Interviewing

Interviewing
At first thought, an interview brings to mind the drilling of a movie star for juicy gossip or a suppressed childhood to invoke strong emotion. Quite honestly, I hadn’t thought about interviewing as a tool for research. In order for an interview to be an effective tool for gathering data, certain planning must be taken and an interview protocol must be prepared. Developing the interview is as important as the interview itself.
While interviewing children, establishing a positive relationship and atmosphere is essential in order to illicit honest responses and receiving reliable data. Building relationships takes time. For researchers coming into a situation where they are unfamiliar with the participants, building a trustful relationship can be difficult. While reading Researching Children’s Experiences by Melissa Freeman and Sandra Mathison, I’ve discovered that in order to build relationships, researchers often set up a series of interviews over a course of time. Within these interviews, Freeman and Mathison describe strategies that also encourage a trusting relationship with participates. Some of the strategies include demonstrating empathy, being responsive to the children’s questions and desires, allowing children some control over the situation, facilitating clear communication, using open-ended questions, remaining non-judgmental of children’s responses and behaviors and redirecting behavior to refocus the conversation. As I prepare for the interview with a child from my own classroom, I have an advantage. Being the classroom teacher, the relationship and safe environment have already been established over these past seven months of the school year. The teacher/student relationship also puts me at a disadvantage. The child may be compelled to provide the “right” answers rather than the honest answers. It’s important to develop questions that elicit honest answers and overcome the need to provide “right” answers that please the teacher.
With this in mind, developing an interview protocol is essential to the interview process. First, it’s important to begin with setting the purpose and structure for the interview to set the interview participant at ease. For my interview, I plan to ask a child if they’d care to help me with our “March is Reading Month” challenge and answer a few questions. If the child agrees, I will call him or her to the reading table to sit with me. Children are called to the reading table in groups or individually on a daily basis. Following that routine should help to ease feelings of being singled out. Next, I plan to explain the process of asking questions, looking at and drawing pictures. I will then present a variety of open-ended and concrete questions along with questions that involve looking at pictures and drawing pictures. Eliciting responses through written or drawn responses are just as valid and important a strictly verbal responses. With a well thought out interview protocol, I look forward to a successful interview.

In Theory

The word theory is tossed around in a variety of contexts. I often use it when discussing policy and procedures with colleagues to compare what we are doing in practice as opposed to the ideal. "In theory we're using the GLCE to drive our curriculum but we're really sticking to the scope and sequence of our math program." Recently as I've reflected upon the practices and choices I make in the classroom, I've realized I formulate theories in the scientific sense of the word. I create theories in order to describe or account for the causes behind the behaviors and phenomena I observe in order to anticipate and plan for the future. Identifying a group of behaviors and asserting the cause of those behaviors, I create theories that I test and confirm or dismiss almost daily in my classroom. Often applying established thought from theorists such as Piaget or theories posed by researchers to observations and data collected in my classroom, I form theories that dictate classroom practices.
Theories I formulate usually stem from a problem I’ve encountered or an interesting set of common observed behaviors. Recently, as we enter our annual “March is Reading Month” activity where we ask first graders to read stories and record their titles on cars to be displayed in the hall, I’ve noticed a drop in participation compared to past years. One student, however, has made a goal to read as many books as she possibly can over the month. Several students at her table have recently taken notice of the large number of cars she brings in daily. Interestingly, the other students at her table have increased the number of cars they’ve been bringing in. A parent of one of those students mentioned how motivated he was to “get more cars than H---.” I wondered if I could replicate the friendly, competitive spirit displayed at table five with the rest of the class. Displaying a graph of the number of books read by students, I hoped to create a friendly, competitive spirit within the class and motivate the students to read more books.
After the students had left for the day, I displayed the graph on the classroom door. The next morning without drawing attention to it myself, I allowed students to discover it and spread the word. My goal is to keep my approval or disapproval of the graph results from becoming a motivating factor. I am curious to find out if peer motivation is enough to encourage more students to read. When the graph was first displayed, groups of children were crowded around the graph marveling at how “far ahead” H--- was from the rest of the class and who was beating who. On a side note, I enjoyed listening to the students use “math language” when discussing the graph. Many students were making comparisons and generalizations and predictions using the information on the graph. Notably absent were comments regarding a desire to read more books. I am anxious to see if the number of books read increases in the next week.
As I read through chapters five and six from Researching Children’s Experiences, I found myself curious about the process of interviewing young children and how that process applies to my classroom context. The authors discussed the ethical and procedural difficulties researchers encountered while interviewing children with whom they are unfamiliar. Particularly, how the ambiguity of questions or directions affects children’s understanding of and willingness to participate in research. It seemed, from the author's descriptions, that children were more willing to participate when they understood the purpose and process of the research and when they were allowed some choices in the research process or to even become co-researchers. The authors discussed some difficulties with controlling behaviors and participation. I wonder if I would have an easier time interviewing my students because I have already established a rapport with my class along with behavioral procedures and expectations. However, it's interesting to consider if my familiarity with my students and established role as an authority figure would influence their answers. After completing the “March is Reading Month” activity, I would be interested in conducting some group interviews to discover their thoughts, feelings and attitudes towards the activity. Perhaps I can use that information to influence the structure of the activity next year and increase future participation.
As an educator of young children, I am constantly observing phenomena and collecting data in which to formulate theories. In an effort to continually fine-tune my craft by testing and confirming or dismissing those theories, it is important to consider the theories and experiences of my peers. Bouncing my theories and thoughts to a group of peers can be a productive way to gather and integrate experiences otherwise unavailable to me. As each member of the group applies their experiences and expertise to my theories, they are reflected back more refined. Thus far I have based my theories on observations, previously established theory and data. I have as of yet to involve my students in this research. Using an interview process to involve my students in the research process, I should be able to construct more accurate theories that drive more efficient classroom activities, experiences and procedures.

Dive In!

As I dive into the unknown abyss of qualitative research, I find myself poorly equipped. Having spent years reading others’ interpretations of research has left me clinging to the surface. Each dive into primary source research papers has sent me scrambling to the surface gasping for air. With each dive, however, my stamina has increased and my vision cleared. I see this assignment as the creation of a map, plotting my journey as I navigate through the uncharted world of qualitative research uncovering its place in my world as an educator of young children. I expect my map to evolve as I meet dead-ends or make course alterations. I expect the terrain to transform according to the tools I use to explore it and the goggles I use to view it.
With a love for narrative writing, I could continue this watery metaphor and couple it with technology creating an online accessible reflective map of my journey into the murky depths of qualitative research. Each plot point a webpage link, perhaps, or a HyerStudio card stack. I imagine the reflective map must be navigatable in a non-linear way to reflect a non-linear journey. Filled with sound bites, video clips, and “captain’s log” entries, the map will chart the evolution of my knowledge and understanding of the qualitative research process through what I imagine will be constant course corrections along the way.
Before embarking on such an epic journey, I must equip myself as best I can, standing on the shoulders of the explorers who have come before. With disappointingly little literature discussing the use of reflective journals in qualitative research, it is imperative to familiarize myself with what is available. As reflective journals are often part of doctoral research, I may also wish to speak to recent doctoral graduates about their experiences with reflective journals in their research. From this research I hope to understand the components of effective reflective journals. Also, searching out an appropriate computer program compatible with available technology is essential to the success of this mission.
It is impossible to see the end of this journey, if indeed the journey comes to an end. Creating a map will ensure my understanding of where I have been in order to shape where I am going. Along the way, creating an effective reflective journal will record and influence my journey as a qualitative researcher.