Interviews with Members of Two Generations of the Same Family about Their Educational Experience
Goal
Research question
What can teachers do to enhance teacher-student relationship and bridge deficiencies in a changing/deteriorating educational system?
Research hypotheses
Education has worsened/improved; the new student generation has grown more tolerant to teaching methods/has surpassed the system and demands changes; teachers should adapt to the demands of a new highly informed generation for changing the system from passing information to teaching students to ask and learn through tests and innovations/teachers should stick to the traditional system and demand hard work, diligence and knowledge.
Target group
I interviewed a mother (A) and son (B) with an age difference of 33 years in a family of visiting friends from Los Angeles – a public employee (53) and a high school student (20). The family is of average income and both attend/ed public schools. I explained the purpose of the interview, which was verbal and held simultaneously as a conversation, giving an opportunity to hear each other’s views. The interviewees were enthusiastic that they could be helpful with insights. A longer-term goal I had was to collect ideas for enhancing teacher-student relations. Both had criticism and both had positive comments about their experience.
Types of questions
I selected questions of several categories: 1. Dichotomous (yes/no). 2. Open-ended (allowing free and undirected thinking (“why?”). 3. Multiple-choice (between suggested answers). 4. Rank-order (allowing comparison and elimination of choices). 5. Rating scale (allowing assessment of an issue). Questions:
Public or private school; Satisfied? Rented apartment or dorm? Use of technology: TV, copiers, PCs, email, internet, twitter? Did you receive assistance from parents?
Why did you choose a public/private school? How many students in your class?
Would you choose mono-cultural/mono-ethnic or multiethnic environment if a choice?
How would you rate the quality of your education compared to other schools in LA?
Analysis
There was a shared view that a large number of schools in and around Los Angeles, especially in poorer areas, do not provide proper education. This statement matches assessments by a not-for-profit organization in California engaged in promoting public schools (Great Public Schools Now). As both A and B have attended public schools, they appreciate that teachers are the most important factor in education and that smaller classes provide better teacher-student contact – something which is rarely affordable.
Both assess that cultural diversity in school is a long-term experiential asset, although, during studies, this has often been a problem. B noted that his class was mainly mono-ethnic - a trend which had apparently began from the times of wider diversity in the 1980s. A, attributed the high turnover of teachers at her time to the fact that she had experienced schooling in a multiethnic environment. At the same time, A and B worryingly agreed that there must have been less of ethnic and racial bias in the 1980s when diversity was better manifested. B admitted that, compared to A’s experience, the quality of his education in a more mono-ethnic environment might be better than in the 1980s.
Both agreed that the use of modern technology in the past ten years has helped experimental and research learning in groups, which was rare in the 1980s. Today, technology seems to have helped in bringing teachers and students into a closer and more relaxed interaction. Parenting was marked as an important factor to help teachers in their work. Lack of interest by parents discourages both student and teacher and leads to poorer results. B sees this more as a problem today, than A in the 1980s.
Finally, we spoke about generational differences. I used for this part of the interview a research by experienced educational developers (Murdock and Beckingham, 2013). Ms. A, born 1964, shared that she had been a diligent student at school and a workaholic now. She valued team playing as an important trait acquired at school. Family duties have been as important for women of her generation as studies and personal career. Mr. B, born 1997, also valued hard work and ethical relations in school. Differently, he said he was more goal-oriented, than a team-player. He was skilled in multitasking and research rather than a fan of long hours of work, he said he felt communicative and, of course, internet and email were an inseparable part of his life. It was apparent that the generation which began its studies with computers is more collaborative – which he sees differently from being a team-player. Tolerance to racial and gender diversity seemed higher now, in the sense that technology and social media tend to set such “backward notions” aside. B was definite that the purpose of education is to teach people to creativity and new skills rather than delving into the heaps of collected and less useful information of previous generations. Whether in school or at home, not having a smartphone or a social network account was as disastrous for B as it was not having a TV for A.
My interlocutors agreed once again with the importance of teacher-student relationships, where the teacher has the responsibility to bridge generation gaps, educational transitions and welfare and gender differences. As Gallagher (2017) suggests in her study, the support which a skillful teacher can offer to a student in his learning can have a wider effect on his long-term development and future employment. This bond begins with understanding the individual character of each student, as well as the collective features of successive generations (Gallagher, 2017).
References
Great Public Schools Now. (n.d.). Retrieved or Feb., 2017, from www.greatpublicschoolsnow.org/
Gallagher, E. (n.d.). The Effects of Teacher-Student Relationships: Social and Academic Outcomes of Low-Income Middle and High School Students. Retrieved 03 Feb, 2017, from http://steinhardt.nyu.edu/appsych/opus/issues/2013/fall/gallagher
Murdock, J, S. Beckingham. (2013, August 19). Generational Differences: Millennials, Social media, and Education. Retrieved 03 Feb., 2017, from www.slideshare.net/jmurdock3/generational-differences-millennials-social-media-and- education.
