Reimagining qualitative interviews using Microsoft Teams in Jamaican educational research.

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Wednesday 3:45 pm - Gold 3
  In Roundtable Session: Rethinking Qualitative Research in Virtual Spaces: Ethics, Inclusion, and Methodological Adaptation (Table 4)

Abstract

In qualitative research, in-person interviewing is frequently positioned as the methodological “gold standard”, particularly within interpretivist and narrative traditions that privilege embodied presence and relational depth. However, rapid advances in digital communication technologies, accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic, have disrupted this assumption. This paper critically examines the deliberate post-pandemic use of Microsoft (MS) Teams to conduct transnational semi-structured interviews with tertiary STEM educators and policy actors in Jamaica as part of a doctoral study developing a crisis management framework for community colleges. Drawing on twelve interviews conducted across geographically dispersed sites, the paper reflects on digital literacy, technological constraints, transcription affordances, ethical considerations, and issues of digital co-presence. Rather than adopting online interviewing as an emergency substitute, this study intentionally employed MS Teams as a methodological choice to enable equitable access to Global South participants while the researcher was based in England. The findings contribute to ongoing debates within qualitative methodology concerning digital presence, relational ethics, transcription technologies, and the future of qualitative interviews in digitally mediated environments.
Keywords: Qualitative Interviews, Microsoft Teams, Doctoral Research, Global South

Author

• Delta Wright, Edge Hill University