Personal Statement From Mccurdy, Spradley, Shandy ( 2005 )

I believe reading the culturally competent interviewing was the most helpful aspect of the study when conducting the interview. the first rules were to approach the person that you are interviewing with respect, warmth, acceptance, concern, interest and empathy because she is giving you her time to help us with this project and also to better understand people from different backgrounds from us. The most important part of the interview is at the beginning and we have to put the most effort in the early part of the interview to gain her trust. It also taught me to be comfortable and defensive when conducting the interview. This is very important because you want the person you are interviewing to open up to you. It overall taught me what to do in an interview and what not to do. The reading also taught me how to stay poised during the interview.

Beginning the interview and skills/techniques used (empathy, rapport building, listening skills, closed-ended questions and open-ended questions, signs of client engagement)

It would be important to begin by understanding who an immigrant is in order to understand how to go about performing the interview. An immigrant can be described as a person male or female who leaves one country to live permanently in another according to (immigrant- definition, 2015). There are different reasons as to why an individual immigrates from his/her country and go live in another country different from what he or she is accustomed. These reasons may include war, discrimination, political oppression, better opportunities for both economic and political just to name a few. Therefore, knowing that there are various circumstances that lead an individual become an immigrant, it is important to be sensitive

that they do. According to an article in McCurdy, Shandy, and Spradley’s Conformity and Conflict, “Women participate in all stages of the mining process and operate all of the equipment [...] as well as support machines like large dozers, road graders, and backhoes” (Rolston:130). Nyholm’s mother, Julia, is the perfect example of someone breaking the unequal division of labor amongst men and women. At the age of eighty-four, she is still a huge part of the canoe making process, stitching together the canoe with strands of wood and roots. This job is important and not simple, and Julia effortlessly completes the task every time.

Although I am a librarian by practice, I am a teacher by choice. I believe in the educational mission of libraries and work hard to perpetuate the democratic ideals on which our profession was founded. I encourage my students to take their learning personally; to look beyond the assignment to see the connections to their everyday lives, and beneath the information to see the systems of social, economic, and political power that build and inform our world. As a teacher, I take the work I do seriously and I encourage my students to do the same.

So, the next thought I have is to wonder if they are even going to really open up to me. I had decided that I am going to do whatever I can to make things a little easier for them with the hopes that I can ease their fears. Leigh gives ideas on how to complete the ethnographic interview, the first thing that stood out to me, was to engage with the family in friendly conversation. Keeping the conversation light hearted, talking about very general topics such as weather or food. Once both sides are comfortable, then work into the description of what the purpose is for the ethnographic interview will be vocalized. Leigh points out that the family that is being interviewed should be the teachers and that role must be established and made known prior to starting. (Leigh, chapter 7, pgs 69 – 72). In chapter 8, Leigh talks about creating questions that may not necessarily get problems solved, but it might help in overcoming most if not all communication issue. Another helpful piece of advice that Leigh offers, is for us to focus more on interesting topics and not the answers. By focusing on the answers, there is a high chance that you will miss important conversation pieces. (Leigh, Chapter 8,

I will try to get information about the person prior to the interview. I will do this in order to be prepared in case the person´s culture is different to mine. I don’t want to be disrespectful. This interview will be held at a public place. It will be a quiet place not a noisy place.

Typically the librarian and patron conversation will begin with a reference interview to help clarify what a patron is in search of. The librarian or staff members will provide resources or recommendations to the patron and will be verified by the patron after the transaction to see if it meets their needs.

The first interview I conducted was with Hannah Sky, I interviewed her after church while I was home for spring break after obtaining permission from her and her parents. The only condition that they had was that they be in the room during the interview. The atmosphere was relaxed and familiar for Hannah since she has known me and our church for years, therefore this hopefully helped get me accurate and honest answers. For all of the interviews I conducted, I wrote the responses in a word file on my laptop rather than recording them. I started her interview by asking her questions

One will need a few methods to be successful in their approach. First I believe that one must know what they what to learn. A key consultant must have an interest in a certain area. I believe that an interest guides us to the right sources. If I wanted to learn about how Jo /’Haonsi people hunted I would speak to woman about it but the men in that tribe, the providers. As a key consultant I would need to conduct informal and formal interviews with these people. With these interviews I can learn about their everyday life and inherited traits. This is where approach is important because in having someone else open up to you, they must make them feel comfortable around you. Other methods that I could use would be taking a lot of video footage and pictures. With the Video footage I could capture body language, speech and scenery. This could be helpful when conducting research because I could play the video over and over studying it carefully. Taking pictures is helpful to because I could capture expressions and have a visual memory. Some important ways to conduct research about one’s nation is to put yourself in their shoes. I would want to wear their clothing, travel the way they do, eat what they eat and to live how they live. I think that this method could really help one understand the culture that they are doing fieldwork in. I believe this because you are actually taking one’s culture and living it

Interviewing is the method of qualitative research that normally comes first to people’s mind. It is much more than merely asking premeditated question after question. Interviewing is an art that requires the ability to quickly create a relationship between two people in order to gain knowledge. There are many techniques when it comes to conducting valuable interviews. Not every technique works for every interviewer and there is more than one right way to interview. For instance, while both Robert Lane, author of Political Ideology: Why the American Common Man Believes What He Does, and Judith Kestenberg author of Children During the Nazi Reign, used interviewing to gain knowledge for the writing of their books, these two authors prove

Utilizing their resources and helping patrons are just a couple of the many task faced in the library profession. With a fully committed services to academia, the Binghamton University library has been instrumental to both students and the community. An interview with assistant reader service coordinator Sean Bustard allowed to have an in-depth look at what the job and task entitles as hundreds of students and faculty seek help and advice. In looking at what is available in terms of funding and resources as well as how the library and structured and organized to fit the needs of all fellow patrons.

The interviews will remain instrumental to the study as they will provide the interviewer with an opportunity to interact with the respondents and analyze their current state of mind in relation to the analysis of the existent study objectives. Additionally, the utilization of the interview method will remain vital in the provision of a study background through the provision of additional data relating to the study. Additionally, the use of interviews will enhance the data synthesis process, which will enhance the adoption of quantitative approach pertaining to the analysis of the retrieved

For the second part of my assignment, I was asked to do a reference interview. This for me was the most exciting part of the assignment, since I haven’t asked a library professional for help since I was in elementary school. I was anxious to see how the librarian responded to me and was interested in the quality of the resources we might find. Again, like the first part of the assignment, I wanted to pay close attention and look at my interview experience with fresh eyes. I wanted a different environment than what I experienced at the music library, so I chose a different library.

In preparation for any interview, researchers should be organized and have an idea of how they would like the interview to be structured. Researchers should also be flexible and be aware that interviews may not go as planned. McCurdy, Spradley and Shandy (2005) suggests that researchers to find a quiet place to meet with informants that are free from distractions (p. 34). They advise researchers to anticipate the surroundings and how it will affect the informant 's comfort level and performance (p. 34). My observation will taking place at Glitz and Glam Hair Studios. Because it is a bustling hair salon one of the owners suggested I come on a day where they weren 't as busy. I believe it may be difficult to find a quiet place but, I am sure I will be able to have opportunities to speak to them alone. When getting permission to conduct my interviews, I explained in detail, to the owners who are also my informants, why they were chosen and what I was looking to accomplish. I think it is wise, as McCurdy et. al. (2005) urges researchers to explain again. It important for the informants to know the researcher is trying to learn their culture (p. 34). I believe it 's beneficial to both the researcher and the informant to have that face-to-face interaction while giving an explanation purpose.