Analysing Semi-Structured Interviews with Young Neets in Southern Italy

Analysing Semi-Structured Interviews With Young NEETs in Southern Italy

© 2019 SAGE Publications Ltd. All Rights Reserved. This PDF has been generated from SAGE Research Methods Datasets. SAGE SAGE Research Methods Datasets Part 2019 SAGE Publications, Ltd. All Rights Reserved. 2 Analysing Semi-Structured Interviews With Young NEETs in Southern Italy

Student Guide

Introduction This dataset describes how to analyse semi-structured interviews. A semi- structured interview is very useful when focusing on a specific topic such as the educational pathways of a group of young people (aged 18–30) who were neither studying nor working in Southern Italy. The objective of the research was to understand how these young NEETs (‘not in employment, education and training’) experienced their educational pathways and the extent to which these affected their present condition as NEETs. The phenomenon of young NEETs is remarkably widespread in Southern Italy. Studies and research conducted on the topic in Italy (Agnoli, 2014; Alfieri & Sironi, 2017; Rosina, 2015) indicate that the levels of education of young NEETs in Italy are low and that very often young people leave school early. Young NEETs’ low educational level does not allow them to be adequately prepared to enter the job market. The aim of the research was to examine the years young NEETs spent in education, in order to understand the reasons of their early school-leaving and the consequences for their lives. The dataset will be of most use to those who want to analyse a chosen topic using a qualitative method.

Semi-Structured Interviews Semi-structured interviews are one of the most used tools to collect data in

Page 2 of 12 Analysing Semi-Structured Interviews With Young NEETs in Southern Italy SAGE SAGE Research Methods Datasets Part 2019 SAGE Publications, Ltd. All Rights Reserved. 2 qualitative research (Cardano, 2013; Denzin & Lincol, 2000; Silverman, 2000). The interview is an interaction between interviewee and interviewer prompted by the latter for fact-finding purposes and conducted according to an interview schedule. The interview is usually carried out with a considerable number of people selected by means of a process called sampling. In the present case, a purposive sampling was used. The criteria adopted for the selection of interviewees for the research was that they had to be aged between 18 and 30 years, that they had finished their studies, and that they had not worked for at least six months. Since an official list of young NEETs does not exist, the contact with these young people was established through the students who attended the university courses held by the Author of the research (Serena Quarta). In other words, young university students would interview their friends (or friends of their friends) who conformed to the characteristics required by the sample.

In semi-structured interviewing, the researcher predefines several topics to be dealt with during the interaction with the interviewee. Such topics are covered in the form of questions, which are asked always in the same manner and in the same order with every person interviewed. The topics and the interview schedule depend on the initial hypothesis of the research, and the questions “act as structured and fixed filters in carrying out the interview” (Bichi, 2007, p. 25).

In the case of the research here provided as an example, the aim of the interview was to analyse the life course that led the youth to their NEET status as well as to understand how they live their situation. For this reason, in planning the interview, we thought that the thematic areas to deal with could be choice of school and the motivations behind it, how they experienced their educational pathways (favourite subject matters, possible setbacks, or academic failures), how they reacted when confronted with possible failures, how their family helped them during their educational pathways, what they expected from school in terms of vocational preparation, and which was their level of satisfaction with the school

Even if the interview schedule is predefined, during the conversation, the researcher may ask additional questions. The interviewer’s preparation is very important to guarantee the quality of the research work. Very often a first-time interviewer may think that conducting a good interview means simply asking questions planned in the schedule. Actually, conducting a good interview means not only asking the scheduled questions but also making sure that the interviewee understands the question (for this reason, the questions should not contain any difficult words), and listening to the interviewee’s answer without interrupting when he or she is speaking.

Semi-Structured Interviews With Young NEETs in Southern Italy The data in the exemplar come from research conducted between 2016 and 2017 by Dr. Serena Quarta. In her research, she wanted to understand what type of schooling young NEETs living in an area of Southern Italy had experienced. Semi-structured interviewing represented the most appropriate tool to have young people tell their experience and all the stages in their educational pathways, including possible failures and second thoughts. This because through the schedule of the semi-structured interview, the youth were encouraged to track/ retrace the stages that had marked their educational pathways and had possibly determined their NEET status. Fifty young people between 18 and 30 years of age were interviewed. The interviews were carried out by students of the course of study in Sociology and Psychology of the University of Salento. These students conducted this activity of research as part of their curriculum requirements, and the phenomenon of young NEETs was among the different topics they showed interest in.

All the students who carried out the interviews were adequately trained, including using interview simulations. The students involved in the project were required

Page 4 of 12 Analysing Semi-Structured Interviews With Young NEETs in Southern Italy SAGE SAGE Research Methods Datasets Part 2019 SAGE Publications, Ltd. All Rights Reserved. 2 to select the interviewees through acquaintances or by resorting to their circle of friends, since a list of young NEETs is not available.

If a student knew a person aged between 18 and 30 who had not worked and had not studied for at least six months, the latter would be asked whether he or she was willing to be interviewed. If the young NEET accepted the interview, the student would introduce him or her to a colleague who would carry out the interview.

Grounded Theory

Context The following topics were scheduled for the interview: family background (number of members, age, parents’ qualification, and occupation), typology of school attended, motivation behind the choice of school, typology of family’s or other adults’ influence, how the schooling years were experienced (possible discontinuation, failures), reasons for possible discontinuation of schooling, which work experiences they have had, and why they have been discontinued, in which way they are active in finding a job, and in which way they live their everyday lives. The topics were chosen based on the literature and research conducted on the subject in Italy, as well as due to the Author’s personal interest in and familiarity with this phenomenon (Agnoli, 2014; Nanni & Quarta 2016; Rosina, 2015).

All the interviews were conducted in the young NEETs’ homes. It was important for this project that interviews were carried out in the home, in a safe environment where the youth could feel comfortable. For others, it may be more appropriate to carry them out in public spaces. All the interviews were recorded and transcribed verbatim in a Word file, each text in a separate file. In the transcription, people’s names were changed by using pseudonyms. The data analysis was performed according to the principles of grounded theory (Glaser & Strauss, 1967).

Page 5 of 12 Analysing Semi-Structured Interviews With Young NEETs in Southern Italy SAGE SAGE Research Methods Datasets Part 2019 SAGE Publications, Ltd. All Rights Reserved. 2 Grounded theory is an approach to qualitative research which allows the emergence of themes as the data analysis progresses (Coffey & Atkinson, 1996; Payne & Payne, 2004; Strauss & Corbin, 1998). As some results emerged from the analysis, I compared them with reference theories. In this instance, when in the interviews the respondents told that their families had encouraged them to leave school or they told that their parents demanded good results from them at school, I consulted some studies dealing with the influence of families on their children’s educational pathways (Astone & Mclanahan, 1994; Colombo 2015; NESSE, 2009). This research was focused on young people’s schooling and, therefore, also on successes and failures. As my analysis progressed, I was able to link its results with Bourdieu’s (1986) theories on family influence related to the educational capital of young people.

Stage 1: Reading the Data The first thing to do when dealing with a great amount of interviews is reading them through as they are transcribed. This first reading stage should be done without being in a hurry to find results but with the only aim to understand how the interviewees tackle the topic. For example, in this case, from a first read of the interviews emerged that most of the respondents did not show great interest in studies, and the choice of school was made for the sole purpose of finding a job quickly.

After reading the first 7–8 interviews with the young NEETs, I realised that some common elements emerged, which would later constitute the conceptual nodes of my work of analysis, and which I will explain in the next chapter. In this case, for the analysis of the interviews, I used NVivo qualitative data analysis software, which allows researchers to analyse the data in a systematic and quick manner but also to store the whole analysing process in a file. However, even when a specific piece of software for data analysis is not available, the researcher can

Page 6 of 12 Analysing Semi-Structured Interviews With Young NEETs in Southern Italy SAGE SAGE Research Methods Datasets Part 2019 SAGE Publications, Ltd. All Rights Reserved. 2 work on the prints of the interviews, highlighting or underlining with a coloured pen the elements he or she finds important and that emerge as a pattern from all the interviews. When the researcher begins reading, it is good to have a sheet of paper, or a separate file, for each topic dealt with, where the elements that emerge from reading the transcripts can be noted down.

Stage 2: Coding After the initial read-through of the transcripts in which I noticed several elements constantly emerging from all the interviews, I proceeded with a more systematic reading of the data which would be of help in the coding process. In the coding stage, I re-read the transcripts focusing my attention on each thematic area of the interviews. This allowed me to identify some conceptual nodes. Conceptual nodes are concepts that emerge from data reading and subsequently help the researcher connect the data to theory. The topics dealt with in the interviews constitute the starting point in defining the conceptual nodes.

For example, in my first interviews, I focused on four macro topics: family, schooling, work, and everyday life. I started from these areas so as to read the data. In the area “family,” for example, one of the elements that emerged was that all the young people interviewed told that the relationship they had with their parents was open to dialogue. In the area of schooling, for example, I observed that the interviewees reported a lot of failures and that they often changed school.

From the young people’s narratives, when I asked “What kind of influence did your parents have in your school choices and during all the educational pathway?” they would tell different stories. From the young people’s words, it emerged that not all parents showed the same interest in their children’s educational experience. This enabled me to identify three types of attitudes of parents towards their children’s education, which I encoded with the words “permissive,” “indifferent,” and “strict.” As to the educational pathway, I encoded three typologies: “discontinued/short,”

Page 7 of 12 Analysing Semi-Structured Interviews With Young NEETs in Southern Italy SAGE SAGE Research Methods Datasets Part 2019 SAGE Publications, Ltd. All Rights Reserved. 2 when the young people did not go beyond middle school; “winding/long,” when during the educational pathways they had changed several schools and had experienced failures but had graduated from high school; and “winding/ discontinued,” when after many failures and changes of school they had not been able to get a diploma.

Stage 3: The Core of the Analysis During the last part of analysis, I made more in-depth connections between the elements and the categories of attitudes and pathways that I had identified and Bourdieu’s theory on the relationship between family and their children’s educational outcome. Regarding schooling, I had identified some typologies of educational pathway followed by the youth: “discontinued/short,” when the young people did not go beyond middle school; “winding/long,” when during the educational pathways they had changed several schools and had experienced failures but had graduated from high school; and “winding/discontinued,” when after many failures and changes of school they had not been able to get a diploma.

I also set out three types of attitudes on the part of the parents based on what the young respondents reported during the interviews: “permissive,” when parents let their children neglect their studies while at school and let them do whatever they considered appropriate; “indifferent,” when they did not care about what happened to their children at school; and “strict,” when parents used punishments and scolding when their children got negative results at school.

I compared the typologies of educational pathway with the parents’ attitudes. I realised that when young people reported a pathway full of failures, this corresponded to an indifferent or permissive attitude of their parents. Since I had collected data on the parents’ level of education and their occupation, I compared the parents’ educational level with the typology of attitude they had towards their children during their educational experience. From the data, it emerged that

Page 8 of 12 Analysing Semi-Structured Interviews With Young NEETs in Southern Italy SAGE SAGE Research Methods Datasets Part 2019 SAGE Publications, Ltd. All Rights Reserved. 2 parents with a low cultural and professional level, that is, with middle school qualification and low-income professional position (labourer, peddler, cleaner, family carer, etc.) show an “indifferent” or “permissive” attitude, that is, they do not take any action aimed at encouraging their children to improve their results at school, thus influencing their children’s educational success or failure. Afterwards, I connected all these observations with Bourdieu’s theories by which Buordieu highlights how much the children’s educational success depends on the parents’ cultural capital.

Summary When analysing a semi-structured interview, the most important thing is not to expect to immediately find results and connections with theoretical and empirical contributions from elsewhere. After initially reading transcripts, the researcher can reread them without necessarily underlining relevant elements and codifying them. During this stage, the researcher can get an idea of some emerging elements to be taken into more consideration during the next, more in-depth reading. When some constant patterns emerge from each interview, the researcher can also take separate notes of the reasons why such elements attracted his or her attention to consider them relevant for the research.

To proceed in an orderly way, when reading and analysing the transcripts, it is always good to follow the thematic areas dealt with during the interview. This will constitute the line of logic to follow throughout the analysis. Even if the approach of grounded theory involves that theory should emerge from the data, it is useful to read some theory or studies to be used as references. In my case, for example, I had studied that Bourdieu used to analyse the connection between cultural capital of the family and educational outcome of the children. I had also studied previous research dealing with the educational pathways of young people who drop out of school. This helped me to “practice” in order to find the connections between the

Page 9 of 12 Analysing Semi-Structured Interviews With Young NEETs in Southern Italy SAGE SAGE Research Methods Datasets Part 2019 SAGE Publications, Ltd. All Rights Reserved. 2 significant elements in my reading of the transcripts.

Reflective Questions

1. Which common elements can you identify in the extracts of the interviews attached? 2. What are the stages of interview analysis? 3. In which moment of the analysis is it possible to make connections with theory?

Further Readings Bourdieu, P., & Passeron, J-C. (1977). Reproduction in education, society and culture. London, UK: SAGE.

Kvale, S. (1996). InterViews: An introduction to qualitative research interviewing. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.

Rubin, H. J., & Rubin, I. S. (1995). Qualitative interviewing. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.

References Agnoli, M. S. (2014). Generazioni sospese. Percorsi di ricerca sui giovani NEET. Milano, Italy: Franco Angeli.

Alfieri, S., & Sironi, E. (Eds.). (2017). Una generazione in panchina. Da NEET a risorsa per il paese. Milano, Italy: Vita e Pensiero.

Astone, N. M., & Mclanahan, S. S. (1994). Family structure, residential mobility, and school dropout: A research. Demography, 31(4), 575–584.

Bichi, R. (2007). L’intervista biografica. Una proposta metodologica. Milano, Italy:

Bourdieu, P. (1986). The forms of capital. In J. Richardson (Ed.), Handbook of theory and research for the sociology of education. New York: Greenwood.

Cardano, M. (2013). Tecniche di ricerca qualitativa. Percorsi di ricerca nelle scienze sociali. Roma, Italy: Carocci.

Coffey, A., & Atkinson, P. (1996). Making sense of qualitative data: Complementary research strategies. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.

Colombo, M. (2015), Abbandono scolastico in Italia. Un problema serio, molti circoli viziosi e qualche strategia di prevenzione. Scuola democratica, 2, 411–424.

Denzin, N. K., & Lincoln, Y. S. (Eds.). (2000). Handbook of qualitative research. London, UK: SAGE.

Glaser, B. G. & Strauss, A. L. (1967). The discovery of grounded theory: Strategies for qualitative research, New York: Aldine de Gruyter.

Nanni, W., & Quarta, S. (2016). Nel paese dei NEET. Rapporto di ricerca sui giovani Neet in condizioni di disagio ed esclusione sociale. Roma, Italy: Edizioni Lavoro.

NESSE. (2009). Early school leaving. Retrieved January 12, 2018, from: https://www.spd.dcu.ie/site/edc/documents/nesse2010early-school-leaving- report.pdf

Payne, G., & Payne, J. (2004). Key concepts in social research. London, UK: SAGE.

Rosina, A. (2015). NEET – Giovani che non studiano e non lavorano. Milano, Italy: Vita e Pensiero.

Silverman, D. (2000). Doing qualitative research: A practical guide. London, UK:

Strauss, A., & Corbin, J. (1998). Basics of qualitative research: Techniques and procedures for developing grounded theory (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.

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