Purpose:
The purpose of this assignment is to conduct one semi-structured, in-depth interview with a worker to understand how their job affects family life as well as how family responsibilities impact their job duties. Students will analyze the interview data by making connections to the course materials (readings, lectures, discussions, etc.).
Instructions:
As discussed in class, work and family represent two major social institutions that most people organize their lives around. For this assignment you will locate one individual who is currently working at a paid job. For example, you may interview a family member, friend, co-worker about their experiences asking questions such as: Describe how your job impacts your family life. Tell me about any ways your family responsibilities affect your ability to do your job. How does your employer react when you ask for time off to take care of family responsibilities?
**One of the main elements that needs to be included in your paper are actual excerpts from the interview to support your analysis and the claims you make.
1) Develop an interview protocol.
Construct an interview protocol with a series of questions you will ask your interviewee. We will begin working on the interview protocol during class on Monday, January 31st.
Your interview protocol should contain demographic questions (age, race, class, gender, etc.) as well as questions about your interviewee’s job/career including how work and family are interconnected.
Your interview protocol must contain at least 10 questions.
Questions may be reordered during the interview
Wording of questions is flexible
Level of language may be adjusted
Interviewer may ask questions and clarify information
Interviewer may add or delete probes to interview between subsequent subjects
2) Conduct the Interview
Interviews can be conducted in person, over the phone, or virtually. Prior to the interview, let your interviewee know their participation is completely voluntary and will only be used for the purposes of this class. Also, you will need to get your interviewee’s permission (verbal permission is fine) to audio record the interview.
Be sure to take written notes and audio record the interview (if given permission) and then transcribe the interview.
Remember to start the interview with background/demographic questions to “break the ice” and set the tone of the interview.
Once you have established rapport with your interviewee, you can move into the more emotionally-laden and topic-focused questions.
3) Transcribe the Interview
After you conduct the interview, you will need to transcribe it.
Interviews should be transcribed verbatim and students must use excerpts/quotes from the interview in the paper.
4) Analyze the Interview Data
After you have transcribed the interview it is time to analyze the interview data. Start by looking for information about the ways in which your interviewee’s job responsibilities may have impacted their family life. Does the interview data point to the interconnectedness between work and family? How does your interviewee cope with and manage conflicting demands associated with work and family? Also, is there an experience your interviewee describes that runs counter to what we have been discussing in class? What might be some policy implications based on your interviewee’s experiences?
Paper Format:
This paper must be typed and should be 3-4 pages (double-spaced) in length. Please use standard margins (1 inch) and fonts (11 or 12-point font). The paper must critically analyze your interview data by examining how social forces influenced an individual’s experiences. Please include the following sections in your paper:
Introduction .5 page (Who did you interview? Remember to use pseudonyms for people and places in order to ensure confidentiality. Describe your interviewee’s demographic characteristics (age, race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, class, ability, geographic location, etc.) Here you can also describe the type of work they do.
Methodology .5- 1 page (How long did the interview last? Why was an in-depth interview an appropriate method for the topic you were examining?)
Findings/Discussion 1-2 pages (What does your interview data reveal? Here you will need to make connections between your interview data and the course materials on the intersection between work and family. In this section you will use interview excerpts to support your ideas. One of the main elements that needs to be included in your paper are actual excerpts from the interview to support your analysis and the claims you make. See section 4 (Analyze the interview data for additional information on what to include in this section).
Conclusion .5-1 page What are your concluding thoughts about the work family intersection? Did any of your findings surprise you? Here you can also address whether or not existing workplace policies and laws meet the needs of working people with dependents or family responsibilities. If you were to conduct more interviews on this topic who would you include in your sample and why? Did your interviewee change your understanding of the relationship between work and family? Why or why not?
Another requirement of the paper is to include your interview protocol at the end as an appendix. Students are not required to submit the interview transcriipt.
