Assignment #1 Questions

Portfolio #1
Answers to Questions:

1. I think that participation in my fieldwork was crucial for gaining the depth I found in my experience in San Bernardino Juvenile Hall. Especially in this unique environment, my participation directly effects how the class will unfold and what information will be shared. I found that the inmates give you only as much as you give them, if you are reserved and afraid to give them 100% of your devotion they pick up on it and return the same energy back to you. I think that participating helps assimilate yourself into the environment your studying, instead of being an outside observer you become one of them, actively participating in the same events they are.
By participating I was able to compare their stories versus mine, and provide that comparison for them as well. This class is for both our and their learning, by participating I allow them to learn from my experiences as well. It allows for them to gain a perspective they might not be so familiar with.

2. Having a key informant added perspective to my understanding. Jennifer Tilton has been working in Juvenile Halls for years, and having her break it down really helped in my understanding of what exactly I was observing. She helped me go from seeing this as a personal experience to analyzing the power schemes and social institutions directing our incarcerated youth. Having a key informant allowed for a critique of my behavior as well. Jen and I talked about my role as a mentor/participant/volunteer. This is important because it gets me to analyze why I act a certain way during our sessions and what are the results of that.

3. First of all, I think that a questionnaire would be met with horrible results in the population that I was working within. Most of these young women have only seen questionnaires like this in school, and most of them had horrible experiences with school. When an impersonal, formatted, question-answer questionnaire is seen by these girls, most of them would pretty much blow it off. As I stated in my notes, most of these young ladies used personal stories to illustrate their points, this isn't very possible with a questionnaire, it doesn't provide an open environment where they feel they can tell these personal experiences. By involving myself in the activities, I gained perspective on my position within the social institutions I'm studying, this also is not possible with a questionnaire.

4. A questionnaire would be great for gathering statistics within these groups. By gathering written data, you could be able to see how many people have the same feelings on certain subjects. This could be formatted into statistics about how incarcerated youth think about whatever the questionnaire is asking. It's also a more efficient way of gathering information. In a participant-observation, there are a lot of tangents and often times we stray from the topic at hand, a questionnaire makes sure you're answering questions they think are important. Honestly, I think those are the only upsides to a questionnaire, all-in-all I find them very misleading and don't capture the true beliefs of the individuals represented.