CAN 2018 conference presentation at The University of Winchester

1. Understanding racial segregation in the
classroom through a staff/student
collaborative research project
Dr. Jim Lusted & Carjez Best-Bryan
University of Northampton
Jim.lusted2@Northampton.ac.uk
@DrJimLusted

2. Presentation overview
1. Background/rationale of project: the multi-cultural
classroom
2. Summary/analysis of key findings
3. Reflections on staff-student collaborations

3. Background/rationale
The ‘white curriculum’
Self or imposed ‘segregation’?
(Villalpando 2010; McKeown et al. 2016)
Tutors minimise racist institutional norms
(Harper 2012)
The racialised
student experience
(Cotton et al. 2015)

4. The Urb@n scheme at Northampton
• ‘Undergraduate Research
Bursaries at Northampton’
• Since 2009
• Staff-student collaboration
• L&T related research only
• £500 student bursary
• Produce and present a poster at
annual L&T conference
• Approx. 15 projects per year
Our project:
1. How do student groups form
and/or get allocated?
2. To what extent is this
influenced by ‘race’?
3. What group make-up to BME
students prefer/learn most
in?

5. Key findings – working in groups
Topic Themes Illustrative quotes
Allocation
process
Varied, often tutor led
No strong preference
”Tutor usually picks the groups … I personally don’t mind” (S2)
Group
formation
Groups based on friendships
Friendships ethnically aligned
“I choose friends because it’s easier to get together” (S5)
“you tend to drift to the people who are like you ” (S3)
Working with
BME students
Easy to get on with each other
Assumed trust
Perceived similarities
“[BME students are] more comfortable with each other …
something in common i.e. race” (S2)
“We are all usually from the same background and understand
each other better” (S4)
Working with
white
students
Difficult to communicate
Fear of appearing rude
Can’t be yourself
“it’s a little weird because you feel out of place and you don’t
know how to open up and engage with them” (S1)
“When working with people of other ethnicities I feel that they
sometimes don’t want to speak their mind “ (S3)
Perceived
tutor bias
BME students don’t ask for help
Tutor focus on white students
Hesitant to refute tutor bias
“We don’t really engage with the lecturer” (S1)
“The lecturers help the white students more because they are
always asking questions” (S4)
“I hope that the tutors don’t take race into account when it
comes to marking” (S5)

6. Discussion
• Tutor-led ‘colour-blind’ view of ‘race’ (Harper 2012) is not matched by BME
students
– Students draw regularly on ideas of ‘race’ to understand their learning
experiences
• The ethnic segregation of groups is mainly student rather than teacher led
– Based around existing friendships which are clearly racialised
• All respondents felt working with students from other ethnic backgrounds could
aid their learning.
• We recommend tutors to take a lead on group allocations and consider more
regularly mixing up friendship (and thus ethnic) groups in modules.
• A ‘race cognizant’ rather than ‘colour-blind’ approach should be encouraged
among teachers (Reason & Evans 2007)

7. Reflections on staff-student collaboration
https://bit.ly/2JRjpia

8. Reflections on staff-student collaborations

9. Reflections on staff-student collaboration
• Selecting your student – power, politics and personality
• Who owns the project? Who has most to gain/lose?
• Need to be flexible about nature of partnership:
– Apprentice model (co-researching)
– Supervisee model (guided autonomy)
– Research Assistant model (contributing to existing larger project)
• Getting ‘real’ student feedback
• Be realistic about what the collaboration can achieve

10. References
• Cotton, D., Joyner, M., George, R. & Cotton, P. (2016) Understanding the gender and
ethnicity attainment gap in UK higher education, Innovations in Education and Teaching
International, 53:5, 475-486
• Harper, S.R., 2012. Race without racism: How higher education researchers minimize
racist institutional norms. The Review of Higher Education, 36(1), pp.9-29.
• Hoong Sin, C., (2007) Ethnic-matching in qualitative research: reversing the gaze on
white others' and white 'as other'. Qualitative Research, 7(4), pp.477-499.
• McKeown, S., Stringer, M. and Cairns, E. (2016), Classroom segregation: where do
students sit and how is this related to group relations?. British Educational Research
Journal, 42: 40–55.
• Reason, R.D. and Evans, N.J., 2007. The complicated realities of Whiteness: From color
blind to racially cognizant. New Directions for Student Services, 2007(120), pp.67-75.
• Villalpando, O. (2010) "Latinas/os in higher education: Eligibility, enrollment, and
educational attainment." In Murillo, E. (ed.) Handbook of Latinos and education: Theory,
research, and practice (2010): 232-249.