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Sense-Making

Interview Examples

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The materials in this section provide a growingcollection of examples of the use of the Sense-Making approach (meta-theory,substantive theory, methodology, and method) as a means of conducting informaland formal interviews. Sense-Making generates a theory of interviewing practicebased on the assumptions it makes about reality, knowing, human beings,information, sense-making, power and social order. For more detail on thesefoundational assumptions see the following items in the Bibliography of Dervin's work. In addition, Articles,Papers, Commentaries contains a growing collectionof items which may be helpful.

Because Sense-Making provides a theory of the interviewand not a set of recipes, there are a wide variety of ways to implementthe theory and this section includes examples from persons working in avariety of fields sometimes using only Sense-Making, sometimes combiningSense-Making with other approaches. Some of the uses of Sense-Making providedhere would not be considered pure examples -- i.e. they make witting orunwitting concessions to ontological and/or epistemological assumptionswhich Dervin would not consider to be assumptions of Sense-Making. However,because it is clear that Sense-Making as a methodology has been useful toa wide variety of visions, a diverse set of examples is included on thisweb-site.

Wherever possible the examples presented here include as many of the followingas possible:

BACKGROUND
a) An explanation of the general context of use (e.g. formal study, pedagogy, counseling)
b) Names of and contact information for author(s)
c) Any relevant citations to work resulting from the interviewing processes
d) A description of the respondents/informants.

THE INSTRUMENT
e) A copy of the base interviewing instrument or description of the plan
f) Examples of actual interviews

The materials available at this site include:

Author	Focus
Cardillo, 1997	Sense-Making a long-term pediatric health situation Respondent: 17-year-old female adolescent Interview approach: Sense-Making Micro-Moment Time-Line
Cheuk, 2002	Using Sense-Making to study information seeking and use in the workplace
Dervin, 1997a	Sense-making new technologies, past & present Respondents: judgmental sample, varied Interview approach: Sense-Making triangulations of instances
Dervin, 1997b	Sense-making isms: racism, sexism, able-bodyism Respondents: judgmental sample, varied Interview approach: Sense-Making Life-Line & Micro-Moment
Linderman, 1997	Understanding deaf culture Respondents: Deaf adults Interview approach: modified Sense-Making & other approaches
Rajendram, 1997	Student sense-making in media education classrooms Respondents: university undergraduates Interview approach: Sense-Making triangulations of idea bridges
Teekman, 1997	Using Sense-Making as the research method to explore reflective thinking in nursing practice

In addition, abbreviated presentations of the instruments used withinterview excerpts are available in the Dervin 1983 Overview Paper, Appendix A, as follows:

Author	Focus
Dervin et al., 1982	#1 Cancer patient information and sense-making needs Respondents: adult cancer patients Interview approach: Sense-Making Micro-Moment Time-Line
Dervin et al., 1980	#2 Blood donor information needs and sense-making needs Respondents: blood donors Interview approach: Sense-Making Micro-Moment Time-Line
Dervin, 1979	#3 Interpersonal conflicts faced by university graduate students Respondents: university graduate students Interview approach: Sense-Making Micro-Moment Time-Line of self
Dervin, 1979	#4 Student sense-making in a university class Respondents: university undergraduates Interview approach: Sense-Making Micro-Moment Time-Line of self
Dervin, 1981	#5 Developmentally disabled adults sense-making their worlds Respondents: six developmentally disabled adults Interview approach: Sense-Making Micro-Moment Time-Line
Atwood et al., 1981	#6 Young children's sense-making of television programs Respondents: children aged 5-12 Interview approach: Sense-Making Micro-Moment Time-Line
Atwood & McLean, 1983	#7 Everyday situation-facing of minority & non-minority students Respondents: students at University of Texas-Austin Interview approach: Sense-Making Micro-Moment Time-Line
Dervin, 1981	#8 College students sense-making paper writing Respondents: university undergraduates Interview approach: Sense-Making Micro-Moment Time-Line of self
Palmour et al., 1979	#9 The everyday information needs & seeking of Californians Respondents: Californians, aged 14-plus Interview approach: Sense-Making Micro-Moment Time-Line
Wittet, 1983	#10 Sense-making health care in an alien culture Respondents: Southeast Asian refugees living in Seattle Interview approach: Abbreviated Sense-Making Time-Line
Dervin, 1981	#11 Sense-making the media day Respondents: undergraduate university students Interview approach: Sense-Making Day Time-Line of self
Dervin, 1981	#12 How media help Respondents: Syracuse, NY general population adults Interview approach: Sense-Making Helps Chaining
Dervin, 1982	#13 How university lectures help/hurt Respondents: undergraduate university students Interview approach: Sense-Making Helps/Hurts Chaining of self
Nilan, 1983	#14 Structural constraints and situational information seeking Respondents: undergraduate university students Interview approach: Close-ended Sense-Making self-interview
Dervin & Martin, 1983	#15 Sense-Making the newspaper Respondents: undergraduate university students Interview approach: Sense-Making Message-Q/ing of self

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Page last updated 5/10/05