Bias when interviewing lecturers. Please help!
Good afternoon
I am a 1st year undergraduate who interviewed lecturers about why disability adaptations were not getting implemented in university to inform a solution to the problem. The 'higher ups' at the university have agreed to consider the proposal.
For some ludicrous reason, I assumed that my lecturers were immune to bias as they are very well educated on the topic. Instead, I noticed that they were actually embarrassed, angry at the system etc. I am re-designing the data analysis method and limitations section to consider this.
From the perspective of a lecturer, can I please ask what sort of biases you think could appear in an interview like this? (This project is not for an assessment.)
I've booked out some methodology textbooks so I can read about their impact. The questions were things like: what is the system? what do you think of it? strengths? weaknesses? how does this impact you? who's responsibility is this? is the system's effectiveness measured?
So far I have:
- Want to avoid appearing conservative to protect their image.
- Don't want to be perceived as victim blaming, so may omit information.
- Wants to be perceived as the 'good guy' by trying.
- Excessive praise of other members of staff to protect them from possible judgment.
- Some staff refused the interview, which may be due to opinions they see as unfavorable, or because they have less time.
- Neglecting to mention any personal resistance they had to implementing disability provisions
- Negative experiences are more memorable
- The positives were downplayed. This may be because they were not seen as relevant to the interviewer's needs or because the lecturer cannot see the success.
- Whilst I know that I cand and will protect their data as my top priority, I don't know how lecturers could assess the skills and commitment of a first year student. With lecturers being made redundant, they wouldn't not want to put themselves on the firing line by having the interview leaked by a student. (re-worded as I was highly misleading.)
- Not wanting to be judged by the student interviewer
Any suggestions that you may have are really appreciated thankyou.