Self-reflection after interviews

It's important to reflect on our work, our feelings about that work, and about what we witness. We need to reflect on our own as well as with others, and to share these reflections.

Distinguish, to the extent possible between the content of what we witness, and the process of our work. Most of the time, the content is confidential and we must not talk about it except for within the office.

Why?

Contemporary ethnographers, especially those schooled in feminism and critiques of the bad old days of anthropology as handmaiden to imperialism, engage in self-reflection. You can read volumes of eloquent elaboration of the following:

1) We need to break down the distinction between oral history narrator as "object" of study or as "human subjects" and the interviewer/ethnographer as all-knowing, neutral, objective and unbiased figure; the scholar and the subject; the ethnographer and the native.

2) The ethnographer needs to treat herself as an object of study who/that behaves in interesting ways that warrant investigation.

3) Since no one can achieve objectivity (and maybe we shouldn't want to), we need transparency. Let others retrace our steps, as if we were scientists. Take nothing for granted.

4) All of the above goes double, triple, quadruple, and more with each factor that makes some people think they are the center of the world and norm from which everything else is measured: whiteness, economic privilege, maleness, heterosexual privilege, educational privilege, native English speaking privilege, U.S. privilege, able-bodied privilege, urban/center privilege.....

5) Understanding ourselves, what we take for granted and not, our assumptions, vulnerabilities, and strengths makes us more effective at interviewing (as anything else)

6) We want our project to be as useful as possible in as many ways as possible. The reason we put our research protocols online is not only so that potential narrators know what to expect, but also for others who do similar work or who may want to. We hope that other people will look at what we do, using the parts that make sense for their own work while also drawing from other sources and making changes and improvements.

7) To be most useful, we need to make our methodology as clear and transparent as possible: What was going on? What's the story behind "getting" this story? What were the dynamics going on?

How?

Reflect and also share your reflections. Share to the degree possible, that is: there are countervailing ethical responsibiilties at work. So write first for yourself, more honestly and more fully than is comfortable, and only afterwards decide what part of your self-reflection you are willing and ready to share with other people, and how.

- Some notes you might never share with anyone, or only a few very intimate friends

- Some notes you might share with colleagues at TAVP – but not put on line (because they could cause embarrasment or pain to other people, particularly narrators, or sometimes each other, or for other compelling reasons — not everything needs to be said

- Some notes will be appropriate to share and really would be very useful. Each one of us can teach others something valuable about oral history, narrative, ethics, videography, relationships, human behavior, self-examination, personal growth, communication and miscommunication.

Reflect — but DO NOT BEAT UP ON YOURSELF!!!! We’re all in process.

Examples

See a sample self-reflection, by Virginia, here: Reflection on the process of interviewing with Ireland Beazley.

As we recommend that you do, Virginia's reflection is an edited version of what she wrote purely for herself.

Know that YOUR reflections will be different than this sample in both form and content; expect that each reflection will be different. A reflection may be about logistics; it may be about interactions and relationships; it may be about particular moments in the interview; it might take the form of "what I learned about interviewing from this interview" or "what I would do differently if I could start over."

I wish we had camera lights so we could have conducted the interview in Capain C’s office with all its photographs rather than that sterile conference room......

OR......

I should have turned my cell phone off when we walked into that office!

OR

"....when we were at Ileana’s house it was SO HOT THAT....

OR

OR
...if I had it to do over I would rearrange our set up so that Larry looked ACROSS the frame rather than off-camera...

As we ask interview narrators to share their experience, so we ask ourselves to share our experiences as interviewers and videographers..... and for the same reason: to learn from each other and to grow in self-understanding.

"....we are trying, all the time, to extend the possibilities of truth between [and among] us."

- Adrienne Rich, “Women and Honor: Some Notes on Lying” (1975).