Racial Matching in Qualitative Interviews: Integrating Ontological, Ethical, and Methodological Arguments
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17169/fqs-25.1.4048Keywords:
interviews, racial matching, color-evasiveness , race, qualitative data collectionAbstract
Because of the primacy of color-evasiveness as an ideological and interactional force, researching race and related processes can be an imprecise process. While not the only salient methodological choice, racial matching during qualitative interviewing may impact the robustness of a qualitative dataset's data on race. Researchers across paradigms agree that interviewers' race impacts data collection. Researchers with different ontological orientations, however, differ in how they would wrestle with that impact. In this article, I integrate quantitative and qualitative methodological research with ontological and ethical considerations to understand the benefits and drawbacks of racial matching in qualitative interview studies. I reflect on two of my research studies involving race through these new insights. I conclude with major ethical questions and ontological considerations for qualitative researchers to consider during the design process of their projects.
Downloads
References
Amodio, David M. (2009). Intergroup anxiety effects on the control of racial stereotypes: A psychoneuroendocrine analysis. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 45(1), 60-67.
Anderson, Barbara A.; Silver, Brian D. & Abramson, Paul R. (1988a). The effects of race of the interviewer on race-related attitudes of black respondents in SRC/CPS national election studies. The Public Opinion Quarterly, 52(3), 289-324.
Anderson, Barbara A.; Silver, Brian D. & Abramson, Paul R. (1988b). The effects of race of the interviewer on measures of electoral participation by blacks in SRC national election studies. The Public Opinion Quarterly, 52(1), 53-83.
Annamma, Subini Ancy; Jackson, Darrell D. & Morrison, Deb (2017). Conceptualizing color-evasiveness: Using dis/ability critical race theory to expand a color-blind racial ideology in education and society. Race Ethnicity and Education, 20(2), 147-162.
Archer, Louise (2002). "It's easier that you're a girl and that you're Asian": interactions of "race" and gender between researchers and participants. Feminist Review, 72(1), 108-132.
Athey, K.R.; Coleman, Joan E.; Reitman, Audrey P. & Tang, Jenny (1960). Two experiments showing the effect of the interviewer's racial background on responses to questionnaires concerning racial issues. Journal of Applied Psychology, 44(4), 244-246.
Bertrand, Melanie (2010). Differing functions of deracialized speech: The use of place names to index race in focus groups with African American and white parents. Talk & Text: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Language, Discourse, & Communication Studies, 30(5), 485-505.
Bonilla-Silva, Eduardo (2006). Racism without racists: Color-blind racism and the persistence of racial inequality in the United States. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
Cernat, Alexandru; Sakshaug, Joseph W. & Castillo, Javier (2019). The impact of interviewer effects on skin color assessment in a cross-national context. International Journal of Public Opinion Research, 31(4), 779-793.
Cotter, Patrick R.; Cohen, Jeffrey & Coulter, Phillip B. (1982). Race-of-interviewer effects in telephone interviews. The Public Opinion Quarterly, 46(2), 278-284.
Cotterill, Pamela (1992). Interviewing women: Issues of friendship, vulnerability, and power. Women's Studies International Forum, 15(5-6), 593-606.
Crenshaw, Kimberlé W. (2017). On intersectionality: Essential writings. New York, NY: The New Press.
Davis, Darren W. (1997). The direction of race of interviewer effects among African-Americans: Donning the black mask. American Journal of Political Science, 41(1), 309-322.
Davis, Darren W. & Silver, Brain D. (2003). Stereotype threat and race of interviewer effects in a survey on political knowledge. American Journal of Political Science, 47(1), 33-45.
Davis, Rachel E.; Couper, Mick P.; Janz, Nancy K.; Caldwell, Cleopatra H. & Resnicow, Ken (2010). Interviewer effects in public health surveys. Health Education Research, 25(1), 14-26, https://doi.org/10.1093/her/cyp046 [Date of Access: October 30, 2023].
Deppermann, Arnulf (2013). Interviews as text vs. interviews as social interaction. Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 14(3), Art. 3, https://doi.org/10.17169/fqs-14.3.2064 [Date of Access: October 25, 2023].
Dieronitou, Irene (2014). The ontological and epistemological foundations of qualitative and quantitative approaches to research. International Journal of Economics, 2(10), 1-17, https://ijecm.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/2105.pdf [Date of Access: October 30, 2023].
Dunivin, Zackary Okun; Yan, Harry Yaojun; Ince, Jelani & Rojas, Fabio (2022). Black Lives Matter protests shift public discourse. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 119(10), 1-11, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2117320119 [Date of Access: October 30, 2023].
Eakin, Joan M. & Mykhalovskiy, Eric (2003). Reframing the evaluation of qualitative health research: reflections on a review of appraisal guidelines in the health sciences. Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice, 9(2), 187-194.
Ellison, Christopher G.; McFarland, Michael J. & Krause, Neal (2011). Measuring religiousness among older African Americans: Exploring race-of-interviewer effects. Review of Religious Research, 53(1), 65-84.
Elmesky, Rowhea M. & Marcucci, Olivia (2023). Beyond cultural mismatch theories: The role of antiblackness in school discipline and social control practices. American Educational Research Journal, 60(40), 769-809.
Finkel, Steven E.; Guterbock, Thomas M. & Borg, Marian J. (1991). Race-of-interviewer effects in a preelection poll Virginia 1989. The Public Opinion Quarterly, 55(3), 313-330.
Godsil, Rachel D. & Richardson, L. Song (2017). Racial anxiety. Iowa Law Review, 102(50), 2235-2263.
Greene, Maxine (1977). Toward wide-awakeness: An argument for the arts and humanities in education. Teachers College Record, 79(1), 119-125.
Hatchett, Shirley & Schuman, Howard (1975). White respondents and race-of-interviewer effects. The Public Opinion Quarterly, 39(4), 523-528.
Hill, Mark E. (2002). Race of the interviewer and perception of skin color: Evidence from the multi-city study of urban inequality. American Sociological Review, 67(1), 99-108.
Hinrichs, Peter (2016). An empirical analysis of racial segregation in higher education (No. w21831). National Bureau of Economic Research, https://www.nber.org/papers/w21831 [Date of Access: March 27, 2023].
Holbrook, Allyson L.; Johnson, Timothy P. & Krysan, Maria (2019). Race‐and ethnicity‐of‐interviewer effects. In Paul J. Lavkras, Michael W. Traugott, Courtney Kennedy, Allyson Holbrook, Edith de Leeuw & Brady T. West (Eds.), Experimental methods in survey research: Techniques that combine random sampling with random assignment (pp.197-224). New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Hurwitz, Jon & Peffley, Mark (2005). Playing the race card in the post-Willie Horton era: The impact of racialized code words on support for punitive crime policy. The Public Opinion Quarterly, 69(1), 99-112.
Kappelhof, Johannes W.S. & De Leeuw, Edith D. (2019). Estimating the impact of measurement differences introduced by efforts to reach a balanced response among non-Western minorities. Sociological Methods & Research, 48(1), 116-155.
Kendi, Ibram X. (2019). How to be antiracist. New York, NY: One World.
Krumpal, Ivar (2013). Determinants of social desirability bias in sensitive surveys: a literature review. Quality & Quantity, 47(4), 2025-2047.
Kwon, Diana (2022). The rise of citational justice: How scholars are making references fairer. Nature, March 22, https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-00793-1 [Date of Access: March 27, 2023].
Lokot, Michelle (2022). Reflecting on race, gender and age in humanitarian-led research: Going beyond institutional to individual positionality. Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 23(2), Art. 7, https://doi.org/10.17169/fqs-22.2.3809 [Date of Access: October 25, 2023].
Macbeth, Douglas (2001). On "reflexivity" in qualitative research: Two readings, and a third. Qualitative Inquiry, 7(1), 35-68.
Marcucci, Olivia (2021). Why restorative justice works in schools: An investigation into the interactional dynamics of restorative circles. Learning, Culture, and Social Interaction, 31(A), 1-12.
Marcucci, Olivia & Elmesky, Rowhea (2016). Roadblocks on the way to higher education: Non-dominant cultural capital, race, and the "schools are equalizer" myth. In William F. Tate, Nancy Staudt & Ashley Macrander (Eds.), The crisis of race in higher education: A day of discovery and dialogue (pp.85-107). Bradford: Emerald Group Publishing.
Marcucci, Olivia, & Elmesky, Rowhea (2023). Advancing culturally relevant discipline: An ethnographic microanalysis of disciplinary interactions with Black students. Urban Education, 58(6), 1118-1150.
Marcucci, Olivia; Satchell, Tonya & Elmesky, Rowhea M. (under review). Politicized caring as anti-carceral pedagogy: An ethnographic case study of a Black woman educator. Journal Article.
Marcucci, Olivia; Robertson, Tiffany; Morgan, Don; Lazarus, Elizabeth & Mitchell, Lisa (2023). A grassroots antiracist program: The motivation and perceived growth of participants in a community-based, intergroup dialogue program. American Journal of Community Psychology, 72, 75-88, https://doi.org/10.1002/ajcp.12682 [Date of Access: October 30, 2023].
McKinney de Royston, Maxine; Madkins, Tia C.; Givens, Jarvis R. & Nasir, Na'ilah Suad (2021). "I'm a teacher, I'm gonna always protect you": Understanding black educators' protection of Black children. American Educational Research Journal, 58(1), 68-106.
Mertens, Donna M. (2010). Transformative mixed methods research. Qualitative Inquiry, 16(6), 469-474.
Mizock, Lauren; Harkins, Debra; Ray, Sukanya & Morant, Renee (2011a). Researcher race in narrative interviews on traumatic racism. Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment & Trauma, 20(1), 40-57.
Mizock, Lauren; Harkins, Debra & Morant, Renee (2011b). Researcher interjecting in qualitative race research. Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 12(2), Art. 14, https://doi.org/10.17169/fqs-12.2.1566 [Date of Access: October 25, 2023].
Norton, Michael I.; Sommers, Samuel R.; Apfelbaum, Evan P.; Pura, Natassia & Ariely, Dan (2006). Color blindness and interracial interaction: Playing the political correctness game. Psychological Science, 17(11), 949-953.
Olson, Kristen M.; Smyth, Jolene; Dykema, Jennifer; Holbrook, Allyson L.; Kreuter, Frauke & West, Brady T. (2020). The past, present, and future of research on interviewer effects. In Kristen Olson, Jolene D. Smyth, Jennifer Dykema, Allyson L. Holbrook, Frauke Kreuter & Brady T. West (Eds.), Interviewer effects from a total survey error perspective (pp.3-16). Boca Raton: Chapman and Hall/CRC.
Palaganas, Erlinda C.; Sanchez, Marian C.; Molintas, Ma. Visitacion P. & Caricativo, Ruel D. (2017). Reflexivity in qualitative research: A journey of learning. The Qualitative Report, 22(2), https://doi.org/10.46743/2160-3715/2017.2552 [Date of Access: October 30, 2023].
Paris, Django & Winn, Maisha T. (Eds.) (2013). Humanizing research: Decolonizing qualitative inquiry with youth and communities. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Pillow, Wanda (2003). Confession, catharsis, or cure? Rethinking the uses of reflexivity as methodological power in qualitative research. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 16(2), 175-196.
Reese, Stephen D.; Danielson, Wayne A.; Shoemaker, Pamela J.; Chang, Tsan-Kuo & Hsu, Huei-Ling (1986). Ethnicity-of-interviewer effects among Mexican-Americans and Anglos. The Public Opinion Quarterly, 50(4), 563-572.
Rhodes, Penny J. (1994). Race-of-interviewer effects: A brief comment. Sociology, 28(2), 547-558.
Rios, Edwin (2022). Supreme court could strike blow against affirmative action case Harvard case ruling. The Guardian, August 2, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/aug/02/supreme-court-affirmative-action-harvard [Date of Access: March 27, 2023].
Sanchez, Kiara L.; Kalkstein, David A. & Walton, Gregory M. (2022). A threatening opportunity: The prospect of conversations about race-related experiences between Black and White friends. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 122(5), 853.
Savage, Brenda K. (2016). Race-of-interviewer effects and survey questions about police violence. Sociological Spectrum, 36(3), 142-157.
Schaeffer, Nora Cate (1980). Evaluating race-of-interviewer effects in a national survey. Sociological Methods & Research, 8(4), 400-419.
Schrag, Francis (1992). In defense of positivist research paradigms. Educational Researcher, 21(5), 5-8.
Schuman, Howard & Converse, Jean M. (1971). The effects of black and white interviewers on black responses in 1968. The Public Opinion Quarterly, 35(1), 44-68.
Törngren, Sayaka Osanami & Ngeh, Jonathan (2018). Reversing the gaze: Methodological reflections from the perspective of racial-and ethnic-minority researchers. Qualitative Research, 18(1), 3-18.
Trawalter, Sophie & Richeson, Jennifer A. (2008). Let's talk about race, baby! When Whites' and Blacks' interracial contact experiences diverge. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 44(4), 1214-1217.
Varpio, Lara; Ajjawi, Rola; Monrouxe, Lynn V.; O'Brien, Bridget C. & Rees, Charlotte E. (2017). Shedding the cobra effect: Problematising thematic emergence, triangulation, saturation and member checking. Medical Education, 51, 40-50.
Vasilachis de Gialdino, Irene (2009). Ontological and epistemological foundations of qualitative research. Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 10(2), Art. 30, https://doi.org/10.17169/fqs-10.2.1299 [Date of Access: September 27, 2023].
Washington, Harriet A. (2006). Medical apartheid: The dark history of medical experimentation on Black Americans from colonial times to the present. New York, NY: Doubleday Books.
Welch, Susan; Comer, John & Steinman, Michael (1973). Interviewing in a Mexican-American community: An investigation of some potential sources of response bias. The Public Opinion Quarterly, 37(1), 115-126.
Welsh, Richard O.; Williams, Sheneka; Little, Shafiqua & Graham, Jerome (2019). Examining the narrative: an analysis of the racial discourse embedded in state takeover. Equity & Excellence in Education, 52(4), 502-526.
Williams, J. Allen Jr. (1964). Interviewer-respondent interaction: A study of bias in the information interview. Sociometry, 27(3), 338-352.
Young, Kathryn S. (2016). How student teachers (don't) talk about race: An intersectional analysis. Race, Ethnicity, and Education, 19(1), 67-95.
Zehr, Howard (2015). The little book of restorative justice. New York, NY: Good Books.
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2023 Olivia Marcucci
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
