‘SAGE’ findings about the role of researchers in race equality projects

The role of researchers and how they design their investigations is a key element to tackling racial inequalities, according to a suite of research from University of Northampton (UON).

The research comes from the University’s Centre for the Advancement of Race Equality (CARE) and Centre for Education and Research (CER) and have been coordinated by UON Senior Lecturer in Education Dr Emel Thomas.

The papers also explore how bringing in the experiences and voices of research participants will create clearer, fairer policies to enhance efforts to tackle race equality and societal injustices.

The full list of papers is below, published on SAGE Research Methods (behind paywall):

• Race-related research methods: To understand the complexities of prejudice and inequality in society, researchers should choose appropriate research designs to shed light on the experiences of the marginalised and anti-racist practice. It is when researchers – and the wider world – listen, reflect, and acts that social justice and decolonisation processes begin.
• Understanding co-produced research: Capturing authentic experiences and viewpoints can support system changes and improve people’s lives. Co-production of research between the researcher and their participants can drive impactful transformation.
• How to identify and unpack the influence of racialised language in policy: The policy process can perpetuate racialisation (categorising or marginalising people through racialised language). To ensure they address this, researchers need to deeply understand both it and the policy analysis process, and design research that considers it. This article has been created to explain and discuss these areas, drawing on examples within the UK and US public sectors.
• How to use oral history to study race and leadership: People’s oral histories can illuminate the experiences of unrepresented and marginalised individuals and/or communities, looking at social justice issues of race and underrepresented Black leaders in schools.
• How to balance Western Indigenous perspectives in research: This article provides strategies for researchers to use to balance Indigenous and Western perspectives in research activities and ensure their research is responsible, respectful, and representative. To build mutual trust, they should use a ‘two-eye seeing’ strategy to learn from the strengths of these communities.

Dr Thomas says: “Despite progress in some areas of society, we still have some way to travel to ensure true equality for people of diverse backgrounds. These research papers, although ostensibly about system-wide issues, have a clear focus on individuals, particularly the need to actively listen to their experiences and views.

“These voices can become lost in policy development and practices that affect all of us. Researchers looking to augment these policies and procedures need to clearly listen to and reflect on individual experiences; only then can subsequent actions and ongoing anti-racist activism become magnified and be truly impactful.”

Further guides/articles will be presented in 2025 from this project as a continuation of this action.