‘Just open your eyes a bit more’: the methodological challenges of researching black and minority ethnic students' experiences of physical education teacher education

Abstract

In this paper we discuss some of the challenges of centralising ‘race’ and ethnicity in Physical Education (PE) research, through reflecting on the design and implementation of a study exploring Black and minority ethnic students' experiences of their teacher education. Our aim in the paper is to contribute to ongoing theoretical and methodological debates about intersectionality, and specifically about difference and power in the research process. As McCorkel and Myers notes, the ‘researchers’ backstage'—the assumptions, motivations, narratives and relations—that underpin any research are not always made visible and yet are highly significant in judging the quality and substance of the resulting project. As feminists, we argue that the invisibility of ‘race’ and ethnicity within Physical Education Teacher Education (PETE), and PE research more widely, is untenable; however, we also show how centralising ‘race’ and ethnicity raised significant methodological and epistemological questions, particularly given our position as White researchers and lecturers. In this paper, we reflect on a number of aspects of our research ‘journey’: the theoretical and methodological challenges of operationalising concepts of ‘race’ and ethnicity, the practical issues and dilemmas involved in recruiting participants for the study, the difficulties of ‘talking race’ personally and professionally and challenges of representing the experiences of ‘others’.

Keywords:

• Physical education (PE)
• Methodology
• Whiteness
• Power
• ‘Race’
• Ethnicity
• Difference

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to all the students that gave up their time to take part in the research and to Beccy Watson for her thoughtful and useful comments on earlier drafts of this paper. Thanks are also due to the full research team for their help, without which the project could not have been completed. They are: Anne Chappell, Cathy Gower, Saul Keyworth, Julia Lawrence, Julie Money, Sarah Squires and Louisa Webb.

Notes

1. The full report is published on the TDA sponsored website, Multiverse, a resource that aims to help teacher educators and students address the educational achievements of students from diverse backgrounds (see http://www.multiverse.ac.uk; see also Flintoff & Money, 2009).

2. In England, the majority of secondary schools cater for children aged between 11 and 18 years, and most students aiming to teach in secondary school specialise in one subject area in their training (e.g. Maths, English or PE).

3. We recognise, however, the significant attention to ‘race’ and ethnicity have received in the related body of literature in the sociology of sports (e.g. see Long et al., 2009, for a good overview of some of the UK literature relating to BME participation in sports and recreation).

4. Despite the fact that the 2000 amendment to the UK Race Relations Act (1976) has strengthened the requirement for all public authorities to promote race equality and good race relations (Commission for Racial Equality/now the Equality and Human Rights Commission, 2008), research such as Callender (2007) and Callender et al. (2006), suggest there is little evidence that the gathering of statistics on ethnicity actually results in changed practices.

5. Our decision to report our sample using these wider ethnic categories is linked to ensuring participants’ anonymity, which we discuss below.

6. Although space prevents a full discussion here, Rattansi (2000) argues for the importance of a historical perspective in understanding the ways in which nationality, ethnicity and identity intersect in the lives of ethnic minorities in Britain. She argues that whilst it is now ‘grudgingly accepted’ that ethnic minorities can be British, their lack of whiteness continues to pose ‘insuperable barriers’ to being English.

7. Where one of us held the position of Course Leader, the email was sent by another Course/Programme leader in PETE.

8. In England, the TDA limit the numbers of PETE trainees that each individual institution is allowed to recruit on an annual basis. We use the term ‘major’ here to describe those institutions that have significant numbers (40 + ) of trainees each year.

9. This is perhaps not surprising given the lack of reflection by men on masculinity and power in PE research (Brown & Rich, 2002; Connell, 2008).

10. We did however, offer all students the opportunity to read and comment on a copy of their transcript and sent them a copy of the final report. Also, as previously mentioned, one of the unintended outcomes of the research has been the increased interest by the students themselves in carrying out their own research in the area of ‘race’ and ethnicity; as a result, we have continued to work and talk with several of the participants during their PETE.