Does age matter? Reflections about (potential) participants

Throughout the last few weeks, I have been in contact with several different nongovernmental organizations (NGO) who agreed to assist me in targeting teachers that could potentially become participants for my dissertation.  Special thanks to the MoESCS, I have permission to enter schools in  various regions: Shirak, Syunik, Tavush and Yerevan.  While I am not limited so specific schools, it is challenging to identify teachers who may be willing to participate but also share their stories.  When describing the profile of teachers I am trying to work with, I find that most folks begin by thinking about teachers who are older or retired.  The primary reason for this is because most folks concentrate on the idea that individuals who may have coexisted with the "other" ought to be old(er).  However, very far and few think that the younger generation may have heard stories from grandparents' or other relatives' memories and experiences.  The older participants are (truly) important as they represent the generation of people who have lived with other ethnicities and are those who knew of (positive) interactions. 

The newer generation - or perhaps teachers my age - no longer have those experiences of coexistence.  Instead new generations of teachers may have experiences and memories of interacting with the "other" while being abroad for a training.  For the younger generation it is a foreign concept to interact with Azerbaijanis or people from Turkey.  Over the years as Armenian society no longer had contact with Azerbaijanis or people from Turkey, this may have contributed to feelings of hesitation, if not, fear to interact with them.  Perhaps history lessons attribute to their reaction and find it difficult to accept the "other" as anything but their enemy.

Considering these reflections, one might wonder, who has the right to remember and re-member?  

As I continue to further develop my fieldwork, I am eager to see what the average age of my participants will be and if in fact age will be a significant factor.