Reflection on youth interview

Interviewing Guidelines Please look through these guidelines for developing and conducting interviews.

Beginning the Interview Start the interview with general questions. Begin by asking the interviewees to describe their high school, what it was like, its size, what communities it served, and other information that you think might provide context for the interviewees’ responses. For example, you might ask if it was a politically homogeneous or heterogeneous community in terms of whether most students supported similar political candidates and had the similar positions on particular issues. Once you think some context has been established, ask the interviewees general questions about their civic education in high school.

Middle of the Interview At this point, you should be asking them about the use of digital media in their high school civic education.

Ending the Interview To end the interview, ask your interviewees what they would have liked to see in their civic education; or, if they have any suggestions on how it could have been improved or made more meaningful.

Sample Questions You may use only two of these questions and come up with at least three of your own interview questions that are informed by readings and lectures. Please note: the bulleted questions are to be used for probing. In interviews, it is good begin with open questions, giving the interviewees liberty to respond as they see fit. If their response does not answer your question, then ask the question in a different manner, or probe. Probing questions are follow-up questions that you may have about the interviewees’ responses, such as: why and how questions, asking them to explain or describe, etc. In the sample questions below, I added some probing questions in case the interviewees’ responses are vague or brief.

Interview Question Sample #1 Did you take a civics course in high school? Tell me about some of the activities that you participated in that reflect your civic education. If their answer is brief, you might probe by asking questions such as:

Were you required to complete a service learning project in your community that was tied to what you were learning in your civics course? Tell me about it. Please tell me about any other activities that supported your civic and political engagement in and out of school. What are some activities that you think you would have benefited from if practiced in school? Did any of these experiences impact your interest in or knowledge regarding civic or political engagement? If so, how? Interview Question Sample #2 In your civic education course or any other courses, were you encouraged to use digital media to learn about current events, political issues, etc.? Explain.

Were you encouraged to investigate issues that matter to you? Interview Question Sample #3

Please tell me about how educators can improve civic education of youth in this digital age.

Creating Your Own Questions When creating your own questions, please consider the readings and lectures. For example, Kahne, Hodgin, and Eidman-Aadahl (2016) note four kinds of participation that support civic and political engagement: (1) research and judging credibility, (2) mobilizing people and discussing issues, (3) volunteer or act politically, and (4) create and share political content. That article also identifies several challenges that youth must deal with when engaging civically and politically online. Think about how you can ask your interviewee questions to understand (1) if they feel their education helped them learn how to deal with two or three of these challenges and (2) if they engage civically and politically online in the kinds of ways described in the article.