Research Methodology: II - Interview Guide

What is the experience of teaching at SSLA for the faculty?

Name PRN

Vaidehi Rajput 21060322171

Sanika Joshi 21060322072

Shreya Iyer 21060322143

Mourya Sai 21060322091

Gauri Sawhney 21060322054

Anika Arora 21060322023

Shruti Borade 21060322041

This interview will be conducted in person, in a comfortable environment with minimal

disturbances. This will ensure the respondent can think clearly and answer the questions asked to
the best of their ability.

Thematizing

This interview is an integral tool for ascertaining the experience that faculty members have
teaching at Symbiosis School for Liberal Arts (SSLA). Given the diverse faculty and their
manifold experiences and backgrounds, this semi-structured interview guide has been created
keeping a particular faculty member in mind in order to make the guide comprehensive and
cohesive. The purpose of this interview is to decipher how the experience of teaching at SSLA
differs from that followed at any other higher educational institute, while particularly
highlighting the difference between working at a private institution versus a public one.

The core values of an institute will inevitably affect an individual after being deeply integrated
with it. The concepts covered in this interview include questions on the interviewee’s career
background- their motivations and interests in becoming a part of the SSLA faculty; the
foundation of their teaching philosophy and change in methodologies; interaction with the
students, collaboration, and communication with fellow faculty members; and conflicts and
challenges faced during their time at SSLA.

These topics are expected to explore every corner of the individual’s experience and will enhance
the research process without any biases or errors. Prompts are provided with most questions in
order to navigate the answering toward the direction desired by the researcher/interviewer.
Interview Guide -

Q 1. Before we start this interview process, Do you consent to taking part in this study?
(Please note that we will maintain absolute confidentiality, and you can exit this interview at any
point in time.)

Q 2. Tell us about yourself. What are your interests, and what motivates you?
(Prompt: A brief introduction: Interviewee states their name, Where they are from, and what
brought them to Pune. The primary objective of these questions is to highlight their interests and
hobbies and what drives them to take action or make progress toward their goals.)

Q 3. Tell us about your strengths and weaknesses as an individual in the teaching profession.
(From this question, we aim to understand their self-awareness and assessment. We expect to
gain information about their best traits, abilities, and characteristics that they believe make them
effective in a given situation, as well as the areas of required improvement.)

Q 4. Has teaching always been your preference as a profession you wanted to pursue?
(Here, we are trying to ascertain information from their previous career or professional
preferences and how they may have evolved over time.)

Q 5. Where did you pursue your education? Did you ever think you would be on the other side of
the classroom?
(This aims to understand what institutions they have been affiliated with and understand the
effect the institution's ideologies might have had on them. Here, we are trying to understand their
educational as well as professional background and whether they ever anticipated considering a
teaching role in the first place.)

Q 6. What inspired you to pursue these particular subject(s)?

(To understand what particular ideologies in this field they were intrigued by)

Q 7. How long have you been on this teaching journey? How long have you been teaching at
SSLA?
(This question seeks to discover how long they have spent in this particular career path, i.e.
Teaching.)

Q 8. How did you come to join SSLA?

(Prompt - Aspects that motivated you to join SSLA)
(Aims to understand what potential they see in this institution as a workplace)
Q 9. How did you come to join SSLA? What subjects have you been teaching at SSLA?
(Prompt - Aspects that motivated you to join SSLA)
(Aims to understand what potential they see in this institution as a workplace. It will also help
form a base to help in understanding the possible parallels between the different subjects)

Q 10. The assessment style in SSLA is very different from traditional testing methods. How do
you ensure that the assessments give you a cohesive understanding of the student’s progress and
development in the class that you teach?
(Prompt - Ensuring accountability in this age of the internet and AI also hampers the assessment
process; how do you work around that?)

Q 11. With SSLA being an interdisciplinary institution, students deal with multiple ideas and
concepts at the same time.
E.g., Learning about contrasting topics like Marxism and the Capitalist business models. These
opinions that are formed do show up in class. How is it ensured that this difference of opinion
does not result in the student shunning away the other perspectives?

Q 12. SSLA opens doors for students to engage in as many ideas and ideologies as possible. For
instance, subjects like Business and Psychology / Multi-Cultural WorldViews, Victorian
Literature, The Novel/ Critical Ideas of the 20th Century, and Understanding Hindi Cinema since
Independence had overlapping concepts that ultimately aid in a rather complementary
understanding of the films. Are the session plans for different disciplines deliberately structured
in a way to aid this process?

Q 13. SSLA provides its faculty with a host of electives to teach, with a liberty for the faculty
members to create new electives. Why did you pick/create these certain electives to teach
students?
(Prompts - explain why these electives are important to teach in relation to the existing course
structure of SSLA)

Q 14. Given that SSLA invites a diverse student body, how do you manage to create a
welcoming and collaborative environment for your students?
(Prompt - How do you promote student engagement? Can you share specific instances?)

Q 15. What would you say are the key differences between students at other institutions and
SSLA students?
(Prompt - How do you adapt your teaching style for SSLA students?)
Q 16. Does the institution encourage faculty members to represent its name on various
academic/developmental fronts? E.g., conferences, academic journals, simulations, or
independent projects. What channels does it provide for individual professional development?
(Prompt: How supportive is the institution towards the faculty in personal professional
development or growth?)

Q 17. What are the correlations between the faculty and administration department of the
institution? How often do both these departments work together/overlap in your faculty
experience? And what is the difference between this experience in SSLA (a private institute) and
a Public (government) institute?
(Prompt: Are faculty members expected to work on the admin front while also carrying out their
teaching duties?)

Q 18. When it comes to teaching young adults who are in the stage of conceptualizing notions,
the pedagogy used becomes an aspect that needs to be treated with caution. With both sides
engaging equally to create a learning environment, how do you ensure that there are no instances
of influence/bias or serve them with a personal opinion?
(Prompt: How do you keep the classroom a space for the students to form their own opinions in a
healthy manner, where they also engage with it responsibly?)

Q 19. SSLA also, as an institution, places importance on student-led initiatives. Various in-house
clubs/cells/magazines are run on student leadership, opening them to dealing with
non-conventional situations that they might have no experience with. In such situations, guiding
the students to develop their own processes to deal with such situations becomes important for
their overall development. How do you ensure that the fine line between guiding them and
handing over the solutions to them is maintained?
(Prompt: Students in SSLA are also encouraged to engage in administrative roles, which might
not always align with their academic ideas/capacity. How much of a role do these
extracurricular activities and positions play in their overall developmental journeys?)

Q 20. At what moment in your teaching journey did you recognize that it was truly meaningful
and worthwhile?
(Prompt: This is to understand whether the individual has had a professionally fulfilling journey
at SSLA as a faculty member.)

Q 21. If you had to choose a word or phrase to describe your experience at SSLA, what would it
be?
Q 22. Is there any advice you would like to share with individuals who are aspiring to get into
the educational field as teachers or professors?

Q 23. Thank you for your time and insights. Is there anything else you would like to add before
we conclude the interview? Do you have any questions for us?

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