METHODS IN DIALOGUE: RESEARCHING DIVERSITY

9 February 2011
Manchester

MIXING AND MIXEDNESS:

RESEARCHING DIFFERENCE AND
BELONGING THROUGH
DIVERSE METHODS

Rosalind Edwards
University of Southampton
 STARTING POINTS

• Using diverse methods to research

belonging and difference rather than
different methods to research diversity

• Methods used to access and generate

data should be driven by the issues being
researching, rather than vice versa
“Mixed methods research is a methodology for
conducting research that involves collecting,
analyzing, and integrating (or mixing)
quantitative and qualitative research (and data)
in a single study or a longitudinal program of
inquiry. The purpose of this form of research is
that both qualitative and quantitative research, in
combination, provide a better understanding of a
research problem or issue than either research
approach alone.”
(Creswell, 2008)
RANGE OF TERMS
More positive: biethnic, biracial, dual heritage, dual parentage, interracial, mixed ethnicity,
mixed heritage, mixed origin, mixed parentage, mixed race, multiethnic, multiracial, multiple
heritage, transracial, transcultural. And: black children of mixed heritage, people who are
identified as mixed.
More negative: half breed, half caste, mulatto

If some people … tell everybody that there is no such a thing

as mixed race and we are all mixed race, well, no we can‟t all
give bone marrow to mixed race people, sorry! … I don‟t
necessarily like this dual parentage or dual heritage and I
thought it was quite classic what Oona King said about
[stately homes] – ‘Mixed’ Black Ghanian/White Irish and
British mother married to a White British man with two
children

Well I used to use mixed race, and then somebody at work

[social services] said, „Oh no, we don‟t use that anymore, oh
no. You have to use dual heritage‟ – White mother married to
an Indian man with two children
 Media portrayals
„Although council estates are full of mixed-race
babies, and its inner cities teem with interracial
couples busily getting jiggy with it, the liberal elite
has arrived late at Britain‟s multicultural street
party …‟
Nirpal Singh Dhaliwal, The Times, 16 April 2005

‘Me got me man Jermaine now and we

‘I wanna brown baby like all the
just been round the back of the
other mums on the estate’
waterslides making baby’
Waynetta Slob, Harry Enfield and
Vicky Pollard, Little Britain
Chums
Los Angeles: White-Black, White-
Asian & White-Latino Households
Holloway et al. 2008
Self-completion survey
 open
individualise

PARENTS TYPIFICATIONS OF
DIFFERENCE AND
BELONGING FOR THEIR
CHILDREN

mix single
collective collective