Topic: Interviewing a family member and analyzing their experiences about gender time change

Order Description
Assessed Coursework Details
The aim of this assignment is to bring together the themes/components of this
module in a way which forefronts the theoretical and methodological issues involved
in thinking about, and researching, the meaning and experience of age in the present
and/or past.
Interview – You must undertake a 30 min – 1 hour interview with a friend, colleague
or family member of your choice about some aspect of age or the life course – their
experiences, expectations, understandings. For example, you might focus on: the
experiences of ageing or of becoming an adult; expectations and perceptions of
adulthood or old age. The interview can be talk only or include photo-elicitation.
Ideally you should record the interview, but you can rely on notes if you prefer. You
do not need to transcribe the interview. If you do a photo-elicitation interview it is
best to focus on one or two photos. If possible, please include a photocopy of photos
discussed.
In your written assignment you must address all 4 points below in order to get the
best mark. How you structure the essay is up to you. Points 2-4 should form the
main part of your assignment.
1. Include a very brief introduction to the person you interviewed, their gender,
their age now and the age you will address in your assignment. If you used
photos briefly introduce these. (Maximum 200 words)
2. How does your interviewee talk about age and/or the life course? Is gender an
important feature of their experiences, meanings, expectations? (Make sure
you think of interview questions or prompts that can tease this out.) Why do
you think gender is or isn’t important in the interviewee’s account?
3. How, if at all, does your interviewee’s account relate to recent literature and/or
debates about age and the life course? How do you explain this? For
example you might engage with debates about the importance of gender in
shaping the meaning and experience of age; arguments about age and age
stages (eg adulthood) changing their meaning over time; claims that the life
course is now fluid or ‘postmodern’.
4. How did the dynamics of the interview process, and particularly those that
relate to temporal matters (memory, age) and gender shape the interviewee’s
account and your interpretation of it? Note that we address this question in
general terms in in lecture/workshop 4. If you did a photo-elicitation interview,
how did your interviewee engage with the photo(s)? Note that we discuss this
in lecture/workshop 8. Relate your comments to your interview (use quotes
from the interview where possible) and try and link your comments to relevant
literature. For example, you might link to literature about how people’s
memories or accounts of their lives are constructed.