43
It is in the nature of political or organisational studies that
interlocutors with distinguished records and minds of their own are
not likely to accept too much control over the questions they answer.
Indeed it is precisely because one wants to capture their individual
construction of events and relationships that it often proves best to
explain what one is after and let them structure the answer.
(Kogan 1994: 91)
In more recent research, Kathryn Ecclestone carried out 25 interviews with major
actors in her study of Learning Autonomy in Post-16 Education. Her objective was to
analyse the policy debates around outcome-based assessment models. Certain of the
advantages she cited from Walford’s Researching the Powerful in Education which
apply to her case study can apply equally to the interviews planned for this research:
It enables researchers to ‘people policy ’ with personalities, beliefs,
values and dilemmas, gain data unavailable elsewhere, confirm or
adjust publicly available accounts of policy and identify networks of
individuals and agencies.
(Quoted in Ecclestone 2002:47)
These experienced researchers established the value of interviewing major actors and
their advice determined the design of the interviews. They would be unstructured and
open ended so as to allow the subjects to speak freely.
My definition of a ‘major actor’ in relation to an examining board was its Chief
Executive; in relation to the regulatory body, the highest-ranking civil servants
involved in regulating qualifications; from the education department the individual
responsible for secondary qualifications. These were the people who had participated
in the discussions which interested me. I maintain that the limited sample of my
interviewees is balanced by the valuable insights they can provide into what
Ecclestone described as the “organisational and normative perspectives swirling
around debates in assessment...alongside some acculturation into unfamiliar
organisational cultures” (Ecclestone 2002: 174) which researchers need if they are to
acquire a genuine grasp on the complexities of the policy process.