The Light bulb

After reading an article for another class, I was determined to enquire about the attitude and roles parents play in their young child's acquisition of language and literacy. Parents are their children's first teachers and I am on this quest to see how much parents believe it is their job to give children the tools needed for developing early literacy.

So, I am in the process of writing the literature review and the light bulb just went on this week. I have been fiddling with it for about three weeks now. In my research, I plan to look at 5 variables, which will be examined through a survey and interview. It was not until this week that I realized that I should use the five variables as categories to present the past research. When it hit me, I breathed a sigh of relief and now I think I know what I am doing --now just to polish it to submit for review.

Sometimes I wish the light bulb would turn on faster. You know when you walk into a place that has motion censors, the light flicks on and then when you leave, it goes off. Sometimes I feel like I am living in a motion censored world. When I am in one place, the light bulb goes on and as soon as I leave _____, the light flickers and then I am back to the craziness of this world; the mind simply goes blank. This only means that I need to write down everything. I used to be able to remember so much. I was a pro at taking mental notes. Now, if I don't write things down, I am sorry but, I am not going to remember. So the message I am taking away this week is to take notes and think in categories.

Interviewing Dad

Like Jeanne and her dad, I'd heard about my father's earlier years before. For our group's assignment, however, I hoped to delve more into his childhood. I'm not sure my father even had one. There's not one photograph of him as a boy, no artifacts, such as a report card or something he may have crafted--nothing. (He won a medal as a teenager, but I wanted something of him before then.) When we spoke, I tried directing my father's responses into light-hearted terrain--such as hobbies or sports. I learned a few new things then, that my father went out for track and was captain of his school's "honor guard." (I think this was in junior high, though.) But my father always returned to one central theme--that his family was poor, poor even before the Great Depression hit in 1929. He spoke about how he always scrambled to earn money to help his family, even at the ages of 7 or 8. My heart broke when my dad said that because my grandparents couldn't afford eyeglasses, he had to sit in the front row in class, where he was the tallest student. Those years were decidedly tough, but my father met every challenge that confronted him.  He went on to enjoy all that life has to offer--including 4 grandchildren and 5 great-grandchildren. Without question, interviewing Dad reminded me that I'm as proud of him as he deserves to be of himself, and I was glad to tell him so.

The Recorder

A recorder is a necessary tool in any interview. However, it can stop the interviewee from truly getting comfortable. I learned this recently as I was interviewing my dad. As always, he was ready to talk until I told him he was going to be recorded. I assured him that no one was going to listen to it accept me and he still had a hard time getting started with the essential question: How has your upbringing shaped who you are?

My father enjoys talking about the old days.

None of the stories I heard growing up were discussed during the interview. He was quiet at first. I had to use probing questions to get him to talk some more. I also had to phrase the question in another way to make him start thinking about his career and his life now. It was funny that with the recorder he felt like he needed to be cautious. How will others respond to a voice recorder?
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Throughout the interview, my dad kept coming back to a central theme, observation. He said that he was an observer. He believes that growing up, his observation of people around him, shaped who is today.

My dad is a chef and usually everything revolves around food and when he was younger, he did not have to cook. His older sisters and mother cooked for him. However, he was watching and asking questions. It was not until he was 19, that he started to take some real interest in cooking. Through observing chefs in the kitchen, he developed his talents.

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I asked my dad what was so difficult about having the recorder on the table and he said that he felt like he was under scrutiny. This is interesting and important to think about. He suggested that I start off with a simple, easy going conversation before I dig into the interview. This is to make the interviewee comfortable with the recorder and the process.

The Apple Doesn't Fall Far...

So this week’s assignment to interview a willing participant was so interesting. Our “think tank” group decided that we would all interview our fathers. We agreed that they would be easily accessible and happy to talk with their daughters for this class project. We agreed on the central question: How did your childhood influence your life? Follow up questions included (1) How did your childhood lead you to your career? (2) How did your childhood affect your adult life?

When I told my Dad about this project he was happy to chat with me and although, over the years, I had heard his childhood memories, interesting antidotes, and funny stories, it was always in a social context and never formal or recorded. Since our schedules did not allow for us to interview in person, we decided on an audio-recorded phone interview. It was easy to imagine his facial expressions, hand gestures and smile as he was talking.

A few specific themes surfaced during the interview regarding his childhood, but no matter what direction the interview took, his stories always came back to food. Yes, the hardships of the Great Depression, the family work ethic, counted blessings, money, religion, problems, love and music were all discussed but most of the conversation circled back to food-lots of food, not enough food, who was cooking the food, good cooks in the family, Sunday food, preparing food, cooking food, Italian food, courses of food, etc.

I never realized how much my family talks about food. It is one of my favorite topics to discuss and is also a popular theme with the rest of my family, children and friends.

This assignment was a great way to practice our interviewing procedures and skills in my opinion. The experience was low stress and could be forgiving in the event of a possible question or technology glitch. There is definitely an “art” to the interviewing process that I am hoping to get much better at with more practice.

Structure

All of my life, I was accustomed to structure. I did what I was told and never questioned anything. I followed the norms of the environments I entered on a daily basis. Now, the structure that others have put in place for me to follow are no longer the structures that I am following. I am making my own plans of action.

Take for instance papers, through my years as an undergraduate and a graduate student, papers were assigned and they were written according to the structure the teacher supplied. The professors gave me a road map and it was followed. Now, the road map is self designed. So coming up with a question and a design for the research did not seem so straight forward for me because I was accustomed to the structure already being designed for me in the past.

As I am stepping into a new future both professionally and academically, I am learning a lot about myself. I am finding that I have a voice in this world as I was raised under the teaching of "speak when spoken to" and now I find that I have a little more to say. However, I still hold some of the same beliefs about talking as I think it is important to only speak once you have given thought to your comment or question. The process of thinking is what is making the research project a little troublesome for me as I keep trying to imagine the process. Is it wrong to try to think ahead? Will my thoughts make me trip and fall?

I have watched my little nephew plan his next attack. He stands in front of the television, looking intently at the screen. Well, at least I believe that is what he is doing. Then, he bends down and starts pushing buttons. He shuts the television off and then after a few seconds, he turns it back on. On Friday, he pushed the power off and then on again. Then, he kept pressing buttons until black and white squiggly lines filled the screen. After some time, I asked my dad to turn off the television and he did. My nephew did not agree and so he turned it back on...Now, the volume was down to 0 and it was on channel 85. He sat there and played with the buttons until the television was on the correct channel to receive signal from the cable box and the volume was up. When he was finished, he walked away. He accomplished his goal. Now I have no clue what this 20 month old boy was thinking. All I know is that he made sure that the television was showing clearly before he walked away. What his initial goal was, I still don't know?

But I do know that he is teaching me to take some chances.