• Developing Culturally Sensitive Skills in Health and Social Care with a Focus on Conducting Research with African Caribbean Communities in England

      Higginbottom, Gina Marie Awoko; Serrant-Green, Laura (Nova Southeastern University, 2005)
      Researchers may not feel equipped to conduct qualitative research with ethnic minority communities in England because they may lack of culturally sensitive research skills. The aim of this paper is to explore how researchers might integrate culturally sensitive research skills into their work. This paper draws on our own experiences of conducting research with African Caribbean communities in England, and from workshops we facilitated with researchers and community representatives. The purpose of the workshops was to establish the most pertinent issues in conducting research with ethnic minority communities in England. We gathered data from the participants and created themes based on the discussions: establishing the need for an inclusive approach to research, issues around recruitment, respecting cultural norms, and dealing with disclosure
    • Did they jump or were they pushed? Reasons why minority ethnic trainees withdraw from initial teacher training courses

      Basit, Tehmina N.; Roberts, Lorna; McNamara, Olwen; Carrington, Bruce; Maguire, Meg; Woodrow, Derek (Routledge, 2006)
      This article reports the findings of a research project which examines the reasons why minority ethnic trainees withdraw from teacher training courses. It highlights a number of issues, the most significant of which is that withdrawal is a process not an event. The most common causes of withdrawal were 'personal' and 'family' reasons. However, the combination of these two factors with various issues to do with the initial teacher training (ITT) institution and the placement school made it impossible for most trainees to stay on the course. With the exception of perceptions of racism by some minority ethnic trainees, the reasons for withdrawal given by majority ethnic and minority ethnic trainees were by and large the same. The article concludes by suggesting a number of strategies for ITT institutions and placement schools to improve the retention of trainees. It emphasises the need for better support from ITT institutions, more structured mentoring during school placements, continuous and effective communication between the ITT institutions and placement schools, flexibility in course structure, improved funding, availability of affordable childcare, and the tackling of discrimination. It also stresses that withdrawal is not necessarily final, and these trainees should be encouraged to return to teaching as many enjoyed the course and would make good teachers.
    • Discoursive strategies for coping with sensitive topics of the Other

      Galasinska, Aleksandra; Galasinski, Dariusz (London, Routledge (Taylor & Francis), 2003)
      This paper explores border residents' strategies for coping with topics which they perceive as difficult or sensitive in their discourses about people living in such European border locations. Thus we are concerned with the way in which people negotiate accounts of implicit or explicit ethnic conflict, prejudice or negative stereotyping of 'the Other'. We indicate two types of such strategies. First, the strategy of mitigation, in which informants attempt to soften or licence their stereotypical views. Second, we shall discuss a strategy in which mitigation is replaced by the practice of 'oracular reasoning' in our informants' constructions of the ethnic Other; this occurs in those instances when a basic premise is confronted with contradictory evidence, but the evidence is ignored or rejected. The data for our analysis come from 12 border communities in which informants talk about the Other from either across the border, or, in the case of multi-ethnic communities, from within the community itself. We focus upon constructions that purport to give a universal answer to questions of 'what they are like'. Specifically, we explore those constructions where informants have to deal with conflictual voices (either explicit or implicit in the informants' discourse) which question their accounts or contradict the claims they make. Finally, we see the strategies for coping with conflictual accounts of the Other as indicative of the tension between the discursively postulated social/ethnic separation of the border communities and the constructed threat from the Other on the one hand, and, on the other hand, the new and changing public discourse of the Other and the politics underpinning it which goes counter to those more private discourses. (Routledge)
    • Equal opportunities or affirmative action? The induction of minority ethnic teachers

      Basit, Tehmina N.; McNamara, Olwen (Routledge, 2004)
      Currently in the UK there is much pressure to increase the recruitment and retention of ethnic minority teachers, not only to respond to the continuing shortage, but to develop a teaching force that reflects the diversity in the UK population and provides role models for ethnic minority students. There is, however, little research on how ethnic minority teachers cope with the demands of the profession, especially in their first year. The introduction by the Department for Education and Employment (DfEE) of an induction period for Newly Qualified Teachers (NQTs) in 1999 was an attempt to create a programme of individual support and monitoring to provide NQTs with a bridge from Initial Teacher Training (ITT) to becoming established in their chosen profession. We believe it is now timely and important to examine how ethnic minority beginning teachers experience these new arrangements. In this paper we, therefore, explore the induction experiences of British teachers of Asian and African Caribbean origin in three Local Education Authorities (LEAs) in the North West of England. We conclude that the NQTs are being provided with equal opportunities by their employers and that affirmative action may have been undertaken by a few of these employers during the recruitment and selection process, although some anecdotal evidence is also presented of discrimination. Further, the paper suggests that the majority of the NQTs find their schools and LEAs supportive and the induction process valuable, although it highlights the need for additional support in some individual cases.
    • Erfolg in der Nische? Die Vietnamesen in der DDR und in Ostdeutschland

      Weiss, Karin; Dennis, Mike (London: Lit Verlag, 2005)
      Traces the social development of the Vietnamese contract workers since the collapse of SED rule to the present day and also provides an overview of the most important aspects of their life in Germany. An examination is undertaken of the decline in the numbers of former Vietnamese contract workers in East Germany, from about 59,000 at the end of 1989 to 21,000 one year later, and the dramatic changes to their work contracts and their economic, occupational and social situation. Special attention is paid to the question of solidarity within the group of Vietnamese and problems in interaction with the German population and their surroundings. The Vietnamese experience of the massive increase in xenophobia soon after the Wende played a crucial role in the growing cohesiveness of the ethnic group. Finally, an assessment is made of the situation of the second generation of Vietnamese living in Germany, in particular problems such as relations between family members.
    • Nach der Wende: Vietnamesische Vertragsarbeiter und Vertragsarbeiterinnen in Ostdeutschland heute

      Weiss, Karin (London: Lit Verlag, 2005)
      This book traces the social development of the Vietnamese contract workers since the collapse of SED rule to the present day and also provides an overview of the most important aspects of their life in Germany. An examination is undertaken of the decline in the numbers of former Vietnamese contract workers in East Germany, from about 59,000 at the end of 1989 to 21,000 one year later, and the dramatic changes to their work contracts and their economic, occupational and social situation. Special attention is paid to the question of solidarity within the group of Vietnamese and problems in interaction with the German population and their surroundings. The Vietnamese experience of the massive increase in xenophobia soon after the Wende played a crucial role in the growing cohesiveness of the ethnic group. Finally, an assessment is made of the situation of the second generation of Vietnamese living in Germany, in particular problems such as relations between family members.
    • Strukturen der Selbsthilfe im ethnischen Netzwerk

      Weiss, Karin (London: Lit Verlag, 2005)
      This book traces the social development of the Vietnamese contract workers since the collapse of SED rule to the present day and also provides an overview of the most important aspects of their life in Germany. An examination is undertaken of the decline in the numbers of former Vietnamese contract workers in East Germany, from about 59,000 at the end of 1989 to 21,000 one year later, and the dramatic changes to their work contracts and their economic, occupational and social situation. Special attention is paid to the question of solidarity within the group of Vietnamese and problems in interaction with the German population and their surroundings. The Vietnamese experience of the massive increase in xenophobia soon after the Wende played a crucial role in the growing cohesiveness of the ethnic group. Finally, an assessment is made of the situation of the second generation of Vietnamese living in Germany, in particular problems such as relations between family members.
    • The Bar is Slightly Higher: the Perception of Racism in Teacher Education.

      Basit, Tehmina N.; McNamara, Olwen; Roberts, Lorna; Carrington, Bruce; Maguire, Meg; Woodrow, Derek (London: Routledge (Taylor & Francis), 2007)
      The education and training of teachers is an issue of national concern. In this paper we analyse the findings of an in-depth investigation, undertaken by means of semi structured interviews, of a group of minority ethnic teacher trainees who withdrew from Initial Teacher Training courses in England, and a smaller group of those who completed these courses. We focus, in particular, on trainees' perception of the manifestation of racism during their training. Though none of the minority ethnic withdrawers perceive racism as the determining factor for their withdrawal, some mention instances of covert and even overt racism, while others note subtle forms of discriminatory obstacles to successful completion of the course, which they are reluctant to label as racism. The paper concludes by pointing to the complexity of categorizing phenomena as racism. It also draws attention, on the one hand, to the vulnerability of those who view themselves as being racially abused, and, on the other, to those who are disinclined to dwell on barriers to success as forms of racism and are more predisposed to regarding them as failures of the system.
    • The phenomenon of possession and exorcism in north India and amongst the Punjabi diaspora in Wolverhampton.

      Chryssides, George; Chohan, Sandeep Singh (University of Wolverhampton, 2008)
      Based upon two years fieldwork in Wolverhampton and Coventry, and several field trips to Punjab, this thesis focuses on the prevalence of possession and exorcism as a manifestation of Punjabi religion amongst the Punjabi diaspora in Wolverhampton. Euro-centric scholarship and reform movements in the 1900s, in India, suppressed religious traditions that did not conform to the textual and institutionalised forms of religion. This thesis proposes that the phenomenon of possession and exorcism observed amongst the Punjabi diaspora in Wolverhampton is in no way novel, rather it is a diasporic reconstruction of a vital tradition found within the religious traditions from the Punjab, and on a larger scale in the Indian sub-continent. Furthermore the Punjabi diaspora in Wolverhampton are in no way unique in the re-construction of this religious tradition in Britain. Various forms of supernatural malaise are prevalent amongst the Punjabi diaspora in Wolverhampton that are utilised by the community to explain the inexplicable diversities they face in daily life. These supernatural afflictions provide the Punjabi diaspora with a useful method of accepting adversity but also various methods to tackle it through the assistance of a baba or bhagat. This thesis explores the underlying cosmological discourses prevalent in the worldview of north Indian religious traditions in an attempt to analyse a relatively untouched phenomenon of religious beliefs and practices of the Punjabi diaspora in Wolverhampton.
    • Valuing oral history in the community

      Balaam, Marie-Claire (University of Wolverhampton, 2001)
      Valuing Oral History in the community has developed out of the University’s involvement in the Wolverhampton Black and Ethnic Minority Experience Project (BEME). BEME is a collaborative project developed by a range of local community groups, the local council, colleges and the University which was established to document the experiences of members of the Black and Ethnic Minority communities in Wolverhampton in the post-war period. The rationale behind BEME was to create a community-based Oral History video archive and to promote the use of this unique source of community-based knowledge within a range of educational settings, to encourage curriculum development and enhance the learning experience of students. The aims of the innovation developed from my work with the BEME project, my own and others’ experiences of the value of doing Oral History with undergraduates and the desire to encourage the development of a more inclusive and diverse curriculum for the 21st century. Out of these aims three key objectives were developed.
    • Widening Participation and HE. Students, systems and other paradoxes.

      Thompson, David W. (London: Routledge (Taylor & Francis), 2008)
      This paper has developed from research that the author initiated. The data were derived from an outreach project that aimed to increase awareness of and participation in higher education amongst Muslim women within a major English city. The paper elevates some of the author's findings into a general discussion on the role of higher education (HE) and the paradoxes that are revealed when considering how concepts of widening participation and lifelong learning fit within the HE system. Readers are invited to think of different approaches to widening participation, for example through civic and community engagement, and consider sustained research that relates access to wider debates within the study of HE, such as lifelong learning and civic responsibility.
    • Young people of minority ethnic origin in England and early parenthood: views from young parents and service providers.

      Higginbottom, Gina Marie Awoko; Mathers, N.; Marsh, P.; Kirkham, M.; Owen, J.M.; Serrant-Green, Laura (Elsevier, 2006)
      The paper explores the phenomenon of early parenthood in minority ethnic communities in England. The data were collected using focus group interviews, in-depth semi-structured interviews and a telephone survey. The sample consisted of 139 participants (41 service providers, 10 grandmothers, 88 young parents). The findings map out the complexity and diversity of experience of early parenthood amongst young people of minority ethnic origin, not least the multiple attachments many experience in relation to their social groups, religious affiliations and the traditional patterns of parenting within their immediate and extended family. Both the young parents and professionals in this study constructed early parenthood in more positive terms than is currently portrayed in the contemporary policy. The findings are analysed and discussed in relation to ethnic identity, social inclusion and exclusion. We explore participants' attempts to counter negative 'deficit' models of early parenthood with reference to perspectives on youth, parenthood and contemporary strategic policy. In conclusion, we suggest an unambiguous focus on the reduction of pregnancy is not a credible message when teenage pregnancy is a social norm for a particular ethnic or cultural group. For young parents of Muslim faith in particular, teenage parenting within marriage is not necessarily considered a 'problem' or seen as a distinctive event. Most participants did not view early parenthood as a barrier to re-establishing career and educational aspirations. A wide diversity of experience amongst young parents is evidenced in the communities studied; this needs to be reflected more comprehensively both in UK policy and in support services.
    • Zwischen Integration und Ausgrenzung: Jüdische Zuwanderer aus der ehemaligen Sowjetunion und Deutschland

      Weiss, Karin (Campus Verlag, 2002)
      This article surveys a transformation that affected both East and West Germany, albeit not to the same extent: the migration and settlement of Jewish refugees from the former Soviet Union. Originally agreed by the last GDR People's Chamber in 1990, and limited to a maximum of 2,000 individuals, German legislation was amended in 1991 and removed the numerical restrictions. A decade later, Jewish migration into Germany had reached nearly 100,000. While the German government celebrated the restoration of Jewish communities and Jewish life after the devastation inflicted by the Holocaust, the scope and composition of Jewish migration posed major problems for communities charged with integrating newcomers. In West Germany, existing communities more than doubled in size, often leaving Russian Jews in a majority. In East Germany, where the number of Jewish community members had dwindled to below 500 by 1990, the influx and the policy of dispersion across the region meant that new Russian-only communities were found in Potsdam, Schwerin and elsewhere. What would seem to be revitalisation amounted in reality to massive financial burdens on existing communities and divisive cultural pressures. Most of the newcomers are without earned income, employment and look to organisations for support. These, in turn, cannot collect membership dues from impoverished newcomers. Few Russian Jews have any knowledge of the German language and continue to communicate in Russian; few have any knowledge of Jewish religious or cultural traditions, since these were criminalised in the Soviet Union. Moreover, many of the newcomers are non-Jewish family members, or do not have a Jewish mother and are, therefore, not deemed to be Jewish by the religious authorities and the community leadership. In East Germany, the 4,000 or so Jewish newcomers are too few in number to restore Jewish life as a visible and vibrant social or cultural force.