Focus Group Breakdown

Focus groups went down without a hitch, ending last Friday. Although now that I'm transcribing the first focus group I'm realizing how much 1. better we got at it and 2. better our interview guide became. The first group I was so interested in sticking to the guide that I neglected to pursue some really interesting information the students would most certainly have given us.

Now that it's over (for now. Summer school will hopefully give us some fresh interview meat), I couldn't be happier that our groups arranged themselves the way they did. We had two groups of Navajo females from the reservation; one group of Navajo males from the reservation; one group of Navajo males from town; and one that was mixed (which was our first group). The remarkale thing about how we homogenized the groups is how very different student responses were to certain question; notably, what they complain about the most and what they'd most like to change.

It sounds cliche, but the females literally couldn't stop complaining about the lack of relationship they felt between themselves and their teachers and counselors. It became overwhelmingly obvious how important these females feel teacher-student relationships are to their success. The males? Not so much. I didn't really hear a single male complain about their teachers. In fact, in a few cases, the males actually came to the defense of their teachers and remarked on how busy they must be. So what did the males complain about? What did they want? As cliche as it sounds, the males seem really committed to a type of rugged individualism, so they want to "do their own thing", but do it better. For them this means more food in their bellies and more incentives, like more sports to choose from (since athletes are expected to keep their grades up), prizes in the form of ipods, trips or pizza parties or even money for good grades.

However, the differences don't only lie in gender. Although it's true that both reservation and town males agreed on the importance of incentives when it comes to doing better in school over relationships, those incentives varied. Reservation males suggested money for good grades. How much money? We asked. They agreed that $5 for each A, $3 for each B, and $2 for each C at the end of every semester would be enough to incentivize them to do better in school. They were emphatic that even $35, which is what they'd get for getting straight A's, would be enough to motivate them. When we brought this up to the males from town they actually scoffed at the amount. They seemed more interested in experience-based incentives, like trips or a pizza party.

So why would reservation males be tempted by what is such a seemingly trifling amount? My only theory would be that it is so much easier for males in town to come by cash. It's widely known that there are next to zero jobs on the reservation, particularly for high school students. Reservation students are more likely to do chores and help run the household and for many of them this means taking care of livestock and herding sheep; hardly a quick-cash after-school occupation. I'd be willing to guess that if they do come by cash, it's after asking their parents and grandparents, and that cash isn't given over easily. In comparison, town males are much more likely to hold frequently-paid part-time jobs, simply due to access.

These are only some of our surface observations since we just started listening to the tapes again, transcribing is just beginning, and coding is at bay for the moment, but hopefully you found this post as interesting to read as it was interesting for me to gather what you just read. Wish team Kristen/Jen luck as we move forward.