Event details
Date: Friday 9 October 2026
Time: 10.00 - 13.00
Location: SALC 7, South Kensington Campus
Join us for the next event in our Perspectives in Education series, featuring Dr James Huff, Associate Professor of Engineering Education.
Dr Huff is an in-depth qualitative researcher whose work lies at the nexus of engineering education research and applied personality and social psychology. His research explores personal lived experiences of identity and emotion, facets often hidden within professional domains, and his methodological work has contributed to the literature on interviewing and interpretative phenomenological analysis.
In this session, Dr Huff will introduce the Interview Quality Reflection Tool (IQRT), drawing on his award-winning research and expertise in qualitative interviewing. The session will explore how researchers can develop their interviewing practice beyond the prescribed text of an interview protocol, with opportunities for participants to practise semi-structured interviews and reflect on their approach.
About the workshop
In this workshop, Dr Huff will introduce a process-oriented tool designed to advance researchers’ interviewing capabilities: the interview quality reflection tool (IQRT). This tool especially focuses on interviewers reflecting on how they can adaptively respond in interview settings, beyond the prescribed text of an interview protocol. Prior literature on conducting research interviews tends to amplify the need to ask high-quality questions noted in an interview protocol. Protocols certainly are vital to conducting high-quality research interviews, but they are far from sufficient to advance quality in research interviews. The IQRT offers a practical approach to leverage reflection to hone the holistic skillset of interviewing, which includes developing an intentional and approachable relationship with the interview participant. While such reflection is often championed in qualitative research for skill development, prior literature offers little in the way of practical guidance to reflect upon quality in interview sessions. In the seminar, Dr Huff will present the methodological rationale for the IQRT and illustrate its use across key examples. In the follow-on workshop, Dr Huff will guide participants to practice semi-structured interviews and reflect upon them using the IQRT.
About Dr James Huff
Dr Huff is an Associate Professor of Engineering Education and an in-depth qualitative researcher whose work lies at the nexus of engineering education research and applied personality and social psychology. An NSF CAREER Awardee and Fellow of ASEE, he promotes care as a central mindset of engineering and other professions through his studies of personal lived experiences of identity and emotion, facets often hidden within professional domains.
As Principal Investigator of the Beyond Professional Identity lab, Dr Huff has mentored undergraduates, doctoral students, and professionals from over fifteen disciplines in conducting in-depth qualitative investigations on psychological phenomena. He further contributes to qualitative research literature through his work in interviewing and using interpretative phenomenological analysis.
Dr Huff serves as Interim Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Engineering Education and on editorial boards for Personality and Social Psychology Review and the International Journal of Qualitative Methods.
Reference
Huff, J. L., & Brooks, A. (2024). The interview quality reflection tool: Honing the craft of experiential interviews. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 23, 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1177/16094069241300989
Winner of the 2026 Outstanding Research Publication Award – Division I of AERA.