Overview
For this assignment, you
will submit a list of ten open-ended questions that may be used during the
interview. This list may be expanded as needed during the interview. The interview process can be
daunting if this is your first time conducting this type of interview, so below
you will find suggestions to help you prepare. Please read through this entire
document before you begin the process of writing interview questions. This
is the third of four assignments of the Ethnographic Interview series.
The interview instructions have been divided into three sections
to help guide you through the interview preparations, the interview, and as you
begin processing the interview findings.
Before the Interview:
It is essential that you begin to think through the elements
needed for the interview prior to the interview.
1.
Interviewee: The
questions should be written for the person that was chosen for this assignment
series during the Pre-Interview Research stage of the Ethnographic Interview
series.
2. Interview Question Formatting: Questions should be open-ended,
semi-structured, and neutral. Interview questions should be written using the
second person “you”.
a. Open-ended and semi-structured – While preparing a list of
questions, the interviewer must remain flexible to ask follow-up questions
based on the interviewee’s responses. Be sure to create a space for
open dialogue. There should be a good balance of different types of
questions. Limit the use of questions that may be answered using a simple “yes”
or “no.” Questions that might be answered with “yes” or “no” are considered
closed-ended questions and typically do not provide sufficient insight when
trying to learn about someone. Use follow-up questions if you happen to ask a closed-ended
question.
Closed-Ended Questions limit
a person’s choice of answers; lead to one-word, yes/no answer: Is, Do/Does,
Who, When, Where
Open-Ended Questions create a space for more
in-depth answers and dialogue: What, How, Why, Tell me about…
Do you like living in Canada?
Tell me about your life in Canada.
Does your family like living together?
Tell me about your family and their living arrangements.
Do you celebrate Christmas?
What holidays do you celebrate? Tell me more about how you
celebrate Christmas.
Does your family believe in God?
What does your family believe about God? Tell me about your
family’s religious practices & their beliefs about God.
b.
Neutral – Do not ask leading
questions to encourage the answers you want to hear. Create a space for the
interviewee to provide their own insight into their worldview, cultural
practices, and experiences with other cultures.
Leading Question – a question that
suggests the expected answer
Neutral Question – a question that does
not direct the interviewee to the answer the interviewer expects or wants
Don’t you just love living in
Canada?
Tell me about your life in
Canada. What are some of the positives and negatives about living in Canada?
3. Interview Questions: Compile a list of 10 questions that could be
used during the interview. Please do not present this list to the interviewee
but use the questions as a starting point.
a. 5 of the 10 questions must include concepts from the research
conducted on the local culture in the Pre-Interview Research Assignment. Five
source citations must be included for the
concepts included from the textbook and other research sources.
i.
Remember that the research findings
on the interviewee’s culture contain generalizations about the culture that
will serve only as a starting point. The interview is an opportunity to learn
about how the interviewee actually implements these concepts in their daily life
and interactions. Think about concepts from the
research that was especially interesting that would make good interview
questions.
ii.
Example of questions based on research
content: Howell and Paris gave us an entire
chapter on Language in the course textbook. You may want to explore the role
that language has on communication practices. Ask questions about language and elements
such as code-switching. Cite Howell and Paris on code-switching material so
that you can return to it when writing up the interview analysis.
b.
The prompt for the final
interview paper (Ethnographic Interview: Analysis and Reflection Assignment)
should be used as a guide for writing questions for the interview. The required
elements are listed below with questions for consideration as you create your
list of interview questions:
i.
Introduction: Describe the
interviewee’s background. Ask a few questions about their background even
if you know the interviewee. Where are they from? When and why did they come to
the US? Etc., etc. You may use a pseudonym (fake name).
ii.
Worldview: Describe the
interviewee’s underlying rationale (this is the collection of values and
beliefs that are the source of the interviewee’s practices). What does the
interviewee believe about the humanity and God? How do these beliefs impact
their values and practices? What religion does the interviewee’s family practice? What do
they believe about humanity and God? How do these beliefs impact values and
practices?
iii.
Cultural Values and Practices: Describe
the cultural values and practices relating to communication and societal,
marital, and familial relationships from the interviewee’s culture. Why are these values significant and how do they impact the
interviewee’s practices? Ask
questions about relationships (societal, marital, familial). Describe the
makeup of the family unit. Are grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins considered
part of your interviewee’s immediate family? What role does the family play in
the selection of a spouse and raising children? How are collectivist or
individualist traits manifested in the culture? Describe communication
practices with family, others in their community, and outsiders. Are people
high or low context communicators? How does this impact communication? (Do not
use the words collectivist and individualist but describe the concepts; use the
words in the paper, not the interview.)
iv.
Conflict: Show how the interviewee’s rationale
(value, beliefs, and practices) impact their interactions with people from
other cultures. How has or might the interviewee’s rationale lead to conflict
when engaging people from other cultures and how might they resolve these
conflicts? Ask the
interviewee to describe interactions with people from other cultures. How
have the interviewee’s values, beliefs, and practices regarding society,
marriage, and family impacted their interactions with people from other
cultures? If the interview has experienced conflict when interacting with other
cultures, what role did their values, beliefs, and practices play in these
conflicts? How do their communication practices impact their ability to
communicate with people from other cultures? How did or might the interviewee
resolve conflicts with people from other cultures?
**If the interviewee says that they have not experienced any
conflict with people from other cultures, they may not feel comfortable enough
to share this information with you or are trying to save face. In this case, please
stop asking them to share about this topic. You will need to use your own knowledge,
based on your research on this culture, to discuss potential conflict that
could arise as a result of their values, beliefs, and practices for the final
paper.
During the Interview:
You may conduct the interview over
the phone, video chat, or other communication methods available to you. Please do not
send the questions to the interviewee via email and do not ask them to send
responses via email. You must talk to the person!
1. Pay attention and practice active listening. Watch for body
language cues and be mindful of your own body language.
2. Take notes, but do not try to write down every word.
3. Ask one question at a time – This gives the interviewee time to
think and respond to the question at hand rather than trying to remember all of
the questions that were asked. This is especially important if English is not
the interviewee’s first language.
4. Do not be afraid of silence! Give the interviewee time to think
and process the question before responding. This is especially important if
English is not the interviewee’s first language.
5. Clarify and do not be afraid to ask follow-up questions in
response to something that is unclear or especially interesting. “Tell me more
about…”
a. Write down new questions that pop up during the interview that
were not in the original question set.
6. Observations –
Make notes (mental notes may be most appropriate during the interview) of your
personal observations.
After the Interview:
This step is important because it provides an opportunity to jot
down information that you think may be significant to the interview analysis. To be completed immediately after the interview, while the
material is still fresh on your mind.
1.
Write out the details of the
interview. Fill in the gaps that may exist in your notes.
2.
Write out any observations that
were made during the interview about the interviewee and anything else that
seems noteworthy.
3.
Update the list of the
questions that were actually used in the interview – Add new questions and
remove questions that were not used. This list must be included in the Analysis
and Reflection Assignment as Appendix A, which is to be located after the
bibliography.
The assignment may be written as a bulleted or numbered list but
must include complete sentences. The assignment should include the following
elements:
·
Format of Assignment:
Current Turabian formatting is required.
o
The assignment should
include a title page and bibliography.
·
Number of Citations: 5 citations
from the textbooks or other scholarly sources are required.
·
Acceptable Sources: Scholarly
sources are defined as textbooks, books written based on academic research, and
scholarly journal articles.
·
Unacceptable Sources: travel websites, personal blogs, information
blogs (about.com, bibleinfo.com), consultant sites, popular culture websites,
essay writing websites, Wikipedia, YouTube, opinion articles, all sources that
do not have an author, all sources that do not cite any other research.
Note:
Your assignment will be checked for originality via the Turnitin plagiarism
tool.
