I asked students to interview someone and create their life story, I wanted them to learn about what it means to be human from different perspectives. These teaching notes are my reflections about this process, what it meant, and how the life story assignment transformed a normal undergraduate class for health majors into a transformative experience.
Interviewing, Writing, and Reflecting on Life Story
About Life Stories
Over the course of 16 weeks, students learned about race, ethnicity, and health, meanwhile using different racial and ethnic groups as a frame to explore health topics and inequities. Students completed assignments to highlight and apply what they had learned, one assignment being the Life Stories project. Students had the choice to interview someone or not interview anyone. The goal of interviews was to get students outside of their heads and into the hearts and lives of others. This is important because empathy and understanding are the two greatest attributes of healing and being human. This assignment also gave students the opportunity to create questions, ask them, reflect on what they meant, and then write about it. Interviews were happening throughout the course- some started early, others waited until the last minute- all were as if they had been planned for years. I encouraged students to review the Big Eight identities and interview someone who embodies a unique Big Eight identity- someone or something that was different from their own lived experience.
Why Life Stories?
I selected this assignment because in my two decades of teaching, students and professors (myself included) often come off as…
Unconscious learners
Seem to find the easiest way to complete the assignment- missing meaning
Failing to discover hidden teachings, messages, or applications in our own lives
Trusting knowledge givers who may not have our best interests in mind
Following a colonized system of learning, pedagogy, grading, and advancement
Valuing quantitative, reliable, valid, and reproducible data over lived experience
Seeking information- who, what, where, when, but failing to ask how or why
What I learned
The result of Life Stories was a blog reflection, or an eight-page report, and an audio recording of their experience. The stories and time are sacred.
There are now 27 new stories in the world; 27 people interviewed about living and meaning.
Life Stories significantly changed the way I think about teaching and sharing knowledge. The stories still occupy my mind, and it's been three months. Lots of living and dying has happened, yet I still remember Nathan's interview and his struggle with depression, keeping a job, and trauma. I listened to students' videos, read their blogs, and read their stories, wanting to keep them close to my mind and heart.
I write letters to my students before and after each major assignment, telling them what to do with their newfound knowledge, and how to learn more. This letter is to a student after participating in Life Stories:
Dear Student,
Have you ever watched a movie or read a story, and it stuck with you for a while? This is what it was like to listen, see, and read life stories.
We have new knowledge about the world. You have new insights about struggle and resilience, and you have new ways of learning. The power of a story is that it doesn't end with the storyteller. It actually lives on in the memories of the people who hear the story and even the people being interviewed for the stories. When you make health and well-being about yourself and the people in your circle, it makes a difference. It becomes local. It is something to work on that you might just have the power to change. The secret that you might not know is that all of this begins in the mind and your mind. You signed up for this class. You decided who to interview. You wrote the paper and submitted it to the blog and audio file. Now you get to decide what you will do with it. You can use knowledge and insights for good- for change and justice and empathy or advocacy. Or for bad things - guilt, shame, fear, trauma, anxiety. It's up to you.
Sincerely,
Professor AK
Teachers Creating Assignments
We use what we know
We teach what we have been taught
We rely on YouTube videos, books, podcasts, and colorful news articles to keep students engaged in a world driven by limited attention spans, TikTok, and the next best thing
We fear assignments that we cannot control, content we have not seen, answers we have not heard
This assignment demonstrates how to use interviews as a pedagogical tool to deepen student identity and connections with the world around them. Unlike some classes where content is generated by others, this was generated by students and the people they chose to interview. The result is new knowledge that has never been known before.
Know Limitations
This may not work in all settings with all students. It requires some level of interview and quality data collection skills. Interviews and stories are subjective experiences not easily or objectively graded. Some students interviewed people with less to say than others, while one student didn't have anyone to interview, and decided to interview herself.
Recommendations Future Life Stories Work
Start earlier- emphasize empathy, compassion, and listening
Create a list of people to interview if someone can't find anyone
Ask for an interview outline early and provide feedback
Find ways to share stories back to interviewees and with the world
Follow up with students in 5 years; did it change anything? Relationships? Stories
Conclusion
Life Stories work because people want to know who they are and how they relate to others, nobody pays attention until the story or knowledge is personal. Everyone is different beyond race and ethnicity- it is their life experience that makes them unique. Some identities can be fluid, and we see how they shift in these stories in space and time. What we value, choose to do, and how we act are shaped by the positions and power that we hold. Let others experience creating knowledge and wisdom for the world to know and see- writing books, articles, etc. should not just be for those with PhDs.
● We have knowledge
● We see knowledge in books and classes and professors
● We use knowledge to make decisions
● We share knowledge through written work presentations
● What do you know
● What knowledge will you share with the world
Resources
Atkinson, R. (1998). The life story interview: Qualitative research methods, series 44. Sage.
Carr, David. 1986. "Narrative and the Real World: An Argument for Continuity." History and Theory 25 (2): 117–31. https://doi.org/10.2307/2505301.
Hensel, William A., and Teresa L. Rasco. 1992. "Storytelling as a Method for Teaching Values." Academic Medicine, August.
Rosenthal, G. (2003). The healing effects of storytelling: On the conditions of curative storytelling in the context of research and counseling. Qualitative Inquiry, 9(6), 915- 933. doi:10.1177/1077800403254888
Original Assignment
Spring 2024
For this assignment, you will interview someone about their life. This assignment is worth 15 points or 15% of your grade. You will write a report (6-8 pages double spaced) and summarize key points from the report in an oral presentation. You will also submit reflection notes from this process on the course Blog site. The recorded oral report/presentation will take some time because you must synthesize what you have learned from the interview and the intersections of race, ethnicity, health, and well-being (consider and look for the Big Eight identities from Week 1).
Remember this assignment has two parts: an oral presentation and a blog post about your experience.
Before you begin, read these tips.
Who to Interview:
A person who is older than you
A person that you know well
A person who is likely to be honest with you
A person who has a different life experience than your own
A person who is different from you and your Big Eight social identities that we discussed in Week 1
Where, when, and how long:
Interviews can be in person, over the phone, or via Zoom or Teams. Make sure you give yourself time and privacy with limited distractions. I like doing interviews at a coffee shop or a park, but it's up to you. If you can tape record the interview, this is best. I use a free app called Recorder on my iPhone. There are several options. If you are using Zoom or Teams, there is an automatic record function you can select. Take a break if you need to. Ensure you write notes at the end of each chapter of the life story.
Planning:
Before you start the interviews, take some notes about what you want to learn or hear. Think about the main events in this person's life. If you don't hear them, ask them. Did you get married? Did you have children? Did you go to college? Did you experience something? If you know this person, some information may be easier to discuss than other topics. Be kind. Be sensitive. Be compassionate.
Explaining the assignment and getting permission: Explain what you are doing and why you are doing it. Get their permission before you start.
This is an interview project I am doing for a class at UNCG. I am going to write up a report and orally present this story to my professor. I will also write reflecting notes about what this experience was like. My classmates will read my reflecting notes. My professor will watch my video presentation and read my reflecting notes. We can stop the interview at any time. You do not have to answer questions if you do not want to. I will ensure the content is anonymous and not identifiable information (traceable back to you).
Getting started:
Divide your life into three chapters.
Begin with the time that you left home (18 years?). What was the main thing that was going on at this time?
Move into the next chapter (could be middle age, college graduation, buying a home, children, dealing with the death of a loved one, etc.).
And the next chapter.
I recommended at least three chapters or phases in a person's life story. Remember you must summarize these chapters and write the key points of each, considering the intersections of race, ethnicity, and health.
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