Rah, Rah, Rah…the British and all that

Yesterday I attended a session on Interviewing Political Elites, hosted by the Social Science Student Forum. The session was brilliant! The presenter (http://www.open.ac.uk/socialsciences/staff/people-profile.php?name=Richard_Heffernan) was knowledgeable, insightful, humorous (with at times, a rather lovely dry British wit) but also extremely engaging and encouraging of dialogue with the participants. His was also really eloquent, using just the right but sophisticated words to create this almost lyrical narrative. You could just sit and listen to him – he commanded interest from his audience. For me he epitomised the British academic or dare I say the British middle class intellectual. When I first saw him I thought "Who is this person in a suit, tie and braces, he looks like someone from the city or parliament – certainly not a lecturer!" But as a lecturer of political science and someone interested in British politics, especially the Labour Party – who even interviewed Thatcher – he was dressing the part. This advice about interviewing these specific respondents, I felt would hold equally true for any interview. And I found so much of what he was saying of practical value – he could of course back up every little suggestion with anecdotal evidence, that made his advice all the more valid.

 

I have been paying attention recently to how people construct their own little narrative and discourses – using particular phrases and words – and to the uninitiated, (like me very often) I think – Wow! And am in awe of how articulate, intelligent, sophisticated they sound, juxtaposed to me, deficient of all these wonderful charms, mumbling along with my incorrect pronunciations and flat and dull vocabulary. But to be fair everyone develops a presentation style and presentation persona – complete with appropriate theoretical terms, relevant to your discipline etc…I think it might be better to appreciate the fact that good speakers have grown confident in their disciplinary discourse, and developed their own style, their own voice, able to hold up in different contextual situations, over time. So my time will come.

 

Comparing the two 'training' sessions, the quality and value were seriously variable, making me think that maybe not all training is good for you. Or rather that even if a session does not meet your expectations – if you focus in on other aspects of the event – like the facilitation style or try to uncover the meta-narrative of the event or even really dig down to unpack why it is you don't like what is going on – you learn. I wonder if this is the adult educator and budding ethnographer talking here! Interesting too that intellectually I got more from the session facilitated by the almost austere British academic, and not the touchy-feely and all laid back ex-South African.