Students will interview one person regarding their relationship to social class across the life course, in Sociology this is termed Narrative Inquiry.Students will select one person to interview, who is at least 40 years old. After the interview, students will transcribe the interview (the written account word for word of the entire interview), then will analyze for relationship to course content. Read the below thoroughly.
Guidelines: 1250 word minimum, 5 page double spaced (not including transcript) spelling and grammar are very important, references to all course content must be referenced by page number, reference list is required.
Students will submit: INTERVIEW GUIDE, TRANSCRIBED INTERVIEW, ANALYSIS ESSAY (see below for in depth account of each requirement). Read before you begin, as well as before you submit to ensure that all requirements have been met.
Assignment:
In Sociology, one of the qualitative methods researchers utilize is Narrative Inquiry, which is a form of storytelling that focuses on the relationship of a subject to a particular issue and explores how this relationship develops, shapes and changes over time. For this essay, students will conduct a small Narrative Inquiry project to explore the relationship with social class over time.
PART 1. DEVELOP INTERVIEW GUIDE
The minimum is ten questions, however three questions are required–thus, students must develop 7 more questions to ask their respondent. These questions can be asked in any order, however Question 1 (below) MUST be asked first (questions 2 and 3 can come at any time during the interview). NOTE: you may come up with other questions during the interview–this is great! Feel free to adjust your guide as you go if it makes sense to the interview. Do bring a notepad to write down any thoughts you may have as you go (especially if it reminds you of material learned in class!).
Guide:
1. Tell me about your life growing up? (this is just a general question to get us warmed up). Let the person really flow here, they can ramble. This may be where you locate new questions. Since you explained the overall topic before the interview this should lead the person into discussing social class–if not, don’t worry.
2. How would you describe your social class growing up?
3. How has your social class changed over time?
4-10. You decide. Pay careful attention to the tips below. You will be graded on the questions asked.
INTERVIEW GUIDE TIPS TO FOLLOW:
1. 10 open-ended questions (meaning that these questions cannot be answered by a simple yes or no. For example, rather than saying “Did you ever feel like your social class was different from those around you?” which can be answered yes/no, you can rephrase to say “What was your social class position relative to the people around you growing up?”–the latter requires the person to expand and explain, where the former does not require analysis. Use of closed-ended questions will reduce overall grade. Note: asking questions about age/name, etc are not considered part of the interview guide.
2. Be very careful of wording. You do not want to answer the question for the person, or lead them to an answer that they would not otherwise select. As an example, “Did you ever feel embarrassed due to your social class?” (first, this is a closed ended question, second it results in your subject being more likely to say they were embarrassed, when if asked “What feelings do you recall in regards to your class position growing up?” they would be more likely to tap into their initial thoughts (increases validity).
3. In addition to issues of wording related to “leading”, you also want to be careful to word questions in a sensitive manner. Social class is a very personal issue to individuals (likely rooted in our cultural understandings about privacy regarding monetary concerns: rude to ask how much someone paid, or how much money they make, etc). So you want to be able to develop a rapport with the individual and make them feel comfortable and avoid feeling defensive, insulted, etc. Be very careful with your wording to utilize neutral and non-judgmental language.
4. Questions should relate to their experience and should consider this experience from childhood to present and may also ask about their future. Keep the interview limited to their own experiences.
PART 2: INTERVIEW
Select one person, at least 40 years old, to discuss their experience of social class throughout their lives. You will want to record the interview to then transcribe the word for word interview (question and answer). This is document of your conversation. You will submit this as part of the final paper in question/answer form. Do not attempt to write their answers down as you interview—you must record then later type out these answers. Subjects become very impatient waiting for you to copy their answers and will then keep answers very brief. Do not paraphrase.
Begin Interview:
For narrative inquiry, this is “storytelling”. Begin the interview with describing the project to their subject. After the subject is clear about what the intentions are begin with questions 1: “Tell me about your life growing up?”. Makes notes as the person talks, especially if related to course content (helpful in analysis section). Then move onto remaining 9 questions (or revised questions if you notice you may have overlooked something really interesting that comes up—it is ok to be flexible, this is conversation).
After interview, TRANSCRIBE (word for word account of entire discussion) for analysis. This will be submitted.
PART 3: ANALYSIS
This is the final step in the process. Once you have your interview you will examine the subject’s responses to connect back to course content. This section will be submitted in essay format (minimum 1250 words, 5 pages double spaced) which you describe the interview and discuss how the responses relate to content learned over the course of the semester. Students must be able to discuss at least FIVE course concepts (including a definition of the concept to demonstrate understanding—as well as then explain how/why it connects to the interview. YOU MUST CITE PAGE NUMBERS to reference material in textbook, as well as include a reference list (even if only using the textbook). Consider concepts such as class consciousness (although you wouldn’t ask the interview question using the terminology, you may notice the subject is talking about the concept–without the jargon), intersectionality (how does social class intersect with other identities), mobility, life changes, etc.
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