These interviews of parents took a more narrative and life history approach; less ‘question and answer’ and more a series of extended responses to a few key questions in comparison to the students’ interviews.
Icebreaker
- Can you tell me a little bit about yourself; your family; the work you do; where you live?
Schooling & education
- What led you to this job? How did you get here?
- What about your schooling? Where did you go to school? What was it like?
- What subjects or other things about schools were most important to you?
- What do you remember most from your time at school?
- What sort of things do you think your school valued most?
- What did you do immediately after finishing school?
- What ideas and values do you think you took away from your school, or stayed with you after leaving school?
- In another life, what would you have changed about your school and your education?
- What did your own parents think about your schooling – what did they value and what did they want your future to be like?
- What have been some of the main influences on the work you do or wanted to do?
Social, gender & political issues
- What do you see as some of the important social or political issues facing young people now?
- Current examples – link to examples raised with students
- Do you recall much about how boys and girls interacted when you were at school; for example, experiences of any gender-based differences in expectations within your family or at school?
- How do you see gender relations or gender differences today, in your life, in your child’s life and compared to when you were growing up?
Future hopes & plans
- When you were younger and at school, can you remember what you wanted to do when you left school and what you hoped for your own future?
- What are you hoping for your son or daughter to be doing in the coming years – next year and the year after at school?
- What makes a good life for you, and for others?
- What do you want a good life to look like for your son/daughter?