Working with students of rural backgrounds on the move: reflections from mobile interviews conducted in India and China
The relationship of space and time with one’s lived experience is less explored. A reductionist portrayal of space and time in research has made its construct static and closed. We aim to explore the effective use of mobile interviews as a data generation method to better understand the contextual, spatial and temporal embeddedness of lived experiences in qualitative research. Mobile interviews, as an innovative method, have certain sensory and performative attributes. This article intends to show how mobile interviews can enhance the understanding of spatio-temporal dynamics embedded in the everyday lives of rural students.
Current research in education lacks both thematic and methodological guidance and reflection on conducting mobile interviews. The contribution of our article is three-fold. First, it aims to decolonise the dominant discourse on rurality by exploring how mobile interviews can facilitate participants to make sense of the contextuality, spatiality and temporality of their everyday life and empower their voices. Second, it aims to enhance the understanding of the associations between spatio-temporal dynamics with identity formation by using mobile interviews. Third, we highlight the guidance and reflections across contexts to support researchers to conduct mobile interviews with rural communities more ethically and efficiently.
The article draws from two ongoing doctoral research projects conducted in India and China. One project traces the intergenerational identity construct of forested rural communities in India. Another project focuses on the identity formation of students coming from underprivileged rural backgrounds attending universities in urban China. Both projects have common themes of rurality and the identity construct of rural students. The article will present the experiences of these two researchers using mobile interviews and emphasise the importance of understanding the spatio-temporal dynamics when working with underprivileged rural communities in qualitative research. It will provide methodological guidance and reflections on mobile interviews across contexts.

Teams link: teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_ZWNiYjMxNzYtNTRiZC00Y2Y1LTkzYjItZWZiNjhkYTIyMDMz%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%22cc95de1b-97f5-4f93-b4ba-fe68b852cf91%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%225f581465-1def-4d51-8d4c-45a3b26b5b58%22%7d
Date: 21 November 2024, 12:50 (Thursday, 6th week, Michaelmas 2024)
Venue: 15 Norham Gardens, 15 Norham Gardens OX2 6PY
Venue Details: Seminar Room A and MS Teams
Speakers: Yushan Xie (University of Oxford), Rammohan Khanapurkar (University of Birmingham), Jwalin Patel (TIDE Foundation)
Organising department: Department of Education
Organiser: Dr Velda Elliott (University of Oxford)
Part of: Qualitative Methods Hub MT 2024
Booking required?: Not required
Audience: Members of the University only
Editor: Hannah Freeman