Teaching fieldwork with interview survey archives

Critical feedback on a teaching experience based on the beQuali repository

Abstract

This article questions the use of qualitative survey archives in the teaching of fieldwork in sociology and political science, by reporting on an experience carried out since 2013: the use of survey materials made available by the beQuali platform (“Banque d’Enquêtes qualitatives”) of the Center for Socio-Political Data (CDSP, UMS 828 Sciences Po – CNRS), for “qualitative methodology” teaching (conducting interviews and observations, analyzing interview transcripts). BeQuali provides academic users not only with research materials (e.g., semi-directive, non-directive or collective interviews, observations.), but also with a large associated documentation that allows the scientific and methodological issues specific to each survey to be contextualized. We propose a review of our own experience of teaching qualitative methodologies based on the archives of some of these surveys. We present several teaching modules that we have run in recent years at Sciences Po Paris and the University of Paris 2, and examine the potential and limitations of such an approach for disciplines such as sociology or political science. Four major issues in the teaching of methods are identified: preparing students as well as possible for the execution of a fieldwork; supporting the learning of reflexivity; familiarizing with emotional distancing; approaching the practical issues of the analysis of data.