This week I conducted two of my interviews. One interview was with the Vice principal of the school I work in and the other was with a mother of a teenage girl. Something that I noticed and had no anticipated was how differently I had to conduct myself when interviewing two very different people. The interview with the Vice principal was much more formal. I read the questions from my sheet of paper and very much stuck to the wording I had prepared. I was quiet as he spoke with the occassional nod of interest and agreement. When interviewing the mother, I quickly found that the questions were too formal and I needed to differenciate them to suit her understanding. The Vice principal was obviously used to academic style questions and answered in a similar style. This was unsuitable to the mother. I found that I had to almost 'translate' the questions to an appropriate terminology. She also needed more promting to develop her answers through verbal encouragement such as 'yes/ I see what you mean/ can you explain a bit more'.
I found this very interesting as it was something that I have not heard anyone talk about and the experience, although quite obvious with hindsight, was not something Iwas prepared for. I felt pleased with myself that I was able to instantly adapt my technique. Has anyone else had this experience?
I haven't experienced this situation as I have interviewed 5 drama teachers, but I still understand what you mean in that each interview is different and I did find that some teachers were much more willing to talk with me hardly having to prompt at all whilst others needed a bit of encouragement. The main thing I learnt is a rather obvious point that I hadn't thought about.... People can only talk about what they know about! I also found it interesting that one teacher seemed to think it necessary to keep going on about results and the curriculum as if I was suggesting that the Drama department was failing at that school, which was not the case at all, it was like I had to steer her round away from results and classes which I did eventually. Its very interesting what comes up when you ask people the same questions.
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