PS: Political Science & Politics
Developing Interview Questions in Undergraduate Classrooms: Introducing a Rubric for Question Development
2026-02-17
Interviewing is a widely used method in political science. Nevertheless, the emphasis on teaching quantitative methods means that proper training for interviewing is lacking at the undergraduate level. In this article we provide tools for instructors to better prepare students to conduct interviews as a research method. Anchoring our discussion on developing good and ethically sound interview questions, we introduce a rubric to assess question development and explore best practices in developing interview questions in three courses in educational institutions with distinct characteristics.