Project overview
This project looks at experiences of minority ethnic students in work placements (NHS but also others) and seeks to understand the reasons behind low rates of reporting racial discrimination on such placements, and further what can be done to improve both rates of reporting, and bring about an environment of zero tolerance towards racist discrimination in the workplace.
The project is founded upon the principles of ‘participatory action research’ (PRA) — where those who are being researched become active agents in shaping and designing the research project. As such, the project team includes three student peer researchers of ethnic minority background (Junior Research Fellows) who are being remunerated for their work as co-researchers, thus recognising the labour and time they will put into this project.
We take a qualitative approach to address our research questions and are aiming to collect qualitative data through semi-structured Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) with students from ethnic minority and white backgrounds studying for a Health Sciences or Psychology degree. The focus on these two disciplines is because they have work placements as a requirement for their degree. Some work placements will be in the NHS, but not all of them.
The project is funded through a FELS EDI (Equality, Diversity & Inclusion) 2023 award and runs between August 2023 and July 2024.
PROJECT TEAM
Project PI: Ms Monique Cleary, BSc Podiatry, Health Sciences
Project CoIs:
* Dr Olatundun Gafari, Lecturer in Health Sciences and Southampton EDI fellow for NIHR Biomedical Research Centre (BRC);
* Dr Julie Vullnetari, Associate Professor of Human Geography (SoGES); Faculty (FELS) Associate Dean for EDI
Junior Research Fellows (student peer researchers):
* Ms Achsah James; 2nd year BSc Podiatry
* Ms Memoona Shafqat; MSc in Health Psychology (2023); BSc in Psychology
* Ms Prinzessin (Tracy) Ikoza; MSc Child and Mental Health Nursing (year 3 of 4)
Project Advisors
Prof. Maria Stokes OBE (Health Sciences) – Health Sciences EDI lead and Southampton NIHR BRC EDI Lead.
The project is founded upon the principles of ‘participatory action research’ (PRA) — where those who are being researched become active agents in shaping and designing the research project. As such, the project team includes three student peer researchers of ethnic minority background (Junior Research Fellows) who are being remunerated for their work as co-researchers, thus recognising the labour and time they will put into this project.
We take a qualitative approach to address our research questions and are aiming to collect qualitative data through semi-structured Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) with students from ethnic minority and white backgrounds studying for a Health Sciences or Psychology degree. The focus on these two disciplines is because they have work placements as a requirement for their degree. Some work placements will be in the NHS, but not all of them.
The project is funded through a FELS EDI (Equality, Diversity & Inclusion) 2023 award and runs between August 2023 and July 2024.
PROJECT TEAM
Project PI: Ms Monique Cleary, BSc Podiatry, Health Sciences
Project CoIs:
* Dr Olatundun Gafari, Lecturer in Health Sciences and Southampton EDI fellow for NIHR Biomedical Research Centre (BRC);
* Dr Julie Vullnetari, Associate Professor of Human Geography (SoGES); Faculty (FELS) Associate Dean for EDI
Junior Research Fellows (student peer researchers):
* Ms Achsah James; 2nd year BSc Podiatry
* Ms Memoona Shafqat; MSc in Health Psychology (2023); BSc in Psychology
* Ms Prinzessin (Tracy) Ikoza; MSc Child and Mental Health Nursing (year 3 of 4)
Project Advisors
Prof. Maria Stokes OBE (Health Sciences) – Health Sciences EDI lead and Southampton NIHR BRC EDI Lead.
Dr Robert Shannon (Psychology) – with an understanding of complicated language used within interviewing setting
