Social research

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‘Much social research still fails to incorporate an adequate race dimension, mainly because social research (in the UK) is usually conducted within predominantly Eurocentric, white conceptual frameworks’ (maniam et al., 2004). Discuss the reasons for this failure with respect to children and young people. To what extent can this failure be addressed by social research?

Over the next few paragraphs I shall be examining the statement above in more detail. I have separated the title into two questions and shall address each one individually.

I shall initially clarify what is meant by the term ‘race’ and then look at why race is not adequately incorporated into social research with children and young people and compile a list of reasons that I feel answer this question and look at ways in which they could be addressed. I will then look at research papers studied so far throughout EK310 and consider how race was or was not included. Finally I will present a conclusion that summarises the main reasons I have identified.

An increasing number of people in the country are of mixed race, ie with parents of different races and I tend to clarify the word ‘race’ as a group, especially of people, with particular similar physical characteristics, who I would consider belong to the same type. Race is one of the main groups that humans can be divided into according to the colour of their skin and other physical features. The actual term ‘race’ has many meanings and has historically been used to denote or categorise people into specific groups. In general the term is often used interchangeably with colour, heredity and nationality. (Ince, 2004, page 213).

With regard to research as stated by Maniam et al 2004 racism impacts upon research, from the choice of topics, to the experiences of researchers and that of children and young people from minority ethnic communities, and the ways in which research findings are disseminated. The definition of racism that was used throughout the chapter by Maniam et al 2004 is the belief that some races are superior to others, used to devise and justify actions that create inequality between racial groups. (Maniam et al, 2004, page 222). Gilroy (1982) argued that by bringing data about Black communities daily lives into the public domain researchers were not helping but wittingly or unwittingly colluding with racism. He stated that by using different methods of research children and families were being portrayed as different and exotic and therefore confirming racial stereotypes. (Gilroy, 1982, page 224 cited in Maniam et al 2004).

There are a number of issues why race is not adequately incorporated into social research with children and young people and I shall look at each of these in turn and explain why this arises in more detail.

Predominance of White Researchers

The majority of researchers tend to come from a white background, therefore research ‘into’ the black community by white researchers has the often-unintended outcome of reinforcing stereotypes about the lives of people from minority cultures. As we saw throughout the chapter by Maniam et al 2004 the phenomenon of racism on a national

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This is a preview of the whole essay

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scale has deep roots. Initial problems started when mainly white researchers studied the education and health of black and ethnic minority children, but with a view to understand why they were not ‘fitting in’ to British society. Views such as these led to the labelling of black children as ‘educationally subnormal’ and resulted in low teacher expectations and racially biased systems of testing. One possible way of solving this problem would be to exclude white researchers from research into Black people. As we read in the chapter there is an increasing coming together of Black researchers to form coherent research communities, for example the South Asian researchers and in Scotland the Scottish Association of Black Researchers. (Maniam et al, 2004, page 228). Although this is a good idea in principle I think you may then have the slightly biased views of the Black/ethnic people. One of the only ways, I feel to combat the racism is to put together a committee of member that includes people from white/black in fact all ethnic origins and compile a strategy or white paper for research into Black or ethnic children and young people. A possibility for this committee would also be to have some young people on there so their views are actually being heard as well. Another way of improving how views come across to researchers would be to make the interviewee feel as comfortable and relaxed as possible. As we saw in the paper by Ince 2004, one of the young girls that she interviewed found it helped in talking about painful events that she had not really shared with anyone before and then asked if Ince would like to speak to her friend. (Ince, 2004, page 229) Researchers could always let the child or young person have a friend with them throughout the interview so they felt more relaxed, children sometimes open up more if they have a friendly face around.

No value for the diversity of differing views

I believe that to be able to get a view of what life is like in the Black/ethnic community you need to have lived within that community or at least be able to correctly express views of people who have. Adult white researchers can tend to feel that they have superior knowledge over Black/ethnic children but as a black child – in the sense of what it is like to be a child from an ethnic background – the children really have the superior knowledge. To be able to gain diverse views the children should be listened to for their views, as they are living the real thing. As stated by Robinson 2004 children should have an active participant role in the process of the research and adults should not hold back or assert control. One of the best ideas I feel for allowing children to express their views is that of allowing them to set up and control committees that decide important changes happening to their school/care home etc. This is not only a valuable way to hear Black/ethnic minority children but any child. It allows them to have a voice in what happens to the things that matter most to them. I feel that black and white communities should be considered together as part of the same research rather than separating one out from the other. Researchers tend not to have any insight or understanding of Black experiences or perceptions. They rarely go beyond inquiring about the ‘needs’ of Black communities rather than looking at aspects of human rights.

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Biased views held of black minority ethnic people

As we saw in the paper by Rassool, 2004 racial discourse in Britain has historically focused on the image of immigrant = alien = problem to be managed through immigration control and social welfare intervention. (Rassool, 2004, page 233). It is

because of these dominant social meanings that Black/ethnic children and young people gain the label of problems to be solved.

Views of Black and ethnic minority people have been led by various factors and the press can also lead our views. As we saw in the chapter by Maniam et al 2004, a letter from Sir Paul Condon, Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police to the leaders of the Black community was printed in The Guardian newspaper and this provoked debate but also added to the already tarnished image attached to young Black men in London. The actual research base for the figures was uncertain and alot of the figures stated can just be guesswork, but once it has been read in the Press the views tend to get established. (Maniam et al, 2004, page 230).

Power Issues

Power is about the ability of individuals or groups to make their own concerns count, even when others resist. Power sometimes involves the direct use of force, but is almost always accompanied by the development of ideas which justify the actions of the powerful. Listening to children and young people should be encouraged, building on what has already been developed in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child recommendation that children should be informed, involved and consulted about all activities that affect their lives – including research. (Robinson, 2004, page 86). This is all very good in theory but in practice it is often hard for black children to be heard in research, as in other areas of life, it is the powerful who have the ability to decide who or what is heard. As stated by Thorne 2004 ‘I was the sole judge of what was or was not reported and how to alter identifying information’. (Thorne, 2004, page 255).

An interesting point stated in Maniam et al 2004 that ties in to both the issues of biased views and power were the statistics that have been gathered in respect of those who control crime. Only 1.8 % of the police in England and Wales were from ethnic minority communities, as were only 0.3% of judges and 0.2 % of senior barristers. This also proves that whilst groups may form to get opinions changed or rules changed. The main problem lies with the decision makers as the ethnic minorities are not covered in decision making environments.

During the paper ‘Children’s Experiences of Short-term Accommodation’ by Jane Aldgate and Marie Bradley 2004 it becomes obvious that they were aware of the issues surrounding race and took these issues into account whilst writing the paper. Although the study was not entirely centered on Black/ethnic minority children or young people they realized that one prominent issue of interviewing was being sensitive to cultural and linguistic issues in families of Asian origin. They arranged in these cases for a female interviewer to take the lead and always provided a locally

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based interpreter in cases where the families’ first language was not English. A very valid point which I found commendable was that they then spent time after the interview going through the notes to make sure the translation was correct and the points made had remained the same. (Aldgate and Bradley, 2004, page 72).

Ince 2004 devised a paper based upon young black people leaving care so had to address the issues of race within that paper. She did this because literature relating specifically to young black people leaving care was relatively sparse. Contained within this chapter is a piece about Black and In Care, an organization formed to raise the profile of young black people in care. In 1984 they held a series of workshops and concluded points similar to those I have identified above. Residential units were mainly staffed by white people, there were low numbers of staff in management positions and there was overt and covert racism within the care system. Ince was present at one of these workshops and felt it was the first time young Black people had been given a voice to say what they needed to. Ince therefore planned her study with a view to improving provision for young black people in local authority accommodation. She felt that these young black people had not been given sufficient channels for their views and the diversity of them was not valued as mentioned in my list above. (Ince, 2004 page 212).

I thoroughly enjoyed reading the paper by Rassool 2004. After working through the latest study topics and also through the points in this essay I found that he understood extremely well the effects of living with racism and how to understand and listen to the views of these young people. Rather than actually going into these schools and carrying out the research the subject of the paper was made part of the children’s course work so was carried out in a much more formal way. Rassool aimed to treat the pupils as subjects of their experiences rather than objects of research thus letting them have their own voice to be heard. The paper turned into a constructive learning experience for those who participated rather than a forced view or guessed view on things. This was ‘real’ life. Although he tried to let the children have control and power, as spoke about earlier the power position of teachers could not change completely. The teacher-researchers still maintained control over how long the interview would last, who could speak and for how long. Although Rassool was not happy with the data collection method he still managed to get across a clear picture of the young peoples views. (Rassool, 2004, page 248).

Whilst all of the papers looked at above have taken into account a race dimension, other papers we have looked at throughout the course so far have no mention of different cultures or ethnic origins. One particular study that I found did not incorporate an adequate race dimension was ‘Gender Play: Girls and Boys in School’ by Barrie Thorne. The paper by Thorne 2004 was based in two schools and the aim of the paper was to learn about gender in the context of kids interactions with one another. Throughout the paper she constantly refers to ‘a short white girl’ or ‘a black girl’ but never gives any indications of how the schools classes were made up and what the proportions were. She also mentions the crossings of race and ethnic lines. Although in her commentary she states that having two field sites alerted her to the

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differences and similarities in the organization and cultures of particular schools there is no evidence of this in the study. (Thorne, 2004, page 272).

Over the last few paragraphs I have explained important dimensions of race and ethnicity and how they impact on research with children and young people. Not only in terms of research relations but also in the research methods chosen. What must be remembered is that effective research with Black and ethnic minority children and young people has to remember the lessons of earlier research and take into account constantly changing and evolving discourses. One of the main ways of improving the ways in which race is incorporated into research is to ensure that research with children and young people takes into account the impact of not only race, but also gender and disability in offering different world views of the participants in research.

We need to aim to give children more active participation in school/environmental issues and initiatives and let them have a voice that is heard and acted upon.

References

Maniam, M., Patel, V., Singh, S., & Robinson, C. (2004) ‘Race and Ethnicity’ in V. Lewis, M. Kellet, C. Robinson, S. Fraser and S. Ding (eds) Doing Research with Children and Young People, London: Sage in association with the Open University.

Robinson, C. & Kellett, M. (2004) ‘Power’ in V. Lewis, M. Kellet, C. Robinson, S. Fraser and S. Ding (eds) Doing Research with Children and Young People, London: Sage in association with the Open University.

Aldgate, J. & Bradley, M. (2004) ‘Children’s Experiences of Short-term Accommodation’ in V. Lewis, M. Kellet, C. Robinson, S. Fraser and S. Ding (eds) The Reality of Research with Children and Young People, London: Sage in association with the Open University.

Ince, L. (2004) ‘Young Black People leaving Care’ in V. Lewis, M. Kellet, C. Robinson, S. Fraser and S. Ding (eds) The Reality of Research with Children and Young People, London: Sage in association with the Open University

Rassool, N. (2004) Flexible Identities: Exploring Race and Gender Issues amongst a Group of Immigrant Pupils in an Inner-city Comprehensive School in V. Lewis, M. Kellet, C. Robinson, S. Fraser and S. Ding (eds) The Reality of Research with Children and Young People, London: Sage in association with the Open University.

Thorne, B. (2004) Gender Play: Girls and Boys in School in V. Lewis, M. Kellet, C. Robinson, S. Fraser and S. Ding (eds) The Reality of Research with Children and Young People, London: Sage in association with the Open University.

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