Practical Guidance in Identifying, Recruiting, and Interviewing International Key Informants in Adult Education Research

Cross-cultural qualitative research is essential to develop practical approaches to promote adult education and training in diverse societies. Yet, little systematic guidance is available to successfully conduct a large-scale cross-national qualitative inquiry in general, and in virtual settings in particular. The purpose of this study is to identify challenges and effective strategies in virtual qualitative interviews with international key informants. We used a focus group of five researchers to identify challenges and strategies associated with five key domains of qualitative interviews with informants: identification, recruitment, preparation, conducting interview, and follow-up. Deductive thematic analytic methods and content analysis revealed nuanced tactics related to challenges and strategies. These findings provide practical guidelines for adult education researchers conducting interviews with international key informants. [For the complete volume, "American Association for Adult and Continuing Education Inaugural 2020 Conference Proceedings (Online, October 27-30, 2020)," see ED611534.]