3 parts:
– Outline [example in attached file]
– Finished paper
– 4 questions [example in attached file]
Exploring Positionalities and Relationships Assignment
Overview:
The purpose of this assignment is for you to think carefully about your positionality and intersectionality and how those impact your interpersonal relationships. This assignment will also allow you to gain experience preparing for and conducting an interview. For this assignment, you will develop an interview questionnaire with the purpose of gaining a better understanding of your classmate’s positionalities and intersectional identities, how they form and maintain interpersonal relationships, and how they negotiate interpersonal conflict. As you explore your differences in these three areas, you should think about how these large or small differences might impact your day-to-day experiences or expectations for the future. For example, you may identify as a cisgender, white woman but your partner identifies as nonbinary and Indian. How do your positionalities differ and how might this influence how you see the world? Knowing who you are as a student, family member, friend, etc. is integral to understanding how you develop and sustain relationships with others. Maybe you meet people easily and have a wide circle of friends that you have had since grade school, or perhaps you have a small friend group and your friends change as you go through different phases in your life. Neither is right or wrong, but they are different ways of developing and maintaining relationships. Additionally, how we handle conflict with our friends, partners, and families sets us apart from one another and those difference might impact how we relate to others in our professional lives. What you should realize from this assignment and by taking this course, is that all of these differences contribute to the diversity of human experience and impact the way that we perceive and experience the world around us.
There are four components to this assignment, all of which must be completed to receive credit on the final presentation, which will be graded:
Component 1: Interview Questionnaire
Prior to completing an interview with your partner, you will develop an interview questionnaire that you will use to guide your Positionality and Relationships interview.
If you’ve done an interview before you might remember questions that begin with, “Tell me about a time when…” These kinds of questions prompt you to tell a story that illustrates your skills about a certain situation or share your emotions and feelings about an experience. Storytelling is an important skill to develop when answering questions during an interview and when presenting in public spaces. The ability to tell stories makes your experiences visual, personal, and relatable. In this assignment, you will practice writing interview questions that elicit stories as well as listen empathetically to someone who is different from you. Listening is an important part of the interviewing process.
Your interview questionnaire should be developed to help you conduct an information-gathering interview with one of your classmates in which you elicit short narratives about your partner’s positionalities, relationships, and experiences with conflict. Your goal is to use open-ended questions to help you understand the other person’s experiences through story telling.
You should write 9-12 open-ended questions that have been carefully constructed to help you learn as much as possible about your partner in a 25-30 minute interview. You will create the questionnaire guide together so that you ask each other the same questions.
Here are some example questions:
- Tell me about a time when…
- How has ___________ influenced or changed you?
- What has influenced you most from all we have discussed?
- Would you like to say anything more about ___________?
Component 2: The Interview
Interviews will be conducted outside of the classroom either in person or via ZOOM or another type of video conferencing software of your choice. Each partner should take 25-30 minutes to conduct their interview.
When conducting the interview, you might decide to ask follow up questions or modify questions based on what the interviewee has already told you. Chapter 5 [Finding and Using Evidence] is a great resource for this part of the assignment. You are encouraged to take notes and, if your partner grants permission to do so, you may record the interview so that you have an audio or video copy you can refer to after class. However, you should respect your partner’s privacy by not sharing the interview recording with anyone else and by deleting it after you have completed the assignment.
Component 3: The Outline
After completing the interview with your partner, examine your answers. How do your positionalities and intersectional identities differ from one another? How do your interpersonal relationships differ? Do you handle conflict differently? Using the template provided, begin to write your outline together. You will develop a full-sentence preparation outline and turn in one outline for both of you.
Component 4: Positionality and Relationship Team Presentation
Your presentation should begin with an introduction in which you and your partner introduce yourselves, summarize the goal of your presentation, and preview the three key differences that you will discuss in your presentation. Next, you should have three main points, and you should discuss one of the differences that you identified in each main point, including an element of your identity, a relationship maintenance approach in a significant relationship, and your conflict management style.. See the template outline for more details about how to organize your presentation.
At the end of your presentation, you should have a conclusion that reviews your main points and sums up what you learned from this interview experience. For more details on the expected structure of this speech, please see the template outline on the following page and the example outlines that are available on Blackboard.
Before giving the presentation in class [or uploading your presentation in a fully asynchronous online class], practice the presentation with your partner several times until you are both comfortable with the content and can give the speech using just a notecard that has an abbreviated keyword outline [not your entire preparation outline]. You are also strongly encouraged to go to the Communication Center to practice the speech together. When you deliver the presentation, make sure that you both project your voices, show enthusiasm, and are intentional about the use of eye contact, gestures, and facial expressions.
Presentation Aid: A presentation aid is not required for this presentation, though you are welcome to use one if you would like.
Delivery Notes: While planning your speech, you will develop a full sentence preparation outline that you will turn in before giving your speech. When you give your speech in class, you should use a key word speaking outline. We recommend putting your key word outline on a notecard to minimize the impact of your notes on your delivery.
Length: 5-7 minutes
What you need to bring to class on the day of your presentation [in-classroom speeches only]:
- Typed, printed copy of your full outline to give to your instructor [you will also upload one outline to Blackboard per partner pair].
- Exploring Positionalities & Relationships Presentation Rubric
- Keyword outline of your speech
