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Analysis of Research Paradigm: Unequal Schooling: Race and Gender Disparity in Urban Education

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Analysis of Research Paradigm: Unequal Schooling: Race and Gender Disparity in Urban Education

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Constructivist/Interpretive

Structure qualitative research

There is no single reality or truth. Reality is created by individuals in groups (less realist).

In Lopez’s (2003) article the second-generation Caribbean group creates the reality.

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Need to understand the dynamics that contribute to race and gender disparities in urban education.

How race and gender intersect in the lives of the children of the largest new post-1965 immigrant group in New York City - second generation Caribbean youth.

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Compelling need to understand the dynamics that contribute to race and gender disparities in urban education with a focus on second-generation Caribbean youth.

Q: What accounts for the race and gender disparities in education?

Q: How is it that men and women who belong to the same racial and ethnic group, attend the same schools, grow up in the same social and economic circumstances, and live in the same neighborhoods have different outcomes in terms of their educational attainment?

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Therefore, reality needs to be interpreted. It is used to discover the underlying meaning of events and activities.

Lopez utilizes the ethnicity paradigm and the segmented assimilation theory to understand how the cultural characteristics of a given immigrant group have facilitated or stunted the process of assimilation. Further, segmented assimilation is used to determine whether an immigrant group would experience upward or downward mobility in the United States (Lopez, 2003).

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There is no single reality or truth. Reality is created by individuals in groups (less realist).

In Lopez’s (2003) article the second-generation Caribbean group creates the reality.

Hegemonic approach to studying the second-generation Caribbean group.

The reality; historically, women have enrolled in schools at higher rates than men.

The race-gender gap is recognizable among the new second generation Caribbean youth.

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Lopez utilized mainly qualitative techniques to acquire knowledge:

Focus Groups

Were conducted in a classroom at CUNY and were tape-recorded and transcribed. Two focus groups were conducted, one with Dominicans (three women, two men) and the other with West Indians and Haitians (two men and two women).

Surveys and Follow-up Interviews

Sixty-six participants, aged 18 to 30, 31 women and 35 men

Sampling approach was door-to-door solicitation of surveys and later follow-up life  interviews.

Participants were all from low-income households

Observation

Strategically located participant observation at Urban High School

Conducted over a six-month period

Regularly observed four social studies classes for 10th, 11th, and 12th graders.

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The shortage of quantitative data sets on second-generation Caribbean groups and the need to examine the life course and lived experiences of second-generation youth led Lopez (2003) to rely on qualitative methods. Qualitative approaches rely primarily on the skills of the researcher, as an empathetic observer, collecting detailed descriptions about the character, range, and depth of participant experiences (Lopez, 2003).

Focus group rationale: Focus group helped fine-tune the survey instrument by providing a forum for themes and allowed the exploration of educational issues relating to working class urban college students living in New York City.

Survey rationale: allow for the creation of representative samples of the population of study and provide snapshots of individual life experiences.

Follow-up Interview rationale: to explore the racializing and gendering processes second-generation Caribbean youth experience during job searching and working.

Observation rationale: To capture more realistic snapshots of race and gender processes that occur in a school setting with a large concentration of second-generation youth from the Caribbean. Further, observation allowed Lopez (2003) the interaction of youth with school personnel.

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Table Summarizing Research Analysis of Lopez's (2003) article

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Table Summarizing Research Analysis of Lopez's (2003) article

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(Click on Table to view expanded version)

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Lopez, Nancy. 2003. "Unequal Schooling: Race and Gender Disparity in Urban Education," chapter 1 in Hopeful Girls, Troubled Boys: Race and Gender Disparity in Urban Education. New York: Routledge.

Denzin, Norman and Yvonna Lincoln. 2011. "Introduction: The Discipline and Practice of Qualitative Research," in Denzin and Lincoln, Eds. The Sage Handbook of Qualitative Research. London: Sage.

Lincoln, Yvonna, Susan Lynham and Egon Guba. 2011. "Paradigmatic Controversies, Contradictions, and Emerging Confluences, Revisited," in Denzin and Lincoln, Eds. The Sage Handbook of Qualitative Research. London: Sage

Morrison, M. (2007). What do we mean by educational research?’ In M. Coleman & A. Briggs, Eds. Research Methods in Educational Leadership and Management. London, England: Paul Chapman Publishing.