Directions: You will craft a critical reflection that presents the perspective of someone whose voice is to some extent silenced or muted by a more dominant culture. Successful completion of this assignment will require you to develop an interview guide, gather data by conducting the interview, and write up your results in an interesting that provides your critical reflections. Adhere to the following as you work.
Identify someone whose voice is to some extent silenced, muted, or otherwise unrecognized by a more dominant/powerful culture (e.g., single parents, stay-at-home fathers, domestic abuse victims, religious co-cultural group, stigmatized groups, social/political co-cultural group, those experiencing certain physical limitations/medical conditions).
Develop an interview guide to help you structure the interview. In addition to gathering the basics (e.g., who, what, where, when), this guide should contain plenty of intelligent and well-planned questions that elicit meaningful and richly detailed responses. The best are open-ended questions that invite detailed answers. (e.g., In what way(s) does he/she feel silenced/muted/unable to be fully who he/she is? If he/she felt freer to express him/herself, what would he/she want people to know about him/her? What would he/she like to see changed?) Remember, your goal is to understand and then advocate for this perspective.
Reflect back on your notes and your memory of the interview experience and develop a coherent that accurately captures the perspective of your interviewee AS IF THIS PERSPECTIVE WERE YOUR OWN. In other words, you will write your in first person, as if YOU were the interviewee. Be sure your showcases your understanding of the perspective by making a valid argument for the perspective. IMPORTANT: The idea here is not whether you agree with the perspective (because, of course, you don’t have to agree), but whether you can do justice to the perspective by getting it right from the interviewee’s point of view.
Your response should be interesting to read and adhere to principles of sound writing to include (a) an appropriate introduction, (b) one clear main thesis that lays out the purpose of the assn, (c) preview of the assn main points, (d) well developed main points (based on those previewed) that feature clear and sound arguments, (e) a logical flow of information, and (f) an appropriate conclusion that brings your assn “full circle.”