Interview Protocol & Focus Questions
In order to draw out the literal or conceptual understanding of the myth that surrounds St. Patrick, we decided to ask a very open-ended question and then try to elicit our participants into thinking about the historical context of the holiday, and what the popular myth surrounding it might represent.
Initial Question: What is St. Patrick's Day? Some follow-up questions that we asked were: Tell me more about the snakes. Do you know anything about what St. Patrick did? Can you tell me about how he got rid of the snakes? |
Anticipated Conceptual Response (approximate):
St. Patrick is known for driving the "snakes" out of Ireland, but the story doesn't refer to actual snakes, it refers to the Druids that inhabited the island of Ireland and is symbolic for how St. Patrick is responsible for converting large numbers of the Irish population to Catholicism.
Anticipated Literal Response (approximate):
St. Patrick is known for driving the snakes out of Ireland. He used his staff and got rid of them which is why there are no snakes in Ireland.
St. Patrick is known for driving the "snakes" out of Ireland, but the story doesn't refer to actual snakes, it refers to the Druids that inhabited the island of Ireland and is symbolic for how St. Patrick is responsible for converting large numbers of the Irish population to Catholicism.
Anticipated Literal Response (approximate):
St. Patrick is known for driving the snakes out of Ireland. He used his staff and got rid of them which is why there are no snakes in Ireland.
By: Angela Marocco, Brent Zeise, Katie Anderson MAET Year 2 Overseas 2012