Positive Deviance Inquiry Update

By Jorge Luis Aguilar Cruz

 Our March 21^st Communicating Positive Deviance for Social Justice class meeting dealt with updating and informing each other about our semester case studies. In this class session we wrote our PD inquiry subject questions on the class blackboard. 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 second time we collectively shared our thoughts and suggestions, to narrow our inquiries down before starting our field work.

Before starting our field work, we have to be ready to know who it is that we are going to interview and talk to. All of us had already started our field work long before we even registered for the class, by that I mean that all of us at this point have established rapport and trust with the possible participants, this combined with our passion for certain social initiatives gave root to our PD inquires.  Our PD inquiries require careful selection criteria to successfully develop our project. 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?

Furthermore, 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. Although above the PD inquiry is stated above, I will still re-screen the participants before starting the open ended questions.

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

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

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

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

5.      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?

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