model: labels African Americans as unstable and suffering from the legacy of slavery

When conducting interviews with Black women, we should focus on the following:

  • Seeking: relating lived experience to context, texture, and culture 

  • Investigating: similarities and differences among your own standpoint in comparison to who you’re interviewing 

  • Ethic sharing and responsibility: in relation to the production should guide the research with interrelated components of uniqueness of the individual, appropriateness of emotions in dialogue, and capacity for empathy 

Here are some questions to ask yourself throughout the interview process:

  • Am I coming into this project from an insider or outsider perspective? How will I use this to inform my interview process?

  • What does an emergent model look like for my project and how can I holistically emphasize cultural aspects that are true to each participant? 

  • What is my responsibility for the production of this work and capacity for empathy am I contributing? 

Indigenous Knowledge and Culturally Responsive Interviewing Practices 

Traditionally, knowledge in these communities is orally transmitted, contributing to its communal ownership and local orientation. It is deeply rooted in tradition, reflecting the rich cultural heritage of the people. 

One crucial consideration is understanding the internal hierarchies of information circulation within these communities. Recognizing how knowledge is disseminated and valued among community members can significantly impact how we approach interviews and research respectfully and responsibly. For example, if we were interested in the perspective of  Black teachers in the American South, it's essential to contemplate how the deliverables will be accessible and available to the community of Black teachers in the American South. This consideration ensures that the outcomes of the research are shared in a manner that respects their cultural values and preferences. 

Moreover, embracing diversity goes beyond merely acknowledging different perspectives; it entails acknowledging varying systems of circulation, community priorities, ontologies, and modes of adoption. By recognizing and embracing this diversity, we can create a more inclusive and meaningful research experience for everyone involved.

To this end, Becvar and Ramesh, 2009 devised this Culturally Sensitive Model for Collaborative Research:

  • Collaborative methods: research is done with people, rather than on or about them

  • Direct indigenous involvement: collaborators are involved at all levels and phases of the research process

  • Ensuring appropriateness: steps are taken to appropriately handle sensitive information gathered in the course of research

  • Establishing the “right” kind of research relationship: a research partnership is defined according to what works best for everyone

  • Ownership of the project (goals and products): the project has relevant goals, and the ownership of research products is clearly defined. 

    • Imperative that this is in the hands of the community– you need those champions who will be your advocate if things get difficult. 

    • Your project is more about listening and offering, coming up with reimaginings– naming what they do in a different way. 

    • “Our challenge is figuring out how we can help.” 

Here are some questions to ask yourself throughout the interview process: 

  • How is information circulated in the communities I’m seeking to interview and serve from this research?

  • What are the internal hierarchies that are in the communities, and what biases do I have that affirm these biases and stereotypes within these hierarchies? 

  • Who is the audience of this project and how will this be made accessible in the communities in which the project is targeted?

  • What does diversity, accessibility, and community practices mean in this project? 

Wallace Foundation on In-depth Interviews

In the pursuit of meaning making and impactful research, my focus was to be discovery-oriented, open-minded, and to explore the depth of the interviewee’s point of view, experiences, feelings, and perspectives. These in-depth interviews offer valuable insights allowing participants to open up on a personal level, but require a skilled interviewee to leave less room for bias. 

Analysis can be time consuming and challenging, but in this process, data is collected faster and questions can be altered and added in real time. The interview guide allows for a comprehensive understanding of our subjects and lays the foundation for guiding our purpose, participant selection, and information circulation. The aim is to uncover valuable insights and enable intricate knowledge for chosen interviewees. 

Here is the process from the Wallace Foundation’s 2009 Workbook:

  • Developing a Sampling Strategy: Whose attitudes and beliefs matter to your research, and how will you find these people?

  • Writing an in-depth interview guide: An in-depth interview guide contains the questions that will be asked during the interview.

  • Conducting the interviews: Contact potential respondents to complete an interview.

  • Analyzing the data: Making sense of the findings.

In the quest for culturally responsive interviews, this exploration has led me to embrace the significance of understanding our own cultural awareness and fostering empathy. 

To capture the lived experiences of marginalized communities, we must engage in critical self-reflection, recognizing the impact of power dynamics in the interviewer-interviewee relationship. By drawing inspiration from feminist perspectives and community-led research practices, we can approach interviews with Black women and Indigenous communities with context, texture, and cultural sensitivity. Emphasizing collaboration and Indigenous involvement, we seek to ensure appropriateness and establish respectful research relationships. 

Additionally, the Wallace Foundation's in-depth interview process can shape the approach, enabling us to uncover valuable insights and explore the depths of each participant's perspectives. 

As I continued to find research on culturally responsive literature, I found myself on Reddit threads, under Instagram hashtags, and searching individual blog posts to find the communities that are having these conversations. 

At Creative Generation, we continually refer to “documented knowledge,” in recognition of the deeply-rooted oral histories, cultural practices, and social knowledge passed between generations of key practitioners in our fields, like teaching artists, educators, and culture bearers. These histories and traditions are often unrecognized in Western European academic traditions of “literature reviews,” which rely on the publication of the written word; so, we reject this notion and broadly accept the myriad media of ‘documentation’ and ‘knowledge’ within these fields of practice. 

So, we encourage you to not only search scholarly articles, but to look within the communities and where they reside. This might mean:

  • Joining Facebook or Reddit communities.

  • Listening to podcasts

  • Searching through online forums and discussion boards from the field in which you are researching, or 

  • Subscribing to an organization’s newsletter. 

Take the time to reflect on whatever this looks like for the communities you serve to help guide your interview processes and reflect on the next project you take on.