Positive Deviance Inquiry Update

By Jorge Luis Aguilar Cruz

As of April 17^th our Communicating Positive Deviance for Social Justice inquiry was nearing its ends. As of this date 4 out of 5 interviews have been completed. On April 18^th, we were asked to give a brief update on our inquiries for the semester. The purpose of this exercise was to further narrow down our inquiries, but more importantly to listen to suggestions, input, and ideas from our colleagues to strengthen our case studies. This was the third or fourth time we collectively shared our thoughts and suggestions, to further narrow our inquiries.

The final  My PD inquiry is: What are high school Junior and Senior students, who are 17 and older, are from El Segundo Barrio and Central, are in a single parent household that is low income, are drug free, make consistent A’s B’s and are either employed or involved in school or household activities, doing or enacting to breakaway from stereotypes that are expected from them?

The inquiry above will allow for careful selection of the partcipants. I will also ask open ended question to allow for more in depth  and thorough responses to properly allow our participants to fully answer the questions, but more importantly give their opinion without judgement, fear, or discrimination.

Are you 17 or 18 year old high school student who resides in Segundo Barrio?

1.      Do you reside in a single parent household, and is your household considered low income?

2.      What kind of activities are you involved in and out of school?

3.      Are you drug free and make consistent A’s and B’s in school?

4.      When you aware of your sorroundings, an outsider looking in might expect certain behaviors or stereotypes from you, what do you think those behaviors and stereotypes are?

5.      What good and bad examples do you see from your community?

It is important within this process to acknowledge that the participants will be allowed to expand on their answers as much as they chose too.  Asking simple questions, such as “how so, can you give me an example, can you add more, please explain”?  Within the interview process many other open ended questions were used, which will be addressed in the final inquiry report.