Reading Sources: Finfer, L (2016). “One-on-One Meetings to Find and Develop Leaders.” In Roots to Power, op. cit., pp. 282-290.
Staples, L. (2016). The Role of the Organizer, Chapter 2 in Roots to Power (pp. 39-55) Op. cit.
Staples, L. (2016). “Can’t You Hear Me Knockin’?” Organizing Models and Methods. In Roots to Power (pp. 59-75; 79-114). Op. cit.
Wortham, J. (2020). How a New Wave of Black Activists Changed the Conversation. New York Times Magazine, August 30, 2020.
Instructions Assignment – Relational Interviews
Conduct three separate 1:1 relational interviews with people you do not know well, such as work or Field Education placement colleagues, neighbors, friends of friends, or staff of organizations you may be supporting through volunteer work associated with Assignment 2. Each interview should last about 30 minutes. Practice the techniques discussed in course readings and class sessions, and write detailed notes about each encounter immediately afterward, in the style of a social work process recording. These notes will be appended to the narrative of your paper.
To begin the narrative of your paper, briefly explain how and why you selected each interviewee and describe the time and setting of the interview. Then devote a section of the paper to describing the interviews, describing the overall flow of the conversation and what you learned about each person in turn. Include a few examples of what you asked and how they responded. Include information and/or emotional content you found particularly interesting. Identify issues that emerged from each interview that might be relevant if you were considering the person’s potential as an organizational leader or if you were identifying issues for a potential organizing campaign. Then analyze the experience, including how your approach may have changed with successive interviews, what you found comfortable and challenging, and how your expectations based on relational interview theory related to your actual encounters. Conclude with a personal reflection on what you learned from the experience, including commentary about how this process may be similar and different from a clinical social work encounter.
Note: Interviews must normally be conducted in-person, but during the COVID-19 pandemic, they should be conducted by Zoom, Skype, FaceTime, or similar electronic media, unless you are interviewing a member of your household. Attach your interview notes including the date, place, and time of each interview as an appendix to the paper. Specify how long the interview lasted. You may redact text from your notes or assign pseudonyms to protect confidentiality, if necessary.
It is acceptable to interview another BUSSW student as one of your three interviewees, as long as you do not know them well. Pairs of students who are enrolled in MP781 should not trade roles as organizer and interviewee. Past experience has shown that such an approach often leads to a rewarding encounter but rarely allows either student to effectively experience the organizer’s role in a 1:1.
