Ruth Barley

Social research for a multiethnic population: do the research ethics and standards guidelines of UK Learned Societies address this challenge?

There is increasing recognition in the UK that social science research should generate an evidence base that reflects the ethnic diversity of the population and informs positive developments in public policy and programmes for all. However, describing and understanding ethnic diversity, and associated disadvantage, is far from straightforward. In practice, the ethical and scientific arguments around whether and how to incorporate ethnicity into policy-relevant social research are complex and contentious. In particular, untheorised or insensitive inclusion of data on ethnic ‘groups’ can have negative consequences. The present investigation begins to explore the extent to which social scientists have access to advice and guidance in this area of research. Specifically, the paper examines how ethnic diversity is explicitly or implicitly considered within the research ethics and scientific standard guidance provided by UK social science Learned Societies to their members. The review found little in the way of explicit attention to ethnic diversity in the guidance documents, but nevertheless identified a number of pertinent themes. The paper compiles and extrapolates these themes to present a tentative set of principles for social scientists to debate and further develop.

Researching ethnic inequalities.

Since the landmark introduction of an ethnic group question to the 1991 Census (Bulmer, 1996) and the influential Fourth National Survey of Ethnic Minorities in 1993-4 (Modood et al., 1997), the volume of social research addressing ethnicity has grown dramatically in the UK. Social researchers are increasingly required to produce evidence capable of informing policy and practice development that is sensitive to the diversity of the UK’s multiethnic population. In particular, there is Researching ethnic inequalities

The importance of familiarisation when doing research with young children

Becoming familiar with ‘the field’ location and its inhabitants is a natural and important part of ethnographic research. However, little has been written about how operationalising a ‘familiarisation period’ within an ethnography can form the foundation on which fieldwork can be built. By reflecting on the experience of employing a familiarisation period within an ethnography with young children, this paper explores how key principles may be used to enhance research practice. The paper argues that the outlined principles of familiarisation are an important aspect of ethnography which need to be engaged with at the start of a study and also form a part of the reflexive process of ‘being in the field’. It is also argues that the familiarisation can be an important tool in effectively accessing childrens ‘voice’ and working with so-called ‘hard to reach’ groups.

Women's cultural perceptions and attitudes towards breast cancer: Northern Ghana

This study investigates problems confronting breast cancer awareness in Ghana by ascertaining how societal perceptions and attitudes influence womens awareness of breast cancer in the Kassena-Nankana district. Data were gathered through focus group interviews and documentary analysis of current practices within the region. The data were then thematically analysed following an inductive analytical framework. The study concludes that womens perceptions of and attitudes towards breast cancer and its treatment are influenced by a myriad of economic and socio-cultural factors, which practitioners need to take into account when planning public health initiatives. There are a number of economic challenges facing breast cancer education and awareness programmes due to a lack of adequate numbers of specialized health personnel and breast cancer screening facilities in the district. Additionally, socio-cultural factors such as the absence of biomedical terminology in the local language, gender inequality and the prevailing influence of traditional health practitioners further compound the situation. Knowledge, awareness and attitudes of women towards breast cancer can also be improved if husbands of married women and respective community compound heads are targeted by public health educationists to get actively involved in education and awareness campaigns. The need to incorporate indigenous languages in public health educational materials for breast cancer in remote communities of deprived districts of Ghana is also recommended.

Can the quality of social research on ethnicity be improved through the introduction of guidance? Findings from a research commissioning pilot exercise

As the volume of UK social research addressing ethnicity grows, so too do concerns regarding the ethical and scientific rigour of this research domain and its potential to do more harm than good. The establishment of standards and principles and the introduction of guidance documents at critical points within the research cycle might be one way to enhance the quality of such research. This article reports the findings from the piloting of a guidance document within the research commissioning process of a major funder of UK social research. The guidance document was positively received by researchers, the majority of whom reported it to be comprehensible, relevant and potentially useful in improving the quality of research proposals. However, a review of the submitted proposals suggested the guidance had had little impact on practice. While guidance may have a role to play, it will need to be strongly promoted by commissioners and other gatekeepers. Findings also suggest the possibility that guidance may discourage some researchers from engaging with ethnicity if it raises problems without solutions; highlighting the need for complementary investments in research capacity development in this area.

Language, Identity and Peer Interactions at a Linguistically Diverse School

Abstract Purpose Drawing on research findings from an ethnography conducted with young children, exploring notions of difference, identity and peer interactions, this study uncovers how four- and five-year-olds initiated and maintained peer interactions within a linguistically diverse Early Years setting in the North of England. Methodology/approach This study adopted an applied ethnographic approach to gain the emic perspectives of children in the reception class at Sunnyside over a full academic year. Over the course of this school year I spent a day a week with the class undertaking non-participant and participant observations alongside unstructured informal conversations and focused on visual research activities. Findings Language and identity were closely intertwined in children’s patterns of interaction at Sunnyside. For some children language had a functional value while for others it was a symbolic marker of identity. Similarly, for some children their minority language held valuable linguistic capital while for others their first or home language was viewed as being something to shun. For all the children language was only one factor that played a role in initiating and maintaining their peer interactions at school. These implications will be discussed in this chapter. Originality/value Situated in a particular local context, this study provides an in-depth insight into the experiences of a linguistically diverse group of children from North and Sub-Saharan African countries who have come together in a single school setting where Somali and Arabic are the two key languages that are spoken by children in the class. This chapter discusses how these children viewed languages within the classroom context and how other identity markers associated with ethnicity, religion and nationality intersected with language within the context of ‘being friends’ at Sunnyside.

‘The naughty person’: Exploring dynamic aspects of identity and children’s discourses before and during the Libyan Uprising:

This article draws on data from an ethnography exploring young children’s interactions in a multi-ethnic school in an urban area in the North of England. It focuses on the ways in which children explore and negotiate their identities against the shifting backdrop of local and global discourses about religion, race, gender and political change. In particular, we explore how children of the Libyan diaspora take up the semiotic resources available to them in their daily negotiations about identity. We show how through their spoken interactions, drawings and writings the children perform identities dialogically, with each other and with adult professionals, talking about salient issues of religious, cultural and national heritage before and during the Libyan Uprising in 2011. Using McFarlane’s concept of ‘translocal assemblages’, we show how discourses and media narratives that circulate among diasporic communities provide a set of resources that children use to make sense of themselves in local contexts.

Ethnographic research: A significant context for engaging young children in dialogues about adults’ writing

This paper brings together sociocultural theorising about language and literacy learning, as well as work which explores ethical issues associated with young children’s participation in research in...

Exploring young children's gendered discourses about skin colour

Drawing on an ethnographic study conducted with young children (4–5 year olds) in a multi-ethnic Early Years classroom in the north of England this paper shows how young children’s discourses about...

Participatory visual methods: exploring young people’s identities, hopes and feelings

ABSTRACT Using visual ethnography as a participatory method that places children’s and young people’s everyday experiences at the centre of research is discussed in this paper. The strengths and challenges of using participatory visual methods as a way of eliciting the thoughts, feelings and identities of young people within various education and training contexts in England are presented through the reflection of two ethnographies’ that encouraged the use of participatory visual techniques to facilitate the gathering of data. Participatory visual approaches capture meaningful child-centred and child-generated perspectives of their everyday lives in situ [Oh, Su-Ann. 2012. ‘Photofriend: Creating Visual Ethnography with Refugee Children.’ Area. 44(3): 382–288. doi:10.1111/j.1475-4762.2012.01111]. The participatory visual method is a powerful instrument within the plethora of methods available to the ethnographer. By offering reflexive accounts of doing ethnography in an unobtrusive and child respectful way the power of ethnography is revealed via its versatility.