[email protected] Minding the Gap: disparities in degree attainment in HE 2 2/1/ 2008 IOS Experience of Black Students in HE Disparities in degree Attainment Carlton Howson De Montfort University Youth and Community Division
Mar 28, 2015
[email protected] Minding the Gap: disparities in degree attainment in HE 22/1/ 2008 IOS
Experience of Black Students in HE
Disparities in degree Attainment
Carlton HowsonDe Montfort University
Youth and Community Division
[email protected] Minding the Gap: disparities in degree attainment in HE 22/1/ 2008 IOS
Research Methods Key Decisions
• Qualitative research paradigm• External facilitation• Process/outcomes, ends/means• Students dialogue groups• Biography • Case studies
[email protected] Minding the Gap: disparities in degree attainment in HE 22/1/ 2008 IOS
Themes for Attention
• ‘Invited space’• Recognition of ‘power in struggle’• Recognition of issues for participating
students in absorbing dominant ideology• Issues for researcher and facilitator –
balancing roles• Tension in ‘unknown’ undocumented’
‘known’
[email protected] Minding the Gap: disparities in degree attainment in HE 22/1/ 2008 IOS
Arising Issues
• Emergence of need to negotiate• Risk of ‘domestication’• Recognition of shifting boundaries• Need to sustain notion safe space
[email protected] Minding the Gap: disparities in degree attainment in HE 22/1/ 2008 IOS
Underlying Principles
• Freirian principles of dialogue• Purpose of process is
transformative• Technologies of participatory
development• Issues concerning critical research
practices
[email protected] Minding the Gap: disparities in degree attainment in HE 22/1/ 2008 IOS
What is our experience of education?
• 3 groups reflected on their experience of education: primary, secondary, tertiary, HE
• 2 Themes emerged:– A continuation of discrimination that
had pervaded a whole educational career
– Differences identified by students who had experienced educational institutions elsewhere
[email protected] Minding the Gap: disparities in degree attainment in HE 22/1/ 2008 IOS
Discriminatory themes at all levels
• Individual
• Scio –Cultural
• Structural
[email protected] Minding the Gap: disparities in degree attainment in HE 22/1/ 2008 IOS
How does it feel when we look at all experiences in one
place• Sense of lots of issues not clear where
to start• Sense of carrying a lot of baggage,
sometimes a lifetimes’ worth• Upset at how systematic it is and how
hard it has been to survive within it• Ready to challenge• More determined to succeed and to
challenge for positive change
[email protected] Minding the Gap: disparities in degree attainment in HE 22/1/ 2008 IOS
What have these experiences meant for us? What are our
• Strengths?• Vulnerabilities?• Recognition of some Tension?
[email protected] Minding the Gap: disparities in degree attainment in HE 22/1/ 2008 IOS
What are the Opportunities to Bring about Change?
• P.I.N Triangles (Position, Interest, Needs)
• University• White students• Black Students
[email protected] Minding the Gap: disparities in degree attainment in HE 22/1/ 2008 IOS
Three themes that emerge from discussion
• Learning Contracts• Mentoring systems• Radical Curriculum
[email protected] Minding the Gap: disparities in degree attainment in HE 22/1/ 2008 IOS
The “silent ones”
• I am prepared to initiate some change in the university and its approach towards students, because I am in touch with the "silent-ones", who speak to me about how they truly feel but do not have enough confidence in the initiatives that are being created. I feel if we all work together, things will improve for all the students.
[email protected] Minding the Gap: disparities in degree attainment in HE 22/1/ 2008 IOS
Narratives
• When I told another student what grade I got they said they did not think that I was capable of getting that grade
• Is that how they think about us• From a very young age we are taught to
memorise.. We are discouraged from having our own opinions …now they constantly pick on us for plagiarism
[email protected] Minding the Gap: disparities in degree attainment in HE 22/1/ 2008 IOS
Narratives
• I asked my tutor how I could improve my grade he told me that my aspirations were too high, he said that 60% is a good mark and I should be happy… I was shocked, it really put me off
• My tutor told me that I was just unlucky, it’s just bad luck
[email protected] Minding the Gap: disparities in degree attainment in HE 22/1/ 2008 IOS
Narratives
• I noticed that when we are discussing issues that have anything to do with Black people the White students don’t contribute, when I challenge this, they just reply we are learning from you.
• Yet in the work situation they are the ones with the best jobs telling us what to do.
[email protected] Minding the Gap: disparities in degree attainment in HE 22/1/ 2008 IOS
Narratives
• We really need this group I feel so empowered
• We have to be strong we need unity
• No one expects me to succeed but I am determined, it does not matter how long it takes I will succeed
[email protected] Minding the Gap: disparities in degree attainment in HE 22/1/ 2008 IOS
How can I rise?