In May and June of 1996, 10 colleagues from Estonia, Ukraine and Uzbekistan -- Rein Voorman, Marika Kirch, Jelena Hellamae and Aleksander Plotkin from Estonia; Victor Susak, Natalija Salabaj and Yuliya Yakubova from Ukraine; and Alisher Ilkhamov, Ludmila Hafizova and Nilufar Egamberdieva from Uzbekistan -- worked with colleagues from the University of Michigan to produce a methodology appropriate for the examination of identity formation and social problems in Estonia, Ukraine and Uzbekistan. The interview schedule for the focus groups is reproduced below.
Welcome to our meeting. We have invited you here to discuss some problems of our contemporary life. My name is ______________. My co-moderator is ________. My note-taker is __________, etc.
We are from the -------- Center/University/Academy of Sciences. We are talking with people in this society and in (name the two other societies) about how their lives have changed over the past 10 years or so.
We all know that there have been many important social and economic changes in these years. The goal of our discussion today is to understand how these changes have had an effect on each of you personally, and on people like you.
The discussion is completely voluntary and confidential. We will tape record this discussion, and my associate, Ted, will be taking notes on our discussion. The transcripts of this study will be used only for scientific research and educational purposes. They will be anonymous, that is, no specific statements will be attached to anyone's name.
The most important rule in this discussion is that we want everyone to be able to feel free to speak as they wish. As a moderator in this group, my main job is to lead discussion with a few questions, but also to make sure people can talk as they wish. If some people are speaking too much, I might have to ask them to say a little bit less so that others have a chance to speak. And if you are not saying much, I might ask you your opinion. And of course there might be disagreements here in this group, and I may have to step in if people are wrestling on the table over their opinion of (some funny thing). But usually I don’t have to do these things. Most of the time, people can do their own moderating.(35)
Why don't we begin by writing your names on the pieces of paper we have before you. Write your name as you wish to be addressed here. Let me show you how it can be folded and put in front of you so that the rest of the group can remember your name.(36)
Now that we have all made our name cards, I'd like to ask each of you to say a few words about yourself (predstavit sebe).(37)
Now let's turn to our discussion questions. As I said, we are here to discuss the how recent social and economic changes of the last 10 years have affected your lives.
Here are some cards. Please write on your card an answer to the following question:
In what ways have these changes of the last 10 years improved your life and the lives of people like you?(38)
Please list the three most important ways things have improved.
Please write three answers on this card. We would like to collect these cards at the end of our discussion, so please write them down as neatly you can.(39)
Now, before we discuss what you have all written, let me ask you to do one more thing: if you had to pick only one of these improvements, which would you say is the most important? Please put an X next to this improvement.
Ok, let's begin. Who here has a most important improvement that they think others might also have mentioned?(40) Does anyone else have something similar, whether or not it was their most important improvement.? (If nobody mentions this) Now that it is mentioned, would anyone here also find this to be a particularly important improvement?
Probes:(41)
Are all these improvements felt by everyone? Whose lives have improved the most in these specific
areas?
Why are we experiencing these improvements?
Who would like to be next?(42) Who has another important improvement that they think others might also have mentioned?
Probes
We probably could talk more about this, but let us now collect the cards. That way we can be sure of being able to study all of your ideas. Now we'd like to turn to something similar.
Now while we have spoken a great deal about improvements, these changes in the last 10 years also may have made some things more difficult or worse. (Hand out cards.)
In what ways have changes of the last 10 years or so made your life and the lives of people like you more difficult? Please list the three most important difficulties on your card.
Before we discuss what you have written, please look at your list and put an X by the problem or difficulty that you think is most important for you and people like you.
Who here has marked a most important problem that they think someone else here might have mentioned?(43) Does anyone else have something similar, whether or not it was their most important problem.? (If nobody mentions this) Now that it is mentioned, would anyone here also find this to be a particularly important problem?
Probes:(44)
Are all these difficulties felt by everyone? Whose lives have worsened the most in these specific
areas? Why are we experiencing these difficulties? Do you think any particular person or group has
caused these difficulties? Is this problem worse today than it was years ago? Is it getting
better? What will it take to improve?
Who would like to be next?(45) Who has another important difficulty that they think others might also have mentioned?
Probes.
You all have identified many important social issues here. We would like to ask you more directly about a couple issues that you have mentioned and some that you didn’t mention very directly, but might be on your cards as less important issues.(46)
1) Have the issues we discussed today affected men and women differently? Are there any particularly important problems, whether or not we mentioned them today, that affect men much more than women, or women more than men?
Probes: Are all men experiencing these difficulties in the same way? Are all women? Which group of men and which group of women has it the worst? Why are we/they experiencing these problems? Do you think any particular person or group has caused these particular problems? Is this problem much worse today than it was years ago? Is it getting better? What will it take to improve?
2) Have the issues we discussed today affected people of various nationalities differently?
Probes:
Are all people of nationality X experiencing these difficulties in the same way? All people
of nationality? Which group has it the worst? Why are we/they experiencing these problems? Do you
think any particular person or group has caused these particular problems? Is this problem much
worse today than it was years ago? Is it getting better? What will it take to improve?
3) Have the issues we discussed today affected people of various regions differently? Probes: Are all people of region X experiencing these difficulties in the same way? All people of region Y? Which group has it the worst? Why are we/they experiencing these problems? Do you think any particular person or group has caused these particular problems? Is this problem much worse today than it was years ago? Is it getting better? What will it take to improve?
At this point, collect the cards on which people have written down their list of difficulties.
Thank you very much for your participation today. Your discussion has been really valuable for us. Before you leave, we would like you to answer two final questions on this sheet. We don’t want to have discussion of these items now, but we would very much appreciate your comments on them?(48)
1) As part of our research, we want to conduct interviews with some people who are bringing about important changes in this country. Can you suggest the names of one or two people who understand some of the issues which we discussed today and who are involved in bringing about change? Looking around the room(49) at the issues we have discussed, with what social issues are they associated? What is their social position?(50)
2) When we spoke today, we asked you to talk about yourself and about people like you What groups of people were you thinking of today when you were talking about yourself and people like you?(51)
Would you put your name on this questionnaire, so that if we need to ask you more about a particular person you recommend, we might be able to contact you?
Thank you very much for your participation.