Given
the sources available to me, I’ve chosen to look into Dan P. McAdams article on
“The Life Story Interview.” While I’m not sure I’ll be looking to record anyone’s
life story, a brief skim of the page revealed that some of the sections contain
valuable questions I can utilize during my interviews.
Under
Section A, McAdams advises the reader to think of a person’s life as a novel
with chapters (McAdams). If I interview
a person who was been in foster care, I could ask them to divide their
experience into chapters as well. This could help to divide my videos by
subject and theme when I splice together different accounts of similar topics.
For example, I could ask three different social workers what their most
challenging experiences have been and what has been the most rewarding about
their work. Instead of whipping the audience back and forth from question to
question, I could put each response to a single question one after another and
follow that with a second series of responses. This will combine smaller “chapters”
into larger ones.
This
article also lists a series of memories and points in a person’s life I could
touch upon, such as high and low points, vivid memories, learning experiences,
and turning points (McAdams). Many people are interested in learning about the
lives of others and hearing their stories, and combining this sort of
information could help me create an engaging piece of media that will also help
me to convince my audience. McAdams’ advice on interviews will be very useful
for my project.
McAdams, Dan P. "The Life
Story Interview." Foley Center for the Study of
Lives. School of Education and Social Policy, 2008.
Web. 28 Nov. 2015.
Even
before rereading my group members’ blog posts, I know that transferring the
media kit from person to person is going to be a challenge. If all five of my
group members arrange an interview, that will mean the media kit might transfer
hands five times. The five of us don’t live close together at all, and if some
of us arrange more than one there might be even more transfers.
In her
last blog post, Marianna mentioned that speaking some people might be difficult
because of confidentiality restrictions. I agree that this problem will be difficult
to overcome, especially because I’d like to interview minors. However, I think
we may be able to supplement our own research with that of others who have
looked into this topic in the foster care system in the past. However,
Vermont-specific information will probably have to come from us.
I also
like Lydia’s statement that the “first step to fixing a problem is admitting that
there is one.” (Charbonneau) Part of my ultimate goal for this project is to
raise awareness for this issue and encourage the general population to help
resolve it through solutions that my group proposes. With input from experts in
the field, I think we might be able to come up with a few actions that the
average citizen could feasibly take in order to combat the growing number of
Vermont children in the foster care system.
Adrienne:
ReplyDeleteI like your idea about asking similar questions to each interviewee. And I like your idea, too, of potentially dividing your video into "chapters" based on the similar questions that you're going to ask each person. Two things to consider: 1) Are the other members of your team on board with these similar questions? 2) Don't limit yourself to just those questions, because you may find yourself in an interview that goes in a completely different, oddball direction than what you had anticipated. Always prepare for things not to go as well as you would expect.
Don't let the media kit situation get you down. You can certainly bring paper/pen/smart phone if the media kit is unavailable.
You mention Lydia's point about "admitting a problem before fixing it." It would be interesting to hear from people inside DCF about what they think the problems are, and that might give you all a direction to head toward in figuring out potential solutions.
Lastly, I'd make sure to check up on confidentiality restrictions. for your purposes, I'm not sure that you have any restrictions since you're not a teacher, you're not working for a public institution, etc. Anyway, my point is that this should not hamper you in your attempts to get as many voices and information as you possibly can.
Do you guys have a specific list of people you're talking to? I'd like to see that list.
Thank you for your feedback. I wouldn't limit myself to these few questions, but I'd try to ask them in most interviews. In addition to these questions I'd likely ask a few specific to that person's perspective on this issue.
DeleteI think a good question to ask might be, "What problems do you think DCF is facing, and how could they be solved?" I'll be sure to confer with my group members about questions we should as all of our interviewees.
Hey Adrienne. Great synthesis of the article you read and how it would apply to the DCF video. I am looking forward to our conversation on Sunday night on Google Hangouts. I see value in both the Reed article and the article you discussed. How will group members decide to put your video together? Feels like a puzzle to me. Can't wait to see what you decide to do.
ReplyDeletebest,
Laurie
ReplyDeleteAdrienne,
First off, I'm glad that you got ideas on how to go about giving interviews and certainly McAdams' article seems to have brought them on. However when you say, "...I could ask them to divide their experience into chapters..." I feel that you're missing the point. When you interview someone, lets a say a person who has been in the foster care system, you should be the one to put their life into chapters. I would try to gather as much information as you could about the individual, from their time entering the system, to the time when they exited the system and all the points in-between. Then, with that information, form it into a story that will entice the reader to keep reading.
Also, when interviewing someone, try to avoid asking them questions that will lead them to respond with one word answers. It can sometimes be difficult to do and if it does happen don't be afraid to ask them to elaborate if they resort to that. I would also encourage you to turn to turn to the other members of your team for ideas. Look for inspiration and ideas about how to conduct the interview or even questions that you could ask. I look forward to seeing the results from your interview! I can't wait to see what comes of it.
I don't mean concrete chapters, I mean dividing their experiences into periods of time. It's a very natural thing that all people do. We look back on individual years, spans of time that were different from the rest of our lives. For example, one might look back at their years in high school, or the months they spent travelling abroad. With all due respect, I think that this might be a matter of our different opinions. In addition, this was just a thought of mine, there's no guarantee I'll implement the practice during my interviews.
DeleteI've had this avoidance of "yes or no" questions since the beginning, since I know that responses like that can be stale. It's important that the interviewees tell the story, not the interviewer.
I'll be sure to confer with my group members, thank you for your advice!