One down . . .

Well, I conducted my first interview yesterday.  It was a little uncomfortable at first because it felt so formal.  But once my interviewee answered the first question, it got easier -- like we were just "talking story".  I think I did a pretty good job in keeping my opinions to myself, in regards to teacher evaluations at least.  We did, at one point, go off on a tangent and started talking about testing (the Hawaii State Assessment) and I did express my frustration with the reading portion of the test and had to pause the recording to tell her what some schools were doing (because I didn't want THAT to be on any record . . . ), but for the most part, the questions from my Interview Protocol did guide the conversation.  I found that the recording does come in very handy.  I tried to take notes during the interview, but it got to be too distracting at some points -- especially when she's saying so much because of her apparent frustration with the system. It was funny because at the beginning of the interview, her answers were "textbook" -- evaluations are done so that administrators know how teachers are doing in the classroom and know how to better support teachers, etc.  During the second question, however, she gave the textbook answer and then sort of snorted and said, "But, really . . . " and I had to tell her that I wanted to know what she really thought and that the purpose of the interview was not to get the answers that the DOE would like, but to find out what teachers and administrators thought about the actual teacher evaluation process and what they thought it should be.  I guess she felt like she had to be the model teacher with all the right answers.  I guess that's understandable because that's how I feel when I am "interviewed".  Once she knew I wanted to know what she really thought, then she started talking about how administrators do the evaluations because they have to and don't take the time to actually observe what is going to properly evaluate a teacher and so on.  So, it turned out to be a pretty good conversation, I thought.  I guess I'll get a better idea after I transcribe the recording . . . which I could have lost! So, I ended up using my phone to record the interview.  Yes, I'm going off-topic here . . . the night before the interview I had my phone updated to the iOS 5 (which I really like . . . now that I've gotten it working) and had problems restoring everything.  I got everything working and used it to record my interview.  However, I realized that my ringtones were missing (it's hard to hear your phone ring when it's a tone you're not used to hearing . . . or it's hard for me, at least.), so when I got home after my interview, I plugged my phone into the computer and it restored everything, again.  Since it restored everything to the backup I had the night before, the recording of the interview was erased.  LUCKILY, I emailed me the recordings before I restored, thinking I wanted it on my flashdrive so I could erase it off my phone.  Can you imagine if I didn't do that?  This entry would be filled with "censored" words (lots of $#!+ and others).    Anyways, so I completed my first interview and the interviewee got lunch in return.  I really did not say anything about how I felt about teacher evaluation, which was what I was worried about.  But I think a lot of that had to do with the fact that the interviewee shared a lot of how I felt.  It would be interesting to see how I would approach an interview in which a person felt differently.  Would I be able to keep my opinions to myself then?  Let's hope.  By the way, what do I do with the signed consent form?  I am assuming I can't include them in my paper nor should I turn it in since it would break confidentiality . . .  I guess I'll just store it separately.  I am attaching a copy of my researcher information sheet and consent form.  Let me know if I need to make any changes.  I basically took what was provided as an example on Laulima (The "Extending University Knowledge into the Community" one) and revised it to fit the purpose of my interviews.  I hope that's okay . . .  I guess you'll let me know.  Thanks! Have a great week!  Again, I will not be attending class on Thursday (the 20th -- I think I said the 25th in a previous email, but that would be my other class . . . ).  I will be attending class on the 27th.  I apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. Thank you!

researcher info.consent.doc