Generations and education: What can educators learn from

research on minority ethnic groups

Professor Tehmina N BasitInstitute for Education Policy Research

Staffordshire University

Educational researcher as interviewer

Being an educational researcher demands a very different set of relationships with the field and with other researchers. These relationships have at their core a set of value-laden concerns about individual, community and societal well-being…[It is] not an activity in which one grows old gracefully, gathering respect. Instead as educational researchers we continue to struggle disgracefully to understand our uncertain world in new ways and persistently demand to be heard when we share our, often disruptive, insights with those who are practitioners in, for example, policy and pedagogy (Edwards, 2002:157-158).

Edwards, A. (2002) Responsible research: Ways of being a researcher, British Educational Research Journal, 28, 157-168.

Educational researcher as interviewer

Interviews are embedded in human experience and flagrantly draw on the participants’ subjectivities. They seek the participants’ perceptions of the social world as it is experienced and lived by them and those around them (Basit, 2010:100).

Basit, T. N. (2010) Conducting Research in Educational Contexts. London: Continuum

Researcher bias

Our own background, values and beliefs and cultural understandings inevitably have an impact on our decisions about the research. We construct reality through our own ideas and ‘truths’ which many, and justifiably, would argue is ‘our truth’. However, research needs to be as objective as possible, and as any claim to objectivity or to a ‘value free’ position is an illusion, personal biases have to be identified throughout the research process and strategies to minimise them have to be employed. (Hopkins, 2008:203)

Hopkins, D. (2008) A Teacher’s Guide to Classroom Research (fourth edition). Maidenhead: Open University Press.

Power relationships

Ostensibly, the interviewers are in a position of power as they possess sufficient cognition of the research issue and are in a role in which they are asking the questions. However, the interviewees have a power status too. They are the ones who hold all the information that the interviewer is seeking in the hope to comprehend the way the interviewees view their social world. The interviewees may decide to withhold that information, or provide just a glimpse of it, or choose to misinform or lie about their perceptions of various phenomena. The researchers therefore have to conduct the interview in a manner that ensures the collection of data which are spontaneous, candid, rich and profound (Basit, 2010:112).Basit, T. N. (2010) Conducting Research in Educational Contexts. London: Continuum

Researcher as insider

A shared cultural identity is less threatening on the one hand, and on the other, shared cultural knowledge enables a manoeuvring of flexible adaptations and alignments across and within interviews. An awareness of forbidden topics, hidden taboos and other unacceptables / acceptables and priorities avoids embarrassment and possible breakdown of the relationship between the interviewer and the interviewee (Shah, 2004:560).

Shah, S. (2004) The researcher / interviewer in intercultural context: a social intruder! British Educational Research Journal, 30, 549-575.

Project one - Aim

The main aim of the research was:

To examine the educational, social and career aspirations of adolescent British Muslim girls through

an in-depth study of the girls, parents and teachers.

Methodology

• Interpretive paradigm

• Qualitative methodology

• Case study / Ethnographic approach

• South East England context

Methods

• Individual interviews with girls, teachers and parents

• Second round of interviews with a smaller sample from the above group.

Researcher as insider

• I want to tell you a secret: she is not my own daughter. Her mother died soon after she was born and her father and I married later. However, I love her as much as my other children and I want her to get a good education.

• He is family: my sister’s son. You will know; we Pakistanis get married to cousins. They both like each other.

• Marriage is important. She can get as much education as she wants now and get married. She can always get more education after she is married. Look at yourself!

Researcher as insider

• Once the girls go home, they have very little freedom.

• They don’t have a lot of freedom out of school, which they find very, very, frustrating.

• I get very little accuracy from them. They can’t identify mistakes. They are better able to write a load of nonsense that I can’t understand, and make mistakes that I can’t understand how they made.

Researcher as insider

• If you ask them, they would often say ‘Doctor’, and you know jolly well they are not going to become a doctor because of their ability, no matter what they like or what their parents have said to them.

• The aspirations of the parents are phenomenal. They don’t seem to have any idea of what the children can actually do.

Main Findings

• Adolescence is not a period of storm & stress, but of hope, optimism & looking to the future.

• The girls have multiple identities which they are able to contextualise

• There is a reciprocal relationship between identities & aspirations

Project 2 - Aim

The main aim of the research was:

To understand the intergenerational dynamics of British South Asians, from various ethnic, religious and linguistic backgrounds, regarding education and family life,

through an in-depth study of three generations.

Methodology

• Interpretive paradigm

• Qualitative methodology

• Case study / Ethnographic approach

• West Midlands context

Methods

• Focus groups

• Digital ethnography

• Individual interviews

Themes

Digital Ethnography

• Positive & inspirational effects

• Negative influences

• Both positive and negative stimuli

Findings

Educational Capital

Viewed as the most significant asset a young person could acquire. All three generations perceived a clear correlation between educational achievement and economic success, leading to upward social mobility.

Findings

• A Three-Dimensional Strategic Approach

Was adopted by the parents and grandparents with regard to education as a catalyst for economic success. This was done through the illustration of positive and negative examples. These included:

a) The importance of hard work

b) Positive reinforcements about the value of economic success

c) The exposition of negative and alarming scenarios

Findings

• A Pedagogy of Contradiction was evident in the views of the parents’ and grandparents’ generations. This was conveyed in two ways:

a) Be like me & don’t be like me

b) The intrinsic versus instrumental value of educational capital

Findings

Similar Encouragement for/from Both Genders

The Importance of the Family

The Cost of Higher Education

Main Findings

• High regard for education amongst all three generations & all minority ethnic groups

• Contradictory Government policies inimical to disadvantaged groups

• Emphasis on high achievers undermines aspirations of average students

The End of Award Report can be accessed at:

http://www.esrc.ac.uk/my-esrc/grants/RES-000-22-3401/outputs/EndofGrantReport/Read/1a44eccd-aa93-4ff5-9625-48025a7fe13b

For further information, please contact:

t.n.basit@staffs.ac.uk