the effects of practice narratives in interviews with australian aboriginal children gemma hamilton...

THE EFFECTS OF PRACTICE NARRATIVES IN INTERVIEWS WITH AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINAL CHILDREN

G E M M A H A M I LT O N ( P H D C A N D I DAT E )

D R. S O N JA B R U B AC H E R

PROF. MART INE POWELL

PRACTICE NARRATIVES

Tell me something you’ve done? Tell me something you like to do? Tell me about the last time…

1. Rapport-building

2. Retrieving & reporting episodic memories

3. Practice responding to open-ended questions (e.g., “tell me more about that?”)

INTERACTION DIFFERENCES

Interaction Styles Aboriginal-Australian Culture

Anglo-Australian Culture

English Aboriginal English= prevalent language

Standard Australian English = first language

Discourse Responses = minimal, brief, unelaborated (Sharifian, 2001)

Responses = varied depending on prompts

Relationship-building Questions = intrusive

Questions = polite

WHAT ARE THE EFFECTS OF A PRACTICE

NARRATIVE ON THE INFORMATIVNESS AND

ACCURACY OF ABORIGINAL CHILDREN’S

ACCOUNTS?

Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS) code of ethics for working with Indigenous Australians.

    Practice Narrative (33)

No Practice Narrative (31)

Age (years)  6-15 years M = 9.03, SD = 1.88

M = 9.45, SD = 1.98

Gender Female 17 13

  Male 16 18

Participants (N=64)

DEAKIN ACTIVITIES 30-minute staged event

• Puppet

• Exercising (jumping)

• Listening to a story

• Lying down for a rest

• Getting refreshed (wet wipes)

• Receiving a prize (sticker)

INTERVIEW STRUCTURE

• Introduction• Ground rules• Practice Narrative (or not)• Initiate substantive phase • Open-ended questioning

INFORMATIVENESS: Target details, word counts

ACCURACY: Errors about the event

Interviews conducted

& recorded

Interviews transcribed & coded

Interviews collated & analysed

RESULTS: PRACTICE NARRATIVES

1.Practice narratives ≠ more accurate and informative accounts

2.Verbosity during practice narrative = more words and target details during substantive phase

EFFECTS OF GENDER

0

1

2

3

4

5

Series10

50

100

150

200

Girls Boys

0

0.5

1

1.5

2

Girls Boys

Target Details

Word Counts

Errors

EFFECTS OF AGE

• Target details: no significant age effects

• Word count: no significant age effects

• Errors: no significant age effects

CONCLUSIONS

• Aboriginal children need to be interviewed according to the best possible and most appropriate techniques

• Include practice narratives in investigative interviews with all Aboriginal children in the knowledge that it will at least benefit those who are responsive during narrative training

• Future research needed to improve how practice narratives are conducted with all Aboriginal children, especially less talkative children

THANK YOU! QUESTIONS?

Gemma Hamilton

Student representative iIIRG

PhD candidate and sessional academic

Deakin University

gcch@deakin.edu.au

Phone: 0425 785 167