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Interview Methods Comment by Alexandra Olsen: PART ONE: 20/20 PART TWO: 53/80 METHODS: 14/30 PROCEDURES: 3/10 PARTICIPANTS: 3/10 POSITIONALITY: 8/10 FINDINGS: 39/50 TYPOLOGY: 10/10 EVIDENCE: 10/10 ANALYSIS:2 /10 this is not written like it should be you need to refer to the interviewees by psudonyms and Within each of these you need to compare and contrast student’s experiences with these things to be able to develop analysis. Right now you’re simply just doing basic summaries DISCUSSION:5 /10 this needs to be done based on analysis of the data APPENDIX: 2/10 need to have transcribed all of the speaking of the interviewees GRADE: 73/100

PART 1

Research Question

· Are first generation students more greatly impacted by macro-level factors (like educational opportunities available, financial circumstances, prior education experience), or by micro-level factors (like ambition and family support)?

Interview Guide

Beginning the Interview

· The first thing would be to ask the interviewee if he/she needs anything (like water) before the interview begins.

· The next thing would be to introduce myself with regards t what the interview is about to enable every candidate to understand who I am and the role that I am playing.

· The next thing would be start out some little chit, chat to warm the candidate up through some questions that he/she can easily answer just to set up the candidate for the interview.

· The next step will be to tell the candidate what will happen during the interview. It involves explaining the interview process to the candidate and the steps that he candidates will be going through so that they can be able to plan out the interview experience.

· The next step will be to ask the candidate consent for use of the obtained information for the intended study and to assure him/her that names will not be disclosed while using the obtained data in the study.

· Once the candidate is at ease the interview process can begin.

Interview Questions

· What is your name?

· What is you gender?

· How old are you?

· Where did you go to high school?

· What is your ethnic background?

· How many brothers and sisters do you have?

· Do you parents work?

· What is the highest level of education for each of your parents?

· How did make your college choice?

· Did any of your family members help with your choice of college?

· Which college are you in currently?

· Why did you decide to join this particular college?

Part 2

METHODS Comment by Alexandra Olsen: This was not the methods used in the film, which is what this section was supposed to be based off of….

A total of 350 interviews were carried out in this study. A structured interview was conducted for this study with questions being asked following a pre-established standard order. The interview questions were structured to obtain the intended information from the participants that would be relevant to the study. In addition to that, a structured interview was preferred for this study because it gives a chance for easy replication of questions for the various participants thus giving room for collecting data that can easily be quantified, which makes it to test the reliability of the collected information. Individual participants were interviewed for privacy and confidentiality reasons and each interview session with a student took a period of 30-45 minutes. The data of the study was collected in September of 2016 following freshmen orientation among students accepted to the UCI. Once the data was collected from the interview, adductive analysis was conducted on the collected data. This involved coming up with logical inferences from the observations that were made from the collected data. During the interview, all the interview responses were recorded and the collected data was then written up in the form of a transcript for analysis.

“Note: All interview quotes and excerpts referenced in this article are derived from the film ‘First Generation’ (2011), by Jaye and Adam Fenderson. I did not conduct interviews. For the purpose of practicing qualitative data analysis, in this article I am treating content from the film as if I had conducted the interviews, myself. ”

Participants

A total of 350 first generation college students took part in the in the interviews. These participants were constituted by 200 female students and 150 male students. There were 150 white students; 50 black students; 100 Latino students; 30 Asian Pacific Islander students; and 20 American Indian students. 280 of the students came from low socioeconomic status; 50 of the came from moderate socioeconomic status; and 20 of them came from high socioeconomic status. These students were recruited during freshmen orientation, and tracked annually for a period of two years. These students were recruited from UCI (California), with the demographics of the place being characterized by 39.0% Latino; 38.8 white; 5.8% Black; 13% Asian (Pacific Islander); and less than 1% American Indians (Native Americans).

Personality Comment by Alexandra Olsen: Need to get your writing edited for clarity/grammar

I am a Chinese student (international student) so I would identify myself under the “other” category, but I guess I would identify myself with both the topic and the participants of the study because we both have the same challenges as the ones that are being addressed in the topic and they are students just as I am. Due to this, I may fall victim of confirmation bias owing to what I know myself and my preconceived beliefs on the situation of the other students. The participants in interviews can alter the truth as a result of being observed by responding according to what they think is expected of them to say or respond. This can be eliminated by asking the participants to always maintain the truth in their responses and ensuing that the participate is a ease before starting the interview.

Findings and Discussion

In this study, the research question of focus is: Are first generation students more greatly impacted by macro-level factors (like educational opportunities available, financial circumstances, prior education experience), or by micro-level factors (like ambition and family support)? To answer this question, macro-level and micro-level factors explained in the film ‘First Generation’ (2011) by Jaye and Adam Fenderson are going to be used.

Macro factors that Impact First Generation Students

Factor 1: Financial Circumstances

Most of the first generation students come from very poor families. This implies that they cannot be able to pay for college unless they get financial aid or get a scholarship to gather for their college studies. Even with the presence of financial aids, most of the students do not know about them.

“They don’t have the money to go to college”

“Many of our students come to us from families that just putting food on the table is an issue.”

“Financial aid does exist. The problem is that they’re not aware of it.”

These stunts come from very poor families and thus most of them cannot afford to college; and even though there are available programs that can offer them with financial aid, most of them are not aware of it (Fenderson and Fenderson (2011).

Factor 2: Available Education Opportunities

Knowing available education opportunities would help them now what is requited and how to work towards getting accepted t college.

“They have no idea what college is.”

“They are not sure. Am I gonna make it.”

“They don’t know where to look.”

Most of the students do not have any idea about anything to do with college and are not sure if they are going make into college. Most of them even do not know where to look when it comes to learning some information about college (Fenederson and Fenderson (2011).

Micro Factors that Impact First Generation Students

Factor 1: Ambition

Ambition is clearly one of the micro factors that motivate first generation students to go to college. This is because some of the students come from poor families and the only way that they feel they can live better live in future is through going to college. Others point out that none of their family members have ever been to college.

“I want to go to college to become something in life”

“…to prove to my parents and everybody that I can do it.”

“None of my family members has been to college.”

Cecilia points out in the film that going to college would make her something in life. She also points out that she wants to do it to prove to everybody that she can do it. Keresoma, on the other hand, points out that none of his family members has gone to college and this is why he wants to (Fenederson and Fenderson 2011).

Factor 2: Family Support

One of the micro level factors that impact these students is a lack of family support. Most of the student’s parents do not speak English so they cannot help them with their college choices and other parents do not even discuss about college with their children. This leaves the students without any idea about what college really is and what should be done to get there.

“Their moms and dads don’t talk about going to college”

“They have no idea what college is”

“I am not real sure if my dad knows a whole lot about my plans. Like, I don’t really talk to him a whole lot.”

It is mentioned in the film that parents of these students never discuss going to college with their children. This leaves students without any idea of what college really is. One of the students, Jess, even points out in the film that he father does not know about her college plans since they do not talk that much (Fenederson and Fenderson 2011).

Discussion

One of the major macro factors that impact first generation college students in their financial circumstances. Most of these students come from very poor families where even getting the basic things, such as food is a problem. This puts them in a potion where the only way to go to college is through scholarship or through financial aids. The problem, however, is that they don’t even know that such aids exist. The other major macro factor that impacts these students is knowledge on the existing educational opportunities. These students really do not have any knowledge as to what college really is. In addition to that, they do not now where to look for information to learn about the available college opportunities. All these factors impact them very negatively. Micro level factors that impact these students are ambition and family support. Some students want to go to college to make their lives better for them and their families. Others are left making their choices on their own since their parents never take part in discussion college matter with them. All in all, macro level factor greatly impact fist generation students because they are the basic factors that determine whether or not they can get to college.

Appendix

Interviewer: OK…It’s now recording. I will be asking you some questions, just answer them briefly, but feel free if you need to add something.

Interviewee:

Interviewer: First of all, could you give me your full name, please?

Interviewee:

Interviewer: Just for formality, what is your gender?

Interviewee:

Interviewer: And how old are you please?

Interviewee:

Interviewer: Did you go to high school here in California?

Interviewee:

Interviewer: This might sound kind of random, but how would you classify your ethnic background:

Interviewee:

Interviewer: Could you please describe to me your family composition?

Interviewee:

Interviewer: What are you parents’ occupations?

Interviewee:

Interviewer: What is your parents’ highest level of education?

Interviewee:

Interviewer: What were the important factors that you considered when choosing college?

Interviewee:

Interviewer: That brings me to the next question. Did any of you family members help you in making your college decisions?

Interviewee:

Interviewer: This is obvious, but what college are you in currently?

Interviewee:

Interviewer: So why did you decide to join UCI?

Interviewee:

Interviewer: That brings us to the end. Thank you for your time.

Interviewee: