Assessing Cultural Changes
In this activity, you will form a research team investigating the processes of change regarding a particular topic in our culture. This exercise will be divided into two class sessions, with some homework between the two.
Your overall topic is:
Class Session 1 (Monday): Your group will discuss the topic and come up with a particular focus that you are interested in exploring. Then you will develop at least three interview questions that you can ask people in order to gather data on the processes of change regarding this focused topic. (See the board for an example). Your questions should attempt to capture peoples’ perceptions of change within this topic, and why they feel this way. When writing your questions, think about the issues raised in the article you read relating to cultural change. Your group should write the more specific topic and final questions out on a sheet of paper to turn in (as well as keeping a copy for each team member).
Homework: Between the class session on Monday and the class session on Wednesday, you should prepare your own responses to the questions you’ve prepared (you can begin this on Monday during class if you have time), and interview at least two other people, outside of class, to collect their data on the questions. One of your informants should be older than you, the other should be younger than you. Try to get as broad an age range as possible, in order to capture different generations’ perspectives on change. These interviews can be conducted either in person or by phone. A portion of your participation grade for this week will be based on bringing your interview data to class.
When interviewing, take notes. Record your informant’s age and any other relevant information, and aim to take about a paragraph of notes regarding their answer. You may ask any follow up questions you find useful.
Class Session 2 (Wednesday): Your group members will all bring together the interviews they’ve collected, and you will analyze the data. What trends exist? Are there differences in the perception of the changes based on age? How do the changes and the attitudes towards them, relate to the barriers and stimulants towards change discussed on pages 295-298 of your reading for this week? Prepare a short (5 minute) presentation on your groups findings to present to the rest of the class.