Reflections on Research and Interviews in Nigeria
Reflecting on the challenges faced during research interviews in Nigeria, the author discusses the impact of base assumptions, technical issues, and background interests on their study. The experiences led to a reevaluation of research questions and a deeper understanding of the complexities involved in conducting research in a foreign context.
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Through-the-mirror reflections Diene de Jong| Leiden 1
1. Base (?) assumptions interview 1 During this interview, the first interview, it became apparent that the company in this case- study had no contact with local government at all. (Which was the base assumption of my research ) This caused me to go back to the beginning and re-evaluate the base assumptions of my research. Because of this I amended my research(question) and I believe it is now stronger and more representative of the Nigerian situation. Additionally, this situation forced me to reflect upon my own perspective; my own perceptions lead me to make assumptions that turned out to be untrue and limiting for my research. 2
2. Technical issues in interview 3 & 4 During these interviews, I was confronted with the fact that doing interviews online can be quite the challenge. Interview 3: the person I was interviewing was in his car, picking up his daughter from school, while driving through Lagos rush hour traffic. The complete audio of the interview is polluted with honking cars, a crying daughter, passing trucks and a swearing driver. Interview 4: the person I was interviewing had little attention for me; not only was the phone connection very poor, the lady was also instructing her staff while being on the phone with me. Her very heavy Nigerian accent was not helping either . After I got over the initial shock of how these interviews were unfolding, I managed to take the information I needed from the notes I took. The background noises from interview 3 still make me smile whenever I listen to the recording *I wanted to add some audio fragments from interview 3, but this information has not been released yet and therefore I can not make this public yet. 3
3. Background interests of cases used While doing my research and interviews, I became increasingly aware of the interests that play a role in the background. When going in-depth for one of the case-studies, I found that the company in this case has several interests in my research, but also several points that they have interests in not being published. These points are highly relevant for the research outcomes, but can, at the same time, severely damage the image of the company used for this study. Maybe a bit na ve, but I had not expected a simple master thesis research to be so influential and I had certainly not expected for this many people to have interests in my research. My thesis supervisor and I are still debating how to work this situation in my thesis. This situation has made me more aware of the impact I can have and has increased my motivation. Again, it showed me that my own perceptions can limit me in my research. 4
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