Interviewing elites in education: Fun or folly?

This article reflects upon the extensive experience of the authors in conducting interviews with elites over several decades, primarily within the field of education. They discuss problems and possibilities in undertaking studies focused on interviews with high-ranking individuals such as secretaries of state, permanent secretaries and headteachers while also highlighting the importance of including a spectrum of relevant other high-status performers in their research. In doing so, the authors explore the complexities of defining, accessing, developing an approach, interviewing, transcribing, analysing, and reporting on research into ‘elites’ and consider the practical and methodological lessons they have learned from their long-term collaborative studies of this kind. The article concludes with some thoughts on fun and folly in undertaking such research.