Developing a Qualitative Interview Schedule on the Role of Parenting in Society

Rationale

Qualitative interviewing is a unique form of social interaction. Unlike most other social interactions, interviews are preconceived, managed communicative exchanges directed towards the specific goal of information retrieval. When done well, qualitative interviewing techniques can capture unique perspectives or experiences in relation to a particular issue. Although it might seem to be a simple task, conducting an interview is a skill that must be practiced in order to develop competency as an interviewer. This assignment is designed to provide an opportunity to practice some of the skills associated with interviewing.

Objectives

Upon completion of this assignment the learner will have:

1. Developed a 7 question sociological interview schedule.
2. Practiced conducting a personal contact qualitative semi-structured interview.
3. Written a one page personal reflection on the experience of interviewing.

Directions

This assignment is two parts. Part one must be completed prior to completing part two.

Part 1 

Develop a 7 question interview schedule, in response to the following question:

How does the role of parenting influence the socialization of our society’s next generation?

The above question is the same question that is asked in your final written assignment. Consider this as an opportunity to develop a rough draft of your interview schedule that can be corrected and integrated into your final written assignment. In this regard, you might want to consider reading through the final written assignment before beginning this assignment.

Consider what kinds of questions you would ask someone who has experience with parenting in order to answer the question. You might want to design questions about values, child-rearing techniques, personal goals, identity scripts, cultural influences, et cetera, that informed how and
why they parented; you might want to consider asking what it meant/means for them to parent; or, you might want to investigate with questions about the social context in which people are parenting. Assume that your prospective interviewee is not familiar with our course content.

Formulate questions in such a way that is accessible to someone with no knowledge of the sociology of the family.

When developing your interview schedule ask yourself:
1. Are there any questions that could be useful as opening questions?
2. Are there any questions that might be useful to place later in the schedule?
3. What kind of questions would be useful to gather the kind of information that we want? (Open ended, closed ended)
4. Are the questions framed in such a way that limit your own biases?
5. What prompts or probing questions might be appropriate and useful?

To assist with the formulation of your interview schedule, please read:

A. Structuring interview questions. Refer to the reading box by Kvale (2007) in your D2L course shell.
B. Designing interview questions. See the link entitled, “Designing Interview

Questions”.

C. Designing and Conducting Semi-Structured Interviews for Research by Ted Zorn

Part 2 - /3 points

With the interview schedule you created, try interviewing someone.

With this assignment, your job is to get more comfortable with the process of interviewing. Use this experience to help get prepared for the formal interview you will be conducting for the final written project: consider what your introduction will be like and how you will explain your project to your participant; try using prompts and probing questions throughout your interview; note any areas in your interview where you were conscious of your own bias; review your interview schedule - does the ordering or framing of questions need to be changed?

Then, write a one page personal reflection on the experience of interviewing. This is not considered formal academic writing, so please feel free to integrate a first person narrative into your response.

In your reflection, explore what worked well for you during your interview. Were there times during the interview that you found challenging? How did your interview schedule work? What is the most fascinating question you are asking? What questions should you have included?