The negotiation of ethics and communication - PowerPoint Presentation

Slide1

The negotiation of ethics and communication in institutional research about inequality in students’ outcomes

Duna Sabri27 June 2016duna.sabri@kcl.ac.uk

Closing the Gap: Research and Practice on Black and Minority Ethnic Student Attainment in HE

OverviewDifferences in attainment: some context

Institutional approaches and their pitfallsCausation: in HE discourse, applied research and theoryImplications of different views of causation

HE outcomes by ethnicity: difference between actual and sector-adjusted average, 2006-07 cohort

Young, UK-domiciled students starting a full-time first degree course at a UK HEI (HEFCE 2013/15).

Institutional approaches and their pitfalls

Confirming ...replicating national research, not tailoring analysis to distinctive institutional conditionsExploratory ... Over-investment, kept confidential Awareness-raising and discussion among academics, other professional staff and students

… restricted to committees and senior managers, rolled out on optional basis to those already aware and interested

Intervention

… continuity of staff, investment & clarity about what constitutes evidence (correlation + causal mechanism)

Evaluation

...unwarranted pessimism, lack of expertise and/or resource

Causation in HE discourse on attainment

Viewed through different lenses coloured by:Fears of reputational damage and freedom of information requestsAssumptions about where the causes lie are expressed in the choice of language: ‘achievement’, ‘under-performance’ or ‘degree classification’?Among activists: student attribute causes labelled ‘deficit model’ or ‘blaming the students’; institutional

attribute causes branded ‘

institutional

racism

’

Causation in research on attainment

Politicised polarisation between ‘individualised’ explanations (e.g. prior attainment) and structural (e.g campus environment) [Caplan & Ford 2014]‘Were they pushed or did they jump?’ Gambetta [1987] explores tensions between intentional choice, causes beyond individual awareness, and structural constraints on behaviour.Debates about structure and agency are political and have profound consequences for what is believed to be a worthwhile intervention.

Causality assumptions imbedded in communication

Surely, it’s social class! Language? Prior attainment!It is unthinkable that I would treat black students differently.

Why is my curriculum White?Why is my curriculum white?

What if…causation is

an interplay between what a student brings and what an institution provides, understood through a dialogic process of investigation?

What would constitute evidence of that interplay?

Correlation demonstrated through:Experimental research designs with control groupsLarge-scale quantitative analysisBUTIn social sciences oft-repeated ‘negative advice’ that a correlation is not the same as causation [Gorard

2002] acts as a general warning to steer away from causal claims.

Mechanisms

[Clarke

et al 2014]

demonstrated through:

Experience

Observation

BUT

‘psychologically compelling accounts’ do not constitute evidence [Clarke et al 2014]

Context of elevation of ‘the student experience (

Sabri

2011)

+

Subject group for 2003-4 entrants: HEFCE 2010/13

Subject group

White

Black

Pakistani & Bangladeshi

Chinese

Indian & other Asian

Mixed & other

Creative arts

20,160

(12%)

515

(10%)

175

(3%)

225

(10%)

550

(5%)

635

(12%)

Humanities

34,430

(20%)

610

(12%)

665

(11%)135(6%)900(8%)930(18%)Business30,275(18%)1,345(27%)1,340(21%)645(27%)3,115(27%)1,030(20%)Science44,830(26%)1,105(22%)2,225(36%)710(30%)3,655(32%)1,235(24%)Engineering & architecture11,745365410310(13%)865335Other23,83591519%1,3652802,160710Total171,9654,9456,2452,35011,3955,155

By contrast,

Woodfield

(2014) analyses

make up

of disciplines by ethnicity, retention & attainment

Interplay between familial contexts and HE

Images courtesy of Shades of Noir

How are the different disciplines historically and socially situated in different ethnic groups?

And

conversely, how do the disciplines situate different ethnicities?

‘Some students just don’t sign up to the intellectual project that is the course.’

Interventions

Universal: neutralise advantages conferred by unequal resources. E.g. clarity of briefsIndirectly targeted. E.g. commuter studentsTargeted but of universal benefit. E.g. addressing WhitenessTargeted resources: aimed at redressing past inequality or lack of knowledge. E.g. student ambassador scheme (Source: Runnymede 2015, Aiming Higher)

Interventions: who is involved?

Leadership from senior managersTutors, relationships and curricula: a primary site of change: ‘we need to define the problem for ourselves’Students: representation, knowledge and burdens of responsibilityStaff with experience and expertise in equality and diversity

Interventions: basic resourcesRelevant statistical

correlations at appropriate level (subject, programme) over several yearsKnowledge and understanding of causal mechanismsAwareness of possible interventions: help to adapt and adopt

Access to expertise and resources for

evaluation

ReferencesCaplan, P. J., & Ford, J. C. (2014). The voices of diversity: What students of diverse races/ ethnicities and both sexes tell us about their college experiences and their perceptions about their institutions’ progress toward diversity. APORIA, 6(3), 30–69.

Clarke, B., Gillies, D., Illari, P., Russo, F., & Williamson, J. (2014). Mechanisms and the evidence hierarchy. Topoi, 33(2), 339-360.Gambetta, D. (1987) Were they pushed or did they jump? Individual decision mechanisms in education, Cambridge, CUPGorard,S

.

(2002) The Role of Causal Models

in Evidence-informed

Policy Making and Practice,

Evaluation & Research

in Education

,

16(1), 51-65

Mountford-

Zimdars

, A., D.

Sabri

,

J.

Moore, J. Sanders,

S.

Jones (2015) The Causes of Differential Outcomes for HE Students in England, HEFCE

Sabri

,

D.

(2011) What’s wrong with ‘the student experience’? Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education 32(5

)

Woodfield, R. (2014) Undergraduate retention and attainment across the disciplines, York: HEA