Form 0920-16ML Att 2-Teacher Interview Guide

Form Approved

OMB No. 0920-New

Expiration Date: XX/XX/XXXX

Student and Teacher Perspectives on Sexual Health Education in Fort Worth Independent School District

Attachment 2

Teacher Interview Guide

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Fort Worth Independent School District (FWISD)

Health Teacher Interview Discussion Guide

Interviewer Initials: _______ Interview Start Time: _______

Date of Interview: ________ Interview End Time: ________

Welcome and Overview:

I want to thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to meet with me today. I appreciate your willingness to participate in this interview and share your thoughts about teaching health and any professional development/training you may have received.

Specifically, I hope to gain a better understanding of how, if at all, you believe the professional development provided by your district helped prepare you to teach. Also, I would like to discuss how you feel about teaching health education and particularly, sexual health education. Finally, I will ask about any recommendations you may have for how to improve future professional development opportunities for health teachers. Our interview today will be audio-recorded and the recording will only be used to accurately summarize the discussion that takes place. Your responses will remain confidential. Information we learn from these interviews will be shared with the district as overall summaries from the collective group, and will not include your name or other identifying information. You have the right to stop our discussion at any time or pass on questions you do not feel comfortable answering. At this time, I will be happy to answer any questions you may have. [Note to Interviewer: Pause to allow participant to ask question(s).]

Are you ready to begin? [Note to Interviewer: Pause and allow participant to answer.]

Great, I will now turn on the recorder and we will get started. [Note to Interviewer: Start audio recorder. If a participant does not want to be recorded but has provided consent, turn off recorder, continue with interview and take handwritten notes.]

Teacher Background/Experience

Let’s begin by talking a little about your background and experience.

1. What grade level are you currently teaching?

Probe:

1. Middle School, High School?

2. How many years have you taught health education to youth in school? What about sexual health education?

3. What health education-related professional development events have you attended? In what year(s) did you attend?

Probe:

1. What was type of information was covered during these PD events?

4. What types of professional development have you received that were specifically related to teaching sexual health topics?

Probe: [Note to Interviewer: Using notes on the different PD events, probe about different types of PD received. Verify the response the teacher provides is referring to professional development provided by the district. If not, ask where the PD was received.]

Teacher Attitudes, Comfort, and Confidence Related to Sexual Health Education

Thank you for that foundational information. Now, I’d like to shift a little and ask you a few questions about health education, in general, and then about sexual health education, more specifically.

5. Based on your background and experience, did you expect to teach health education? If not, when you first heard that you would be teaching health, what was your initial reaction?

6. Think back to the very first time you found out that you were going to be teaching sexual health education, how did you feel?

Probes:

1. What were your concerns, if any? Were they practical concerns (e.g., no time for another class), personal concerns (e.g., school policy, discordance with your beliefs) or more about the subject matter itself (e.g., sex ed)?

2. How did you address your concerns?

7. Did you feel you had the factual knowledge you needed to teach about sexual health? To help you think about this question, we have a list of some of content knowledge that is helpful in teaching sexual health education. [Note to Interviewer: Show participant list on separate laminated sheet.]

Probes:

1. Were any of these topics of particular concern to you?

2. Were there topics that you felt very comfortable with right away?

8. Did you feel you had the skills you needed to teach about sexual health? To help you think about this question, we have a list of some of skills that are useful in teaching sexual health education. [Note to Interviewer: Show participant list on separate laminated sheet.]

Probes:

1. Were you concerned about any of these skills in particular?

2. Were there some skills that you knew would be easy for you?

9. How comfortable were you with teaching sexual health education? To help you think about this question, we have a list of some of the aspects of comfort. By comfort we mean your ability to feel at ease helping young people learn essential health prevention knowledge and skills (through lecture, class exercises or demonstrations, answering student questions, managing classroom dynamics, etc.). [Note to Interviewer: Show participant list on separate laminated sheet.]

Probes:

1. Were any of these of particular concern to you?

2. Were there any aspects that you felt very comfortable with or excited about right away?

10. One of the benefits of the current sexual health curriculum you are using is that it teaches students skills in addition to factual knowledge. To help you think about this question, we have a list of some of skills that sexual health education should help students learn. [Note to Interviewer: Show participant list on separate laminated sheet.] When you were asked to teach about sexual health for the very first time, how prepared did you feel to help students develop the skills they need to prevent STDs/HIV and pregnancy?

Thanks for sharing that with me. So far, we’ve been talking about how you felt when you first found out you’d be teaching sexual health education. Let’s shift gears a bit and talk about how you feel now.

11. At this point in time, how do you feel about teaching sexual health education?

Probes: [Note to Interviewer: These are critical to ask. Try to incorporate all if the information has not organically come through in the interview already. Offer participant laminated sheet as it will be relevant for some of the below probes.]

1. Do you feel you have the factual knowledge you need to teach about sexual health?

2. Do you feel you have the skills you need to teach about sexual health?

3. How comfortable are you with teaching sexual health education? Let’s look again at these different aspects of comfort. Are any of these a particular concern for you now? Are there aspects that you feel very comfortable with?

Do you still have any concerns? What are they?

4. We also talked earlier about the fact that the current sexual health curriculum is designed to teach students skills in addition to factual knowledge. We discussed examples of skills such as talking to a boyfriend or girlfriend about relationship boundaries. At this point, how prepared do you feel to help students develop the skills they need to prevent STDs/HIV and pregnancy?

12. We’ve been thinking about teachers’ confidence in teaching sexual health education as something that takes into account three things—knowledge, skills, and comfort level related to helping students learn important sexual health concepts. Overall, how confident would you say you are with teaching sexual health education to (use middle or high, as appropriate) school students?

Probes:

1. How does this compare to your confidence level when you first found out you would teach sexual health education? Are you more confident, equally confident, or less confident to teach sexual health education? Why is that?

2. How does this compare to your confidence in teaching health education more generally (e.g., topics such as nutrition, physical activity, emotional health, substance use)? Why is that?

So far, we’ve talked about how you felt when you started teaching sexual health education (in terms of knowledge, skills, comfort, being able to teach skills to students, and overall confidence). We’ve also talked about how you feel about these things now. I’d love to know how professional development or support from the district may have helped you improve any of these things.

13. How helpful was the professional development, (e.g., trainings you attended, coaching or feedback you received), offered by your district for preparing to or supporting you to teach sexual health education?

Probes:

1. Did any of the professional development increase your knowledge about sexual health?

2. Did you learn new instructional skills from the training?

3. Did the professional development help increase your comfort level when teaching about sexual health?

4. Did professional development help with your overall confidence to teach sexual health education to youth?

5. Were there other things—outside of professional development—that helped you feel more prepared and confident to teach sexual health? What were those?

Teacher Implementation of Sexual Health Curriculum

Now, let’s spend a few minutes talking a bit more specifically about the sexual health curriculum you are using—its format, ease of use, practicality, etc.

14. Were there any specific sexual health lessons or parts of lessons that you did not teach according to the district’s pacing guide?

Probe:

1. If yes, what were they and why?

14. Were there any additional lessons or activities that you incorporated into your teaching that were not included in the district’s planned curriculum (or the supplemental materials provided by the district)? If so, please tell me about those.

14. Was there anything about the sexual health lessons that you felt made it more difficult to effectively teach your students about sexual health? If so, please describe.

[Note to Interviewer: provide examples, if needed. Examples: Prescriptive nature of the curriculum/approach, lack of materials, scheduling difficulties (having enough time to complete lessons), sensitivity to subject matter, particular lessons, specific activities.]

Probes:

1. Were you able to overcome some of the aspects that made teaching difficult? If so, can you tell me how you were able to overcome them?

14. What kind of support does the district (such the Health & Physical Education department) provide to help you use the curriculum and teach sexual health effectively?

Probes:

1. Do you find these supports to be helpful or counterproductive? If helpful or counterproductive, please describe how? [Interviewer note: Could use a list of supports—PD days, observation, coaching, materials support, etc.—to prompt.]

14. Overall, how do you think the sexual health lessons from the HealthSmart curriculum are received by students?

Future Professional Development and Final Thoughts

Before we close, I am interested in understanding how the district can help you do a better job of teaching sexual health education to your students.

14. Is there anything that the district could do that would help you improve your delivery of the sexual health lessons?

Probes:

1. Is there anything you would suggest changing about professional development events?

2. Is there anything you would suggest changing about classroom observations or the feedback process?

3. What additional training needs do you have related to teaching sexual health?

Is there anything else you would like to share about teaching health, using the sexual health lessons, or related professional development or support? [Note to Interviewer: Allow sufficient time/pause for participant to answer.]

Thank you for participating in this interview. Your input has been very helpful, and we appreciate that you took the time to talk with us! [Note to Interviewer: Stop audio recorder and provide incentive.]

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