4. Interviewing
- Sneha Arvind
- May 12, 2019
- 8 min read
Updated: Jul 28, 2019
Building rapport & going deeper to understand children's innate behaviour and needs
Note to Self
Making your interviewee feel comfortable to share their experiences and making yourself feel trustworthy is the most vital aspect of having a good interview. Thus, build rapport, maintain a comfortable pace and avoid filling any pauses after you have asked your question. Allow your interviewee to reflect and answer on their own without having any of their sentences completed by your assumptions of what they might be thinking or saying. Look for stories and don't be afraid if your interviewee moves a little away from your discussion giude.
Furthermore, what people say, do, think and feel are often not in accordance with each other. Be mindful of these gaps and ask them about it without judgement but in a neutral and curious manner.
Discussion Guide
Ethics
I will begin the interview by introducing the purpose of my interview and permission to voice record it. I will also mention that the information that they would tell me wouldn't be discussed with any teacher or parent to ensure that they are being as honest and possible.
I will also offer a little chocolate to thank them for their time.
EDIT: Please note that the students behind the quotes mentioned below are redacted for confidential reasons.
Plan
I will conduct four in-depth interviews, two individual interviews, one group interview with two people, and a casual conversation and a small task with a group of three children.
The questions are as follows.
Interview Highlights
Lending at the library
"Sometimes, I borrow the same book twice in a row even though I finished reading it. There's no time to browse and find a book that you might actually like reading."
At Indian School Al - Ghubra, the library serves as a lending library where students can choose a book to borrow to read for the next week during their weekly 35-minute library lesson. This time allotted during the week is the only time children are officially allowed to lend a book. As per my observation, when children do come in during their snack break to visit the library, they are met with unhappy and irritated librarians who unfortunately follow an incredibly busy schedule as well and are provided with only that time to refresh themselves.
Lending a book during the library lesson comes with many challenges.
The lack of time coupled with the absence of effective navigation and organisation makes it difficult to find a book that children are genuinely interested in reading.
Building a habit of reading
Avid readers and children who have found their niche within the library collection benefit the most from the school library.
Hanisha, a 7th grader and an avid reader values the library's collection and has learned to use the library in another exciting way. She has defined reading goals for herself. She aims to finish reading all books of a particular section of a library before the end of 2019. She borrows 2 books every week and finishes them with ease.
A 13-year-old history and comic fanatic loves to read The Jataka Tales, a comic-style magazine on Hindu mythology. And there's plenty of these books available for his reading level. He knows exactly what he wants and has created a niche for himself within the library's collection.
However, there is an absence of a system that guides non readers and novice readers find their interest within the library collection and build a habit of reading.
"I just borrow a random book, keep it in my bag for an entire week and return it without even opening it."
Children with no real interest in reading and novice readers show higher levels of dissatisfaction with the system.
Reading Levels - A restriction more than a guide?
Reading levels are meant to help the reader filter through an ocean of books and be guided based on readability. However, the categorisation of books in ISG's library based on reading levels don't seem to be in accordance with the kind of books children are reading outside of the academic environment (under parents supervision).
"I don't know why The Hitchhiker's Guide is grade 11+. Everyone knows about it and has read it already."
All three books chosen in the task were of reading levels Grade 10+.
Reading levels are decided by a team of English language teachers at the school. When asked about the procedure of assigning reading levels, one of them said the following,
"What kind content needs to be read by middle-school children is subjective. What I think is okay for children to read does not always align with what my colleague in the team thinks. Sometimes she wins and sometimes, I do."
Senior English Teacher & Advisor to the library
Books are categorised based on reading ability and how appropriate the themes of the book are for the child's age. What kind of content children should be reading is subjective and nuanced.
Grades 9 - 12 have more freedom in choosing any book that they please. However, by grade 9, the academic and parental pressure increases manifold thus deterring children from forming reading habits at that age.
Hence, despite the freedom and good collection of books for senior students, they are unread for the most part.
Academics and Reading for pleasure
Anne has a pretty interesting story of how she got into reading. Prior to the 6th grade, Anne despised reading.
"I would borrow books with large pictures and very little text. Prior to the library lesson, I would flip through the pictures, get a jist of the story and tell me friends that I read the book."
However, just after she got a low score in English writing and comprehension skills, her mother intervened . She then start reading incrementally for 5, 10 and 15 minutes a day and thus started her reading journey. She started with books such as The Wimpy Kid and Geronimo Stilton as those were popular among her friends.
Her reading aim in the near future to move on to thicker books.
This girl's story also sheds light on Indian culture and how parents' attitude towards inculcating a reading habit may change when academics are at stake.
Collection of Books
"There is not a single good book that I can borrow"
I have heard children saying this several times while browsing for books in the library.
The school's library boasts of a collection of 36,066 books and is regarded as the largest library across all schools in the Sultunate. Despite this impressive collection, students are utterly unhappy. Where is the system going wrong?
The school administration does add books in bulk to the library periodically. However, students are not involved in the process of choosing what books are bought. Owing to the gap between what the school thinks students should read and what they actually read, most books available in plentiful in the library do not attract middle-school children.
Many popular books are donated by parents of students. However, these books are very few in number in comparison to the demand. Hence, students need to wait for several weeks for their turn to borrow the book.
Non-fiction and informative books are restricted to be read only in the school library as they are few in number. However, students don't have access to the library other than during their library lesson. Hence, they are forced to make a choice whether to read magazines and other informative books during the library lesson or browse for a book to borrow.
Condition of Books
This school library has been functionng for over 15 years. Countless number of books are in tatters in the library and students often complain about the condition of books.
Given the time available to lend a book, cover graphics and catchy titles play a vital role in helping the child choose a book. Tattered books are ignored regardless of its content.
The importance of competition and setting goals
Challenges and healthy competition among peers appear to be a powerful way of sustaining motivation even when interest in the task itself may be lacking.
Vihan, a complete outdoor game junkie described the only the he did not feel like playing. Every exam season he competes with his neighbour to get higher grades. This challenge kept him on his feet and got him great grades the previous year.
Sabyasachi described why he wanted to try out quizzing as an elementary school kid. It was due to the prizes upon winning and the well-known local amphitheatre that he would get to perform in if he qualified.
Peer influence
Similar to many other aspects in life, peers have a strong influence on what a child reads. While some children may find it favourable, some may not.
Anne, a 7th grade novice reader values and trusts her friend's opinion on a book. So much so that if her friends have said an entire section is not good, she would skip it. However, Hanisha and Aditya, 7th grade avid readers consciously avoid their friends while browsing books at the library.
"If my friends choose a book for me but I don't want to borrow it, then I might have to force myself to take it so that they don't feel sad. So I prefer browsing for books alone."
Everyone has different taste in books so I browse on my own. But, while browsing, if see my friend keep a book back because she didn't like the summary, I might pick it up to see what it is about.
Interviewing the Head Librarian
"My main concern with children is that they don't keep quiet in the library. Why would they want to talk here? I have even put up signs around the library to maintain silence. I don't think they have seen it.
Head Librarian
The Librarian genuinely wants them to read and lend good books. We spoke for hours about her observations in the library and her inability to understand why. While her intent is in the right direction, her strict approach seems to be ineffective on the children.
"My job is very hectic. I barely get a 15-minute break during the entire day. I am always in the library and don't go back to the staff room even."
Head Librarian
The librarian has to manage predominantly manual procedures for two classes simultaneously at times. This results in a stressful environment that can have an effect on their general mood in the day. It also effects how they speak to children who come in during the library lesson.
One of children's primary complaints with the library culture is the librarian. She makes or breaks the atmosphere during the library lesson. To my surprise, the atmosphere she creates and the mood that she is in significantly influences the child's experience in the library and their attitude towards reading from the library.
"I loved coming to the library every week back in 3rd grade because the librarians were so nice then."
"The librarian allows me to browse for books for a little more time than others. She also allows me to borrow books of grade 9+ because she knows I read a lot. My friends are jealous of me."
"Once, I shuffled all the books across categories just so that the librarians have to do more work. I don't care, they're constantly shouting and it's very annoying."
Reflection
The library system and space seem to have been negected for several years with small and incremental changes over the years. Even when new books have been added, rules and changes to the system have been made, its effectiveness has not been monitored. The new books are primarily chosen by people responsible for general administration. There seems to be a lack of care to understand children's true reading interests.
Rules and regulations that make the foundation of the system have been set several years ago in a different context. These rules have been interpreted and re-interpreted over the years by people in the lower rungs to a point of non-sense in today's context.
The lack of popular fiction titles and the inaccess to informative books may drive the student's attitude towards the school library to a point of indifference. Children can access these books outside of the academic envrionement consequently rendering the school library redundant.
At the end of the day, children think of the library period as a free lesson, hence they want to be in a good mood, smile and be refreshed. The environment and the people within need to be conducive to that need.
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