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Researcher Participation, Conversations, and Formal InterviewsKnowing about the nature of observations is essential in evaluating the information derived from them. My participation and interaction with students and instructors was greatly influenced by classroom activities, apparent perceptions of who I was, and the fact that I generally had a notebook in which I frequently jotted down notes. I had hoped to participate more actively but rarely found the opportunity or interest among the students and instructors, nor did the teachers and I have sufficient time together to plan anything. The teacher at Suburban High occasionally asked me to “watch” things while he stepped out, and one of the teachers at Urban High explicitly said to a student that I could not monitor the class because I was not an employee of the school. At Boarding High, there were usually several extra people around when I was there because of the usual three college interns, the art teacher, and one or two project leaders, so that I was to some degree a part of a general chaos. At Urban High, I attempted to offer opinions on work occasionally but became uneasy about doing so when a student told me that I should be teaching the class in stead of their teacher. When students would directly ask what I was writing, I would read to them the last thing I had written and explain that I was just making notes so I would not forget, but frequently, I was simply ignored. This was most extreme at Urban High, which was remarked upon by a substitute one day. I participated more in the social life at Boarding High and the most at Suburban High, due largely to class structures. Students’ reactions to me clearly indicated the ambiguous role I had: They noticeably censured themselves in my presence but would tentatively say “inappropriate” things to watch my reaction. When circumstances permitted it, I asked questions. Important background information was obtained from teachers this way. I often waited through most of a class before finding a moment in which I could speak with teachers, but the teacher of “New Media 3” at Urban High was particularly communicative with me, taking frequent opportunities to express his views; he even took me to another classroom where his “ideal” use of computers was being employed. I asked students fewer direct questions, but particularly at Suburban High, I had a number of casual conversations that sometimes were revealing and sometimes were merely chitchat. My interactions with students and teachers at each school are described when relevant, but my role in the classrooms is part of the methodology in that my subjective experiences in each school were distinct and part of the ethnography, which is why these details are relevant. Interviews with student volunteers were conducted for the purpose of considering students' personal understandings and explanations of their video work. Students were asked identifying information, including age, grade, and ethnicity, and to offer a name by which they would be known in the project. The conditions of the interviews varied enormously due to the constraints imposed by time and school schedules. I had a half an hour alone with some students but had to conduct one group interview to assure that all the students who were present would be included. Two sets of short interviews, each at a different school, were complicated by the presence of other students. Some interviews were conducted by phone, and two students were interviewed the following school year, one during lunch and another at a neighborhood shopping center. Two students disappeared just I as was preparing to interview them, which I understood as a decision on their part. The constant across all interviews was that students were asked for identifying information and about the meaning of their projects. In the formal interviews, some questions were asked that were specific to the school or individual. At Suburban High, some students were asked about their future plans for video: Did they plan to take the advanced course the following year? And because it was a vocational program, were they considering a career in video? The group interview at Urban High on the last day of school led to an unusual mood as well as a focus-group style discussion: Students giggled and teased one another and mocked students who appeared in their video, and they responded to each other's comments. A student from the same group, interviewed alone the following semester, was extremely serious and expressive about her life as a Latina in Los Angeles schools, providing a stark contrast. At all schools, students were asked about their role in projects when it was not evident, and they were each given the opportunity to offer additional comments at the end. When time and circumstances allowed and the videos made it worthwhile, the potentially most informative part of the interviews was requested: Students were asked to narrate all or parts of their videos. I asked them to explain what they were attempting to do and where they were during recordings but kept the instructions minimal so that they might tell me about what they believed was most important. When students said nothing for several seconds or I had a particular question, I asked something. This made many students more comfortable by keeping the narrations more of a dialog than a performance. Their comments and mine were recorded onto the second audio track of digital video cassettes. A brief example is available here. For this dissertation, the narrations will be referred to minimally but serves to provide provide useful information and some evaluation of the microanalysis. Future research is anticipated to explore these narrations further. In all, 41 students and their parents gave consent to have their videotapes copied, 27 students participated in some type of interview, and 10 students narrated all or part of their work. My participation also proceeded in another direction. Initially because of the need to blur faces in students' videos, I learned to use first iMovie and then Final Cut Pro video editing programs at the California/UCR Museum of Photography's Digital Studio. The Digital Studio provided a basic introduction and access to equipment to anyone who is interested in learning to use digital media. 6 Beginning with digital photography, I followed the structured independent lessons, participated in several studio and museum activities, and sought answers to my specific needs. So, while the students I observed were learning about video production, I was also. I had first taken a short class in video for academic uses at the Graduate Center, taught by David Chapin, for which I completed a project with the assistance of university personnel. At that time, digital video cameras were not yet available commercially, and the university denied personal access to the editing equipment. The rapid technological changes since then has made editing accessible to almost anyone with a computer. At the Digital Studio, where the focus was on editing, I completed three projects, one of which the director used in a show. 7 |
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As of May 2004, the digital studio was closed to the public. 7 Doing “art” with video was something I found particularly challenging, despite (or perhaps because of) a background in photography. |
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