An interview refers to a conversation that takes place between two people or more with questions asked by the interviewer. The interviewer often asks questions to elicit statements, facts and answers from the person or people being interviewed who are referred to as the interviewees. In journalism and media reporting, interviews are their part and parcel of operation even though interviews can also be used in situations like qualitative research. Interviews in research seek to describe and give meanings of central themes for subjects. Allen et al, (2011). Interviews are usually completed by the interviewer but this will depend with the answers given by the interviewee. Besides, many people never conduct interviews in research since they are time consuming and resource and labor intensive. This report aims at giving a report on interviews within a primary education context conducted among children of ages ranging from nine to eleven.
The research involved a three weeks study and four children were interviewed. A major issue that was used to collect information was the effect of parental love for the children on their concentration in class. I chose to interview on parental love issue because it is an emerging focus in the modern world. Most parents are not at a position to be with their children as they get to other life issues like looking for money more often. The original motivation for love is that God loves everybody and this is what should be done among human beings. Abandonment, abuse, violence, neglect and abduction are all tragic realities that children face in the present world. Parents must nurture their children and this is one of the most important things parents can do. The parents’ love and care will always determine the way a child will grow up and eventually how the child will become a parent as well.
What was done in the research?
The first thing that I did was to prepare for the interview since it was to involve more than one child from different regions. I then identified four children in four different schools of ages nine, ten and eleven with the help of their teachers. With the help of the teachers, head teachers, class teachers and the teaching assistants, I was able to identify the relevant children for the interview. Successfully, four children were identified for the interview and their parents were made aware of the interview sessions. The parents had to be informed because some of the interviews were conducted during games times and the children needed to play at that time. It is normal for a parent to raise eyebrows that the child is not having his or her play at the right time. The parents thus had to be informed such that even when the child could not play well, the parent would still understand that the child was a client of an interview. The gender was balanced of two girls and two boys. Having a period of three weeks, the time was sufficient for preparation and I decided to see how many days every child would take to answer my questions. With the remaining twenty days for the research, I allocated each child a period of five days to complete their answering. I made the interview to have a clear purpose rather than an expedition. I had to visit the schools to know the type of children who attended the school. This was important for me because the different schools of course have different pupils of separate backgrounds and levels of class.
A question directed to a child from a rich family may not apply to that child from a poor family. The differences thus had to be squared out so that my questions would cover across all the levels of classes and different families. The children were in four different schools and I had to seek permission from their teachers and informed consent of the children. The children were told the subject of the interview and by the time all had agreed to face the interview, I prepared questions that I would use to administer an oral interview. With a sensitive topic of study, I chose children with parents having in mind that some must have been orphaned thus did not want to involve guardian questions. The activities the children did during class was used to rate the attention of the children.
How was the research conducted?
My first visit to the first school encountered a girl of nine years. This child was an isolated individual and I made her comfortable and ensured she was ready to answer my questions. With the five days allocated. She had sufficient time to answer to my questions. She sat close to me in a room and I was able to ask her questions on how her parents’ love made her concentrate in class. This continued with few questions asked daily during her break times until our five days were exhausted. The first day made the child scared and her answers were not straight to the point as she never wanted to disclose her family’s issues. This called for a proper understanding and acceptance of the fact that not all the participants would be same. I had to dig deep with several more irrelevant questions so as to get my answers even though I did not apply force on her. Successfully, the second third and fourth day had some improvements and the little girl was able to disclose the answers required depending with the questions asked. The last day (day five) proved to be our best day and the little girl fully participated in answering questions and there were no difficulties in our interview session.
The second participant was a ten year old boy in a different school. I learnt the boy was courageous and he normally sat facing me. The same questions were asked but this time it took place during games and our five days came to exhaustion. This ten year old boy was extra keen and did not wait for me to pursue him so as to get the answers. He seemed jovial and less disturbed. Even though it is unethical to disclose information about people, the boy had a good relationship and positive attitude with and towards his family and the members. We developed a good relationship together and positively enough, the boy could even report to our interview venue before time and I could just find him seated and waiting. This shows that the interview was not bad and besides I did not ask any sensitive questions but just the general ones.
The third participant was also a boy of ten years but from a different school. The boy was a bit shy and I had to respect that thus I administered my questions a bit far from him to make him comfortable. Just as the nine year old girl, this boy could take a bit long before answering questions and this compelled me to keep on repeating the questions. I also discovered that the boy had a slight hearing disability that even made me keener in how I asked the questions. Progressively, the boy would report to our interview venue on time but at times come a bit late even though the interviews were still successful. The interviews took place in the morning hours just before classes began and by the end of five days the interview was finished. I also discovered that morning hours were not best for him since at times he would report sleepy. My plea to change the schedule did not work and the boy had already scheduled himself for the morning interviews and I had to respect that.
The fourth child was an eleven year old girl who was very social and at times had to go out of the topic. Since her interviews consumed so much time we had to sacrifice her break and games times. The girl being an outgoing person, she could at times make the interview room for me and ensured it was clean and attractive. She at times even colored the seats to make ourselves even more jovial. This eleven year old girl was the best client I interviewed and meeting her twice a day was not an issue. I also discovered that the parents of the girl were always present for her and that was what made her even happier. She could get out of the questions but as a researcher the girl had to follow rules that the rest had followed before thus promoting equality. At times we could start our sessions with a word of prayer to ensure that the meeting would not get any boring along the way. After our five days we had exhausted the interviews. This girl became used to me and even wanted me to meet the parents after our project was finished. The most stress was on how the children felt parental love was, whether they encountered the love and how it contributed to their participation in class.
Issues envisaged and those that arose
In my research, not all the interviewed children had good attention in class. With the ranges of behaviors the children exhibited in class, I was able to note that only one child was fully attentive in class. The responses the children gave were that the parents were always busy and so they spent very little time with the children. Those that had their parents at home more often exhibited good attention in class and only did other things like looking at others and playing in a rare manner. Children who had their parents’ close less often seemed to blame themselves for their parents, absence and even felt ashamed and unequal with the other children. The lack of parental love thus made most of the children get busy during classes by playing and provoking fellow pupils and at times even the teacher. Arising issues were that other factors that affected the children’s concentration included genetic factors and prenatal toxins. Carson. D, (2003).
Adults can be able to nurture children’s self esteem positively by enabling them to discover what they are good at and what they can do best. It was discovered that part of a child’s self esteem comes the competence feeling. Creating opportunities for children to explore in different objects, people and activities make them feel loved especially when this comes from the parent. The feeling of acceptance and provision of love will add to the child’s behavior and how they concentrate and perform in their academics. The early years of development are the most important ones in developing a child’s self esteem and showing them that they are either loved or not. The feeling of the early ages will manufacture into the feelings of the later ages and determine how a person will define themselves. Further research has shown that children’s needs are different and each child should be treated according to their needs. Every child thus needs parents who can be at a position to notice and appreciate their special qualities.
In concluding, I have learnt that however much interviews consume time; they are best because they involve the interviewees face to face especially for the oral interview. It is then that a researcher is able to get more information not only from asking questions but also by studying the individual and their appearance. To improve interviews in future, I would have more interviewees in order to dig deep into what is studied and more time to exhaust as much information as possible.
Reference List
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MISHLER, E. G. (1986). Research interviewing: context and narrative. Cambridge, Mass, Harvard University Press.
ALLEN, T. D., & EBY, L. T. (2011). The Blackwell Handbook of Mentoring a Multiple Perspectives Approach. Hoboken, John Wiley & Sons. http://public.eblib.com/choice/publicfullrecord.aspx?p=819351.
TANSELLA, M., & THORNICROFT, G. (2010). Mental health outcome measures. London, Royal College of Psychiatrists.
SMITH, D. V. L., & FLETCHER, J. H. (2004). The art & science of interpreting market research evidence. New York, Wiley.
