In this example of learning by noticing and imitating another writer, we provide an entry from a
teacher's pedagogical journal reflecting on a discussion of how Melanie Lowe
introduces the direct quotations from her focus group interviews.
Many of us keep pedagogical journals where we describe class activities and
reflect on what worked and didn't work. Below, an instructor describes the
discussions her class had over several days using Melanie Lowe’s “Colliding
Feminisms” as a model for their own focus group projects. The students had
already written a paper based on interviews, and were able to build on that work
in completing their focus groups.
Reflections on using Lowe to model focus group projects and papers
Before we discussed Lowe’s essay, my students had read
it and written an online-journal response about her use of focus groups.
Students were asked to comment on the benefits of interviews vs. focus
groups and how one might be more effective in certain situations than the
other might. The were also asked to note how Lowe moves in and out of focus
groups, introduces focus groups, places herself in relation to the group,
and makes points based on the evidence of the focus groups. Most of the
student responses were impressed with the way a focus group, as opposed to
an interview, had the potential to become a genuine conversation. Andy P.
wrote that “During interviews every question is aimed at extracting a
particular answer. The interviewer designs each question with one answer in
mind. This technique limits the amount of information the interviewer will
receive from the person being interviewed. With focus groups, a general
question is asked and normal, non-formal conversation ensues. This
conversation with a larger group relaxes the participants and allows them to
talk freely and offer true opinions.” Isabelle B. agreed, noting that “the
focus group allowed the girls to express themselves freely, without feeling
any pressure to answer correctly or politely. The answers they provided were
natural and spontaneous. Nothing was over thought at all.” Jennifer B.
pointed out how the focus group changes the role of the interviewer: “we
can see that the people being interviewed really start to talk to one
another and focus less on the person giving the interview. The people who
are being interviewed can and do feed off of each other making the
conversations more informational and they become more in depth.”
Students were also concerned about focus groups’
potential to digress. “Before reading this article,” Jeremy A. was concerned
that, “given the freedom that focus groups offer, the conversation would go
off topic, and the information would no longer be relevant to the essay
being written. However, in this essay most of the focus groups stayed on
topic, and the freedom provided allowed for the girls to express thoughts
and feelings that most likely could not be found in response to a set of one
on one questions.” Students were also impressed with the Figure Lowe used to
present all the personal information about Lowe in one compact format.
When we worked on the essay in class, I asked students
to pay careful attention to the details of Lowe’s language use. We were
comparing the essay to a previous one we read, particularly how this
previous writer had called attention to his use of interviews. Lowe’s essay
was not as clearly marked, and the students had to spend some time figuring
out how she was using the focus groups. Although she had left off the
markers like “in the following conversation,” students soon picked up on the
idea that a sentence like the one below, when followed by a conversation,
implies “in the following conversation.”
But
what disturbed the girls even more than Spears’s revealing outfit was the
reason they suspect she wore it. [insert – as can be seen in the following
conversation.] (412)
Students also noted that Lowe does draw attention to
individual words and phrases used by members of the focus group. Students
pointed to sentences such as the one below as examples:
By
“concept” of the song, Emily seems to mean that, literally, sometimes
“Britney” runs, sometimes “Britney” hides, and sometimes Britney is scared.
In other words, as she sees it, Britney Spears’s character in this song is
different at different times, and she likes seeing her many sides. (413)
Students also pointed to how often Lowe seemed to be
paraphrasing the girls’ chatter into academic language, as can also be seen
in the quotation above. They noted that the girls never said anything close
to “condemning patriarchal values,” but that Lowe seemed to be almost
translating the tween-speak for an adult, academic audience.
Finally, students were surprised to notice how often
Lowe gave her own reaction to the focus group. She was “shocked. . .
surprised and confused . . . nearly overwhelmed” (413-415). This was a big
shift for our class, as previous readings had attempted to be more
strenuously neutral, and this allowed us to talk about how and where to
insert the author’s reactions to the focus groups.
[Note: In teaching this assignment again, I would be sure to carry over this
work onto the students' own papers. I would ask students to perform similar
work on their own papers -- looking for markers they had used, where they
had drawn attention to words and phrases, where they were "translating" the
vernacular of their own focus groups into academic language, and where and
when they were responding to the results of the focus group. The activities
above on their own gave students a good sense of the moves Lowe was making,
but they weren't sufficient to allow some students to make similar moves in
their own papers.]
