Week 3 Assignment: Interview 1: Interview a Parent

Problem-solving in early childhood education environments is done mostly in groups rather than individually. One person is not responsible for coming up with all the answers alone, but one person can synthesize information to help implement the best solutions for a child. To prepare for the case study, you will conduct three interviews with adults who are within the ecological system of your case study’s subject. These interviews will help you understand the context of the microsystem, mesosystem, and chronosystem surrounding the child. They will also provide information to help you analyze the range of influences on the child’s development.

This first interview assignment asks you to explore the microsystem by interviewing a parent of the child who is your case study’s subject.

Before you conduct the interview, complete the following steps:

1. Select one parent of the child and explain the purpose of the assignment.
2. Provide an overview of the course to them as well as expand on the topic of ecological systems theory, paying close attention to a description of microsystems.
3. Ensure the parent is aware that the information obtained from this interview will be kept private and will not be disseminated. It will be used for educational purposes only and will not include names of individuals, schools, or organizations.
4. After gaining approval for the interview from the parent, schedule the interview and prepare your questions. Note that the interview should primarily focus on:
   • The benefits of family involvement within the school.
   • The impact that this involvement has on the development of the student

Conduct the Interview

Your interview should include the following questions at a minimum, but you are encouraged to develop additional questions that will help you understand the family of the child.

1. How many children do you have, and what ages? How many children do you have attending this school?
2. What are some of the things you do at home to support your child’s education? What makes you do these things?
3. What are some ways that the school or the teacher has tried to involve you in your child’s education at home? What about at school? What was that experience like for you?
4. What about other parents here at the school, do you think they feel comfortable? Do you feel comfortable coming to the school? Why or why not?
5. Do you have any suggestions for how the school could be more comfortable for parents? Or how the school could be more helpful to families or help more parents get involved?
6. How do parents participate in the children’s education at the school?
7. What impact has the school had on your child’s overall development?
8. Are there specific ways that the school as a whole tries to involve parents or support family needs? What are some examples? How effective are these efforts?
9. What advice do you have for your child’s school on how to encourage and work well with parents?

Present a Summary and Analysis of the Interview

Create a slide presentation (using PowerPoint or other slide software) that is no more than six slides articulating your findings. Include the following content sections as a minimum.

Interviewee

• Provide a description of the interviewee.
  • Do not use real names.
  • For example, describe the interviewee’s:
    • Culture.
    • Approximate age.
    • Children.
    • Children’s ages.
    • Other relevant characteristics.

School Connections

• Provide a description of the school setting and the interviewee’s connections to the school.
  • Do not include identifiable information about the school.
  • For example, describe the school’s:
    • Population.
    • Culture makeup.
    • Level of parental involvement.
    • Other relevant characteristics.

Themes

• Analyze the interview to form general themes and three takeaways related to those themes.
  • Explain general themes you gathered from the interview.
  • Discuss at least three main takeaways related to these themes.

Microsystems

• Analyze how the interview results align with at least three core concepts of microsystems.
  • Based on what you now know about microsystems, how did this interview align with the core concepts?
  • Share at least three of these alignments.

Recommendations

• Recommend best practices for teachers to strengthen positive relationships.
  • In your reading, microsystems are discussed as well as best practices for teachers in recognizing the implications of these connections. What would you recommend as areas to help improve or to further strengthen (glows or grows) these connections based on your interview with the parent? What can teachers do to help improve connections? Ensure that you provide support for your recommendations.
  • This is the “application” component of the interview that will help you to build the Feedback and Reflection section of the final Case Study and Application assignment.

Professional Ethics

• Propose ways that educators might mitigate potential ethical conflicts of interest.
  • What are the two or three most likely potential ethical considerations or conflicts of interest that educators might encounter, and how might they mitigate these issues?

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