Research Project

I am interested in conducting an interview study with approximately 15 pre-service teachers who will be in their internship year of their M.Ed. program this school year (2013-14) and earning an add-on English as a Second Language (ESL) endorsement. 

The purpose of this study is for me to collect the interns' experiences of a 6-week, rather intensive and fast-paced rotation.  This is the first time that the university has offered this type of add-on endorsement for students who wish to have licensure to teach ESL. The requirements to be fulfilled by these interns (as outlined to me) is that they will also be required to take four ESL methods courses in the summer semesters--two prior to starting their internship, and the last two to be taken in the summer after the full year internship is completed.

 The interns will be placed in their schools, and then complete a 6-week rotation with an ESL teacher within the elementary, middle, and high school levels of that feeder school.  For example, if a person is placed at a certain elementary school, she will spend two weeks with that school's ESL teacher, then move to the feeder middle school for two weeks with that ESL teacher, and complete the rotation with the feeder high school.  This six week process includes observations and one formal evaluation from me, as her supervisor.  The interns then will return to their original placement for the remainder of the year.

This six week rotation is intended to be completed during the fall semester, but this may be subject to change.

In order to avoid possible delays in IRB approval, I plan to use only interviews conducted outside of the school placement setting with the interns (who are over the age of 18).

My plan is to conduct three interviews with each person, a before placement, during placement, and after completing the 6 week program.  I have not firmly decided on this, as I am weighing my options.  Should I complete interviews after each two week experience, and if so, how will that be done? I still need to flesh out my actual research questions.  I am interested in their experience of this particular program because it is the first for ESL licensure at this university, but I am also interested in this experience because of its brief time allotment. In my experience, two weeks is hardly enough time to truly experience teaching a group of students, but it is enough time to familiarize oneself with her surroundings and daily routines.  Is that the point of this program?  To get a snapshot of an ESL classroom at all levels?  How do the interns feel about this program?  What are their philosophies on teaching? Will they share the same experiences?   Will I be able to have all interns participate? Will my study be weak with low participation, and if not all agree to participate, what is a 'good' number of participants?

My first orders of business are to a) Determine my research questions. b) Design my interview questions to reflect on my research questions. c) Complete an IRB and submit for approval.

I completed one interview study on a much smaller scale for my Master's coursework.  I have much to read about interview techniques, interview studies, and how to interpret the data I collect.  I was able to learn about interview techniques in our Advanced Qualitative course, and I plan to incorporate some of those techniques.  I may opt to use video instead of digital voice recordings.  I still plan to pay particular attention to body language and tone of voice, and focus on that during both the actual interview and transcription.  These non-verbal cues are very important, as text cannot convey these nuances, and they can change the meaning of a sentence, or even a word.