Research Ethics and Job Roles

The necessary ethical and methodical processes required to continue in moving forward with this project have now been achieved. The interview schedule and participant forms have been completed and comply with International Research Ethics guidelines to ensure that the research is carried out ethically and that the correct permission and consent for the use of participant’s data is gained. All interview participants will receive a Participant Information Sheet and a Participant Consent Form that will inform them about the purpose of the research and the confidentiality of data gained. Both the Interview Schedule and Participant Information Form have been approved by the University of Northampton, FAST Research Ethics Committee.

The interview schedule has been informed by the previous review of literature and designed to enable one-to-one interviews to take place with an aim of gaining an in-depth insight of the lived experiences of HE BAME art and design students, graduates and lecturers. This method of research will gain information from persons whom have had a first hand experience of being educated and/ or worked within the HE environment at UoN. The schedule has been designed to explore the experiences of the participants and gain their personal opinions and perceptions of race and ethnicity in relation to progression within art and design education at UoN. Interviews will take place with 6 UoN art and design students (2x L4, 2xL5, 2xL6), 2 BAME UoN art and design graduates and 2 UoN art and design lecturers. A separate questionnaire will take place with 30 individual BAME art and design UoN student/ graduate research participants. Questionnaire topics include: Nationality and Ethnicity, Education and Diversity and University experience. Participants will be recruited in away that ensures that their involvement is voluntary and does not involve any form of coercion, either explicit or implicit.

Data has also been obtained by BIMI that outlines UoN art and design attainment, retention, progression and continuation by ethnicity and programme, this data is now in the process of being analysed and evaluated. All data collected from the interviews, questionnaires and UoN data will be analysed and included within the findings and evaluation of the study. 

Two assistant job role descriptions have been created; one for a Research Assistant to assist in coordinating, recording and analysing data, the other has been created for a Graphic Design Assistant to create original visual materials that support in the dissemination of the research. Both roles have been approved by UoN HR and Unitemps.

Within the next few weeks the focus will be to complete the following:

  • Analyse art and design student attainment, retention, progression and continuation data from UoN Management Information & Systems
  • Evaluate art and design attainment, retention, progression and continuation data from UoN Management Information & Systems
  • Send questionnaires out to research participants: BAME art and design students, art and design lecturers/ educators
  • Interview min. 6 BAME art and design students
  • Interview min. 2 BAME art and design graduates
  • Analyse and evaluate outcomes of research interviews and questions

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