The Tikkun Project
Lesson
4
Analyzing Data from Interviews
Concept
"Push" and "pull" factors give us shared vocabulary for why people move; "barriers" give us shared vocabulary for what made settling or welcoming harder than it needed to be. Real evidence, not initial impressions, is what should actually shape a plan.
Focus Question
What does real evidence from a real person's experience tell us about the barriers newcomers and communities face — and does it change what we thought in Lesson 1?
Knowledge & Understanding Goals
Social Studies, People and Environments Strand B, Grade 6: Analyze push and pull factors that shape global migration patterns.
Language, Strand A (Literacy Connections and Applications), Grade 6: Synthesize and categorize information gathered from a primary-source interview.
Thinking & Learning Skills
ATL — Research Skills: Conducting and recording a primary-source interview.
ATL — Thinking Skills: Categorizing qualitative data using defined terms; testing an initial position against new evidence.
Learner Profile: Caring, Open-Minded, Reflective.
Context
This is where the unit's human-centered research actually happens students conduct the interviews planned in Lessons 2 and 3 and begin the analytical work of extracting patterns. It's also the core text's second touchpoint: students test their Lesson 1 initial impressions against real evidence for the first time.
Lesson Outline
CONDUCTING INTERVIEWS AND RECORDING DATA
Students conduct their planned interviews and record details that help answer their prepared questions, noting anything that will help build the plan to support newcomers today. "Take Note" is a helpful strategy for capturing information from interviews or presentations. Consider asking a journalist or reporter to help students learn successful interview technique beforehand.
ANALYZING FOR PUSH, PULL, AND BARRIERS
Students look for push and pull factors in the story — what made them leave, what drew them to Canada specifically — and add these terms to the unit's glossary if not already there. Students also identify barriers: specific, concrete things that made settling harder for the newcomer, or that would have made welcoming easier for the community if addressed. For each barrier identified, students sort it onto one of the two tracks from Lesson 3: something a small group of motivated people (like a class) could realistically address directly, or something that would need a bigger recommendation — and if the interviewee mentioned who might be responsible for that kind of change, record that too.
TESTING OUR INITIAL ANSWERS AGAINST THE EVIDENCE
Students retrieve their Lesson 1 thought-book answers to the three core-text questions. Ask: based specifically on what you heard in your interview, would you change your answer to "how well is Canada doing at living up to the standard in Numbers 15:14–16"? Students write a short "then and now" reflection, citing the specific detail from their interview that supports keeping or changing their initial answer — a vague "I feel differently now" doesn't count without a specific reason attached.
REVISING THE PLAN BASED ON NEW LEARNING
Students update their thought-book: "What did you hear in your interview that either changed or confirmed your initial idea of what newcomers need in order to integrate well into their new community?" "How might this shape the direct-action and recommendation parts of the plan we're developing?"
Notes for Teaching and Evaluation
Distinguishing push/pull (why someone moved) from barriers (what made settling or welcoming harder) matters because they answer different questions — push/pull explains motivation, which is interesting but not directly actionable by a Grade 6 class; barriers are what the plan can actually respond to.
The "then and now" core-text reflection only works because Lesson 1 captured an honest, evidence-free starting position — asking students to cite a specific interview detail (not just a feeling) is what keeps this a reasoning exercise rather than a mood check.