12 research outputs found
University Student, 2017
No full textColour photograph of Fatmata Daramy a student at the University of Leicester. Submitted for the 'University of Leicester Community' Category, Student Life Photograph Competition, 2016-2017. Entered with the caption 'this photo was taken as part a photo series called MELANIN collated during black history month. The aim was to widen the representation of black students at the university.
The Impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic on Children of Colour in Scotland: Methodological and Ethical Reflections
No full textIn this article, we offer methodological and ethical reflections from our research project, “The Impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic on Children of Colour in Scotland: Visions for Change”. The project was conducted from January to July 2021, largely under Covid lockdown conditions. Our reflections take the form of creative writing, spoken-word poetry, images and reflective writing. Particularly, we highlight the ongoing, enmeshed and entangled nature of researcher and researched and how this relates to extractive practices, ethical care and navigations of systemic racism in children’s rights research with children of colour. We do so by positioning ourselves and our personal narratives, at times, as axles within this piece of work using Unarchigal (உணர்ச்சிகள்)—Modalities of Resistance, which is an embodiment resistance approach created within postcolonial radical feminist autoethnography. We suggest that researchers might consider similar reflexivity around these issues in their own children’s rights research.
A note for readers: in keeping with the enmeshed nature of researcher and researched, particularly as two researchers are women of colour, we use swearing in one section via spoken-word poetry. Swearing is framed as a coping mechanism and response to narratives witnessed in the project, alongside the navigation of systemic racism and the colonial edifice that children and young people of colour and their families are forced to navigate. There will be usage of Pavi’s mother tongue, Tamizh (Tamil), via phrases and a few sentences alongside translations, capturing these intimate reflections.
Keywords: children’s rights; anti-racism; ethics; auto-ethnography
The Impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic on Children of Colour in Scotland: Methodological and Ethical Reflections
No full textCaralyn Blaisdell - ORCID 0000-0002-5491-7346
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5491-7346In this article, we offer methodological and ethical reflections from our research project, “The Impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic on Children of Colour in Scotland: Visions for Change”. The project was conducted from January to July 2021, largely under Covid lockdown conditions. Our reflections take the form of creative writing, spoken-word poetry, images and reflective writing. Particularly, we highlight the ongoing, enmeshed and entangled nature of researcher and researched and how this relates to extractive practices, ethical care and navigations of systemic racism in children’s rights research with children of colour. We do so by positioning ourselves and our personal narratives, at times, as axles within this piece of work using Unarchigal (உணர்ச்சிகள்)—Modalities of Resistance, which is an embodiment resistance approach created within postcolonial radical feminist autoethnography. We suggest that researchers might consider similar reflexivity around these issues in their own children’s rights research.5pubpub
The Impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic on Children of Colour in Scotland: Methodological and Ethical Reflections
No full textIn this article, we offer methodological and ethical reflections from our research project, “The Impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic on Children of Colour in Scotland: Visions for Change”. The project was conducted from January to July 2021, largely under Covid lockdown conditions. Our reflections take the form of creative writing, spoken-word poetry, images and reflective writing. Particularly, we highlight the ongoing, enmeshed and entangled nature of researcher and researched and how this relates to extractive practices, ethical care and navigations of systemic racism in children’s rights research with children of colour. We do so by positioning ourselves and our personal narratives, at times, as axles within this piece of work using Unarchigal (உணர்ச்சிகள்)—Modalities of Resistance, which is an embodiment resistance approach created within postcolonial radical feminist autoethnography. We suggest that researchers might consider similar reflexivity around these issues in their own children’s rights research.A note for readers: in keeping with the enmeshed nature of researcher and researched, particularly as two researchers are women of colour, we use swearing in one section via spoken-word poetry. Swearing is framed as a coping mechanism and response to narratives witnessed in the project, alongside the navigation of systemic racism and the colonial edifice that children and young people of colour and their families are forced to navigate. There will be usage of Pavi’s mother tongue, Tamizh (Tamil), via phrases and a few sentences alongside translations, capturing these intimate reflections.</p
How Culturally Sensitive is our Curriculum? A Multi-Institutional Study
No full textThe Office for Students has set a target for all higher education institutions in England charging higher fees to:
-eliminate the unexplained gap in degree outcomes (1sts or 2:1s) between white students and black students by 2024-25, and to eliminate the gap entirely by 2030-31
Degree outcomes are affected by a wide range of factors and, in this case, racialised inequalities within the sector appear to be a key element.Creating more culturally sensitive curricula is one way to build more equitable higher education institutions, and research indicates that it may have a positive impact on students’, particularly racially minoritised students’, experience of and engagement with the curriculum and final degree outcome.
In this study, seven NERUPI institutions worked together to survey second year undergraduate students in at least one selected programme (in the arts, humanities, social sciences or an applied health sciences) per university to determine the relationship between cultural sensitivity of the curriculum, students’ interest in their course, and their satisfaction with the course. Students completed a 15 minute survey rating six dimensions of the cultural sensitivity of the curriculum (the Culturally Sensitive Curricula Scales or CSCS), their interest in their course (a measure of engagement) and their satisfaction with their course, as well as providing demographic information. If what students were taught and the way they were taught it was culturally sensitive, students rated five of the six CSCS dimensions highly. These dimensions were:
-Diversity Represented (e.g. diversity cultures, people, perspectives are represented in the curriculum)
-Positive Depictions (e.g. people of colour and people of diverse ethnicities are presented in positive ways that affirm their strengths and assets)
-Challenge Power (e.g. students are encouraged to raise critical questions about power and privilege that are usually taken for granted)
-Inclusive Classroom Interactions (e.g. instructors encourage students to be mindful of others’ perspectives)
-Culturally Sensitive Assessments (e.g. students are encouraged to connect the subject to diverse cultural experiences, perspectives, histories or contexts.)
-On the sixth dimension, Negative Portrayals, (e.g. people of colour are presented in negative or stereotyped ways), we expected to see disagreement indicated by low ratings if the curricula is culturally sensitive.
286 students (64% white; 17% Asian; 10% Black) from 7 universities and 8 different disciplinary areas completed the survey. We found that:
-Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) students rated the curricula as less culturally sensitive than their white peers across almost all dimensions of the CSCS. Black African, Caribbean and Black British students tended to rate the curriculum as less culturally sensitive than Asian and Asian British students, particularly on Positive Depictions and Negative Portrayals of people of colour in the curriculum. This finding shows that BAME students, particularly Black students, perceive their curriculum differently from White students. They may feel excluded, marginalised or ignored as a result. This finding was true across universities and courses, suggesting it is a widespread problem. Educators need to improve the cultural sensitivity of our curriculum to ensure it is inclusive for all students.
-Regardless of the ethnicity of the student, culturally sensitive curricula were associated with higher interest in the course, even when controlling for teachers’ approachability and enthusiasm. The five positive aspects of culturally sensitive curricula each predicted students’ interest. That means culturally sensitive curricula are likely to benefit all students, not just BAME students.
-BAME students were less satisfied with their courses. This finding was expected because we selected items from the National Student Survey on which there have been consistently lower scores from BAME students. We found that students’ scores on the cultural sensitivity of the curriculum may help to explain these gaps in satisfaction between BAME and White students, but we aren’t sure because the role is CSCS is no longer significant when controlling for teachers’ enthusiasm and approachability. More research is needed on this issue.
To conclude, BAME students, and particularly Black students, perceive the curricula as less culturally sensitive than their peers, highlighting a significant and meaningful “experience gap”. Improving the cultural sensitivity of the curriculum, then, may help create a more equitable HE experience for racially minoritised students. Doing so may also improve their course satisfaction. In sum, culturally sensitive curricula are good for both BAME and White students insofar as they are associated with higher interest in the course (engagement) for all students. Based on the findings, universities should continue to emphasise efforts to create more culturally sensitive curricula. It is also important to collaborate across universities to share promising practices and tools. Given the discipline-specificity of curricula, professional societies and accrediting bodies can play an important role in leading on processes of reimagining curricula in their fields
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Children's Rights: Contemporary Issues in Law and Society (PART II)
No full textIssue 5.3 of Amicus Curiae Series 2 has just been published. The issue opens with Part 2 of our Special Section on Children’s Rights: Contemporary Issues in Law and Society, organized, developed and edited by Dr Maria Federica Moscati (Sussex University) and includes contributions like essays, poems, drawings and videos, from Caralyn Blaisdell, Fatmata K Daramy & Pavithra Sarma, Susie Bower-Brown, Debra L DeLaet, Brian D Earp & Elizabeth Mills, Marianna Iliadou, Carmelo Danisi & Tomas Caprara, Maria Mercedes Frabboni and Chelsea Wallis. Also in the Special Section, Kristen Hope, with a cohort of children and young people who are poets, child rights activists and defenders, presents ‘Poetry for Rights!’, a contribution placing children and young people front and centre of the discussion of their own rights. Part 2 is complemented by videos on our YouTube channelThe remainder of the issue offers articles from Justice Sir Dennis Adjei of the Court of Appeal, Ghana, on freedom of expression, Neels Kilian on insurance law principles, Dominic Spenser Underhill on compulsory ADR in British Courts, and Mei Ning YAN on newsgathering in Hong Kong.The issue closes with Visual Law, featuring a final Special Section contribution by Alankrita S which presents artistic reflections on children in conflict with the law in India.</p
Symbolic blood: cloths for excised women
No full textThe most interesting problems in fieldwork usually arise when one runs into outright unhelpfulness on the part of informants. When I first arrived in Kolokani, armed with photographs of numerous mud cloths from European museums, I was puzzled by the reaction to one particular image: the Basiae cloth. At the sight of this pattern, my informants burst into embarrassed laughter then became mute. Several months later I observed a N'Gale cloth and was equally confused by Fatmata Traore's reluctance to paint its black and white stripes on the wrapper I offered her. Why should these two cloths, the Basiae and N'Gale, arouse such resistance? No one was reluctant to explain the meanings of other patterns. Do these cloths have a different kind of meaning; if so, what is it?Copyright © by the President and Fellows of Harvard College. Originally printed in Res: Anthropology and Aesthetics, Issue 3, Spring 1982 (pp. 15-31). All rights reserved. No part of this article may be reproduced without permission of the Peabody Museum Press.Peer reviewed"Spring 1982
Conflicts and refugees in developing countries
No full textMany reasons have been put forward explaining the rate of economic growth in developing countries. The aim of this dissertation is to investigate whether refugees and conflict help to explain Africa and other developing regions’ rate of economic growth. Economists, especially development economists, have been long engaged with the question of what makes different countries more or less successful economically and what explains their rate of economic growth. Different authors select their own favorite explanatory variables ranging from purely economic, geographic, legal, political, cultural, religious and historical ones. In this work, the flow of refugees and the prevalence conflict in developing countries is introduced as key variables among others as possible factors that could explain the rate of economic growth in Africa and other regions of the developing world. The poorest countries have provided asylum and shelter for almost three quarter of the world’s refugees over the past decade. However, statistics on refugees in these countries suffer from unavailability, periodical lags and some times contradictions. This study takes the initiative, with these problems in mind, to do a quantitative analysis of the effects of refugees on developing countries. The dataset consists of 72 countries, of which 40 countries are in sub-Saharan Africa, 4 in North Africa and 14 in Asia and South America respectively. The inclusion of countries from other parts of the developing world-Asia and South America- is driven by comparative motives. Using econometric methods on cross sectional data, the study finds very interesting results on the economic relationship between refugees and refugee-receiving developing countries, refugees and conflict and both variables’ effect on developing countries. In addition, several socio-economic variables-trade, life expectancy, illiteracy rate, gross capital formation and gross foreign direct investment- are significantly affected if a country’s neighbour(s) is/are in conflict and when countries receive large influx of refugees. The study also uses standard methods of panel data estimation (fixed effects and random effects) which makes it possible to control for time-invariant country-specific effects in further establishing short run effects of refugees and conflict in developing countries. Empirical analysis is also carried out, with the use of pooled cross sectional data, on factors affecting the flow of refugees, the effects of refugees on ‘rich’ and ‘poor’ ( rich and poor developing countries are defined by the author in relation to countries in the study) and factors attracting/distracting refugees to /from certain developing countries. The study also looks at the spill over effects of conflicts in neighbouring countries.Conflicts; Refugees; Developing countries
Conflicts and refugees in developing countries
No full textMany reasons have been put forward explaining the rate of economic growth in developing countries. The aim of this dissertation is to investigate whether refugees and conflict help to explain Africa and other developing regions’ rate of economic growth.
Economists, especially development economists, have been long engaged with the question of what makes different countries more or less successful economically and what explains their rate of economic growth. Different authors select their own favorite explanatory variables ranging from purely economic, geographic, legal, political, cultural, religious and historical ones. In this work, the flow of refugees and the prevalence conflict in developing countries is introduced as key variables among others as possible factors that could explain the rate of economic growth in Africa and other regions of the developing world.
The poorest countries have provided asylum and shelter for almost three quarter of the world’s refugees over the past decade. However, statistics on refugees in these countries suffer from unavailability, periodical lags and some times contradictions. This study takes the initiative, with these problems in mind, to do a quantitative analysis of the effects of refugees on developing countries. The dataset consists of 72 countries, of which 40 countries are in sub-Saharan Africa, 4 in North Africa and 14 in Asia and South America respectively. The inclusion of countries from other parts of the developing world-Asia and South America- is driven by comparative motives.
Using econometric methods on cross sectional data, the study finds very interesting results on the economic relationship between refugees and refugee-receiving developing countries, refugees and conflict and both variables’ effect on developing countries. In addition, several socio-economic variables-trade, life expectancy, illiteracy rate, gross capital formation and gross foreign direct investment- are significantly affected if a country’s neighbour(s) is/are in conflict and when countries receive large influx of refugees. The study also uses standard methods of panel data estimation (fixed effects and random effects) which makes it possible to control for time-invariant country-specific effects in further establishing short run effects of refugees and conflict in developing countries. Empirical analysis is also carried out, with the use of pooled cross sectional data, on factors affecting the flow of refugees, the effects of refugees on ‘rich’ and ‘poor’ ( rich and poor developing countries are defined by the author in relation to countries in the study) and factors attracting/distracting refugees to /from certain developing countries. The study also looks at the spill over effects of conflicts in neighbouring countries
Culturally sensitive curricula scales: Researching, evaluating and enhancing higher education curricula
No full textThis edited collection outlines the conceptualization, development, and use of a novel set of Culturally Sensitive Curricula Scales (CSCS) as an instrument for students to rate the cultural sensitivity of their curriculum, as well as a self-reflection tool for educators to use to make curriculum changes. The book provides insights from the use of the tools collectively and individually in a range of higher education institutions across the UK, to inform curriculum revision nationally and internationally
