Individual Student Interviews
The second part of phase three involved individual interviews. Five students from each of
the six schools were interviewed separately with thirty individual interviews conducted in
total. Each interview lasted for twenty minutes.
The student sample that participated in the individual student interviews was selected,
with their consent, as a result of their responses to questionnaire one. The students in the
sample had expressed the strongest views in questionnaire one. The rationale in the
individual interviews was to investigate what lay behind these strong feelings and what
the factors were that influenced them. Therefore, each student was asked to justify his or
her previous responses. The issues discussed in each individual interview were particular
to each student. Each student had to respond to a number of prompts based around their
initial responses. The questions asked were not uniform across the sample.
Students came from all six schools and came from a range of backgrounds.
The individual student interviews were semi-structured. The intention was to listen, as
far as was possible, to the voices of the students, rather than to impose on them a
language or a set of values, which would have led to a predetermined outcome.
Data was collected on students’ feelings on neighbourhood, aspirations, Islam, political
engagement, school, family, pride, trust and character. The method used was individual
interviews, which were recorded. The semi-structured interviews used the responses to
questionnaire one as prompts for further elaboration and discussion. Each interview was
20 minutes long.
Each student that was called up as a result of the questionnaire process participated
voluntarily.
Following the collection of the data the research team carried out a content analysis to the
data transcripts. As previously, the data was recorded, transcribed and analysed
thematically. Below is a brief analysis of the interviews.
Neighbourhood
The students were asked about their local neighbourhood and whether it affected their
behaviour. All students stated that they were anxious about the security of their
neighbourhoods (see sample below). The majority of students mentioned neighbourhood
crime levels. Muggings, fighting, gangs and drug dealing were also mentioned on several
occasions.
Researcher (R): tell me about your neighbourhood
S1: It’s full of crime.
R: Can you say a bit more?
S1: Someone’ll get stabbed, every single day. They are routine.
R: Why do you think this happens?
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