In order to forestall this problem, a decision was taken to
send the six questions to the leader of the group prior to
the researcher's arrival in India. There were group
interviews and individual interviews. Adults were
interviewed in groups or individually. Students were
always interviewed in groups. Twenty two respondents who
could not attend the group interviews wrote their answers
and posted them.
Ten group interviews were tape recorded. None of the
interviews with the students were taped. The basic aim was
to identify children and young people who were most
committed to school and those who felt alienated from
school; to discover to what - if any - patterns of thought
and behaviour their attitudes to school were related.
All adult respondents completed an evaluation report on the
interview. The evaluation report had to be self-completed
after the interview, and was not compulsory. Ninety per
cent of all respondents completed an evaluation report,
which gave particulars of names, addresses, place of
interview, time, number present for the interview. Scores
from excellent to poor for the six interview questions and
one line comments about the questions were included in the
evaluation report.
The respondent was asked to write one question which he or
she felt should have been included in the interview. The
interviewee was asked to comment on Anglo-Indian
educational policies, the role played by Anglo-Indian
Associations and general or specific comments on the
interview. The evaluation sheet was important, because it
offered information about the respondents who could be
contacted in the future.
It also opened up areas for future discussion with other
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