Zapf Chancery Publishers Africa Ltd.

Chapter Title: Appendix 6: A Guide to the Conversational Interviews with Women Staff

Book Title: Researching AIDS, Sexuality and Gender

Book Subtitle: Case Studies of Women in Kenyan Universities
Book Author(s): Nyokabi Kamau
Published by: Zapf Chancery Publishers Africa Ltd.. (2013)
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvgc60rb.22

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250 Researching AIDS, Sexuality and Gender

Appendix 6
A Guide to the Conversational Interviews with
Women Staff

Warming up – introducing myself, mentioning the objective of the study (which

I would have already explained when booking the appointment but a reminder
is good), explain that this should take between 45 minutes and 1 hour, setting
up the tape and just making sure that everything is okay (is it a safe place to talk
without fear that someone might interrupt). Might we need to change venue?
Might we need to put off our mobiles? Do we need a cup of tea before or after?

Background data – age, ethnicity, marital status, children, position at university.

Introduce the issue of HIV and AIDS and find out in a conversational manner
if she is affected and have a talk on how, and in which ways she has been
involved in care, and how this affected her personal and public working life, we
can talk about coping mechanisms applied depending on how the conversation
progresses, issues of silence, blame, stigma related to AIDS may come up, I can
probe about them if not coming out as we talk – the guiding question in this
section will look like this:
• Please tell me if you are affected by HIV and AIDS and how
• Are you directly or indirectly involved in providing support to persons living
with the HIV virus – now or in the past? Please tell me more about these
experiences
• Who/what has been your main support as you go through all these caring
experiences
I can then move the conversation into personal level – after we are both more
comfortable talking about others.
Introduce issues of AIDS, sexuality and stigma

Talk about the challenges of bringing personal issues to the workplace. The
guiding questions in this section were:
• Have you been able to talk about these experiences (mentioned above) with
colleagues at the university?

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 Appendices 251

• Or is there any support system you are aware of that staff can make use of
when they have challenges in their private life?
• Is there a forum where you feel free to talk about sexuality issues in the
campus with colleagues? Or have there been seminars where such issues have
been discussed for staff members.
• How have issues of blame, stigma and silence as they affect staff members
being dealt with?
• Do you think it is necessary for staff members to have a place in the university
where their private challenges can be discussed?
• Do you feel your private/ personal challenges affect you career growth? In
which ways?
After this I will move the conversation to issues of policy and how the woman
views how her university has responded to the epidemic, views on the general
university culture, whether gender issues are taken on board when taking policy
decisions – taking the example of AIDS. I will explore suggestions on best practices
that could be adopted by her university. Guiding questions in this section:

• What has your university done so far that caters for staff members experiences
with HIV and AIDS (either as effected and/or infected)
• How effective?
• Any suggestions you may have on best practices – that also take women’s
experiences into account?
Summary and closure – I will summarise the interview so that the interviewee
can get some feedback at this point. This can indeed create a chance to bring forth
some information that may not have come out during the interview that may also
be significant. After this I will courteously end the session and thank the woman
for her time. A thank you note will follow this.

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