ABSTRACT
Interviews have the potential to yield valuable insights into peoples life experiences, attitudes, opinions and aspirations. They are valuable for collecting data which would be inaccessible using other research techniques such as questionnaires and observations. Interviews allow the researcher to explore complex issues in detail, to probe beneath the surface of events, to find out ‘how people think’ and ‘how they construct meaning’ (Brown and Dowling 1998:60). Use of interviews in research usually occurs when the researcher decides that the research question requires in-depth information and that data collected from a small number of informants will satisfy the demands of the research project in terms of reliability and validity.
