Interview Transcript, T006 – Grade 1 – 3/4/2021

Our Sociology of Education class conducted a semester long qualitative study investigating the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on teachers and students. After deciding on the criteria for who we wanted to interview, elementary school teachers who have taught for more than 3 years, each student was responsible for contacting and conducting a 30 minute to 1 hour long interview. We collectively decided on a list of questions we wanted to ask, but had the freedom to investigate further on other aspects brought up by the respondent. Most of us, including me, had never conducted a real qualitative interview before, so it was a learning experience to say the least. This artifact is the transcript of my interview. Due to confidentiality, we only had a week to transcribe before having to delete the recording of the interview. Although it was a tedious process, it gave us insight into the hard work that goes into a qualitative study. Typing the last word on the transcript provided the greatest feeling of accomplishment! After everyone transcribed the interviews, we all were responsible for coding and finding themes that could be used to summarize all of the data collected. We eventually presented our findings at the Student Research Showcase, which was a great experience in being able to answer questions from faculty and students about our findings. This was an important project for me, not only because it was my first time conducting real research, but also because of my future as a teacher. I was able to get a deeper look into the teacher’s perspective, establishing a relationship as well.

This project taught me the value of qualitative studies. A majority of the research projects I have done have been quantitative, which I realized can be limiting depending on the topic. By conducting a qualitative study, we were able to get a deeper understanding of the teacher experience during a pandemic, as well as challenges within the educational setting. This information helped prepare me more for my future in teaching and provided me with more skills and experience in conducting research that can be applied to future projects.