Hair and Care: Black Children and Young People's Experiences of Belonging and Exclusion in Social Care and Education in England

“头发与社会关怀和教育的不平等有什么关系？”本项目旨在通过一项创新的定性研究来回答这个问题，探索“头发”和“社会关怀”在跨种族收养、混血家庭和英国中学黑人学生被排斥的特定背景下是如何交叉的。头发研究是一个相对较少的研究领域，主要关注头发作为性别、年龄、社会阶层和种族认同方面的编码美容实践。然而，关于护发如何不仅仅是美容实践的研究仍然有限，并且可以作为理解社会护理和教育中的种族不平等的有力途径。虽然已经有一些零散的研究探讨了头发和护理，但在儿童和家庭的社会工作中，还没有一个连贯的工作将头发和护理结合起来。这一意义深远、雄心勃勃的工作方案使我们能够通过对儿童和年轻人经历的研究，来研究头发护理是如何被概念化、实践和产生结构性不平等的。目的和目标通过对肯特郡和伦敦跨种族收养和混血家庭背景下儿童和家庭视角的比较研究，探讨头发护理如何塑造黑人身份和归属感的经历。调查肯特郡和曼彻斯特的英国中学基于种族化的表现和黑人头发的做法而排斥黑人学生的情况。该项目解决的社会问题至关重要。2020年，尽管自2015年以来收养率急剧下降，但仍有80,080名儿童受到照顾（DfE, 2020）。研究表明，虽然黑人和亚洲人的孩子在所有被照顾的孩子中只占很小的比例，但他们找到“永久家庭”的可能性要小得多。最近的媒体报道还称，英国的中学正在排斥拥有自然发型的黑人孩子，并对他们施加不成比例的纪律和控制。为了解决项目中概述的目标，使用一系列定性方法设计了两个不同的工作包。工作包1通过对30名黑人被收养者、父母、兄弟姐妹和收养后社会工作者的访谈，探讨了头发在理解儿童和家庭对黑人身份和归属感的经历中的作用，这些访谈涉及多达30个跨种族收养（TRA）和混合种族家庭环境。采用整体方法，通过与被收养者、兄弟姐妹的访谈和与父母的个别访谈，收集所有家庭成员的信息。比较TRA和混血家庭将有助于突出年轻人在生理上构成的家庭和社会上构成的家庭中的共同之处和不同之处。将采用儿童可以接受的参与式方法，包括采访和要求他们拍摄日常生活的照片。工作包2旨在通过对年轻人、学校教师和学校社会工作实习生的访谈和焦点小组，了解肯特和曼彻斯特的黑人学生在中学中被排斥和归属感的经历。梅德韦和曼彻斯特的6所学校将根据学校的种族和民族多样性进行抽样调查。我们将通过社交媒体直接接触校长、教师工会和招收学生。总共将对黑人学生和教师进行60次访谈（30次在曼彻斯特，30次在梅德韦），并进行15次焦点小组讨论，以了解年轻人的同龄人群体经历。年轻人还将获得相机，记录他们在学校环境中归属感的视频日记。本研究项目对探讨社会关怀和教育中的种族不平等现象具有重要意义。

"What does hair have to do with inequalities in social care and education?". This project aims to answer this question through an innovative qualitative study exploring how 'hair' and 'social care' intersect in the specific contexts of transracial adoption, mixed-race families and black pupils school exclusion in English secondary schools. Hair studies is a relatively under researched area, focussing mainly on hair as coded beauty practice in terms of gender, age, social class and racial identity. Yet there remains limited research on how hair care is more than beauty practice and can serve as a powerful way of understanding racial inequalities in social care and education. While there have been discrete studies exploring hair and care, there is yet to be coherent body of work bringing hair and care together in children and families' social work. This far reaching and ambitious set of work packages allow us to examine how hair care is conceptualised, practiced and produces structural inequalities through an examination of children and young people's experiences.Aims and Objectives1. To explore how hair care shapes experiences of black identity and belonging through a comparative study of children and families' perspectives' in the context of transracial adoption and mixed- race families in Kent and London.2. To investigate school-based exclusions of black pupils in English secondary schools based on racialized presentation and black hair practice in Kent and Manchester.The social problems the project addresses are of critical importance. In 2020, there were 80,080 looked after children, even as rates of adoption have fallen steeply since 2015 (DfE, 2020). Studies indicate that while Black and Asian care experienced children are a small percentage of all looked after children, they are much less likely to find a "forever family". Recent media accounts have also reported that English secondary schools are excluding Black children with natural hairstyles and subject them to disproportionate levels of discipline and control. In order to address the objectives outlined in the project, two distinct work packages have been designed using a range of qualitative methods. Work package 1 explores the role of hair in understanding children and families' experiences of black identity and belonging by drawing on 30 interviews with black adoptees, parents, siblings and post-adoption social workers with up to 30 transracial adoption (TRA) and mixed-race family settings. Using a holistic approach all family members will be captured through interviews with the adoptees, siblings and individual interviews with parents. Comparing TRA and mixed-race families will help to highlight commonalities and differences in young people's experiences in biologically constituted and socially reconstituted families. Participatory methods will be used which will be accessible to children including interviews and asking them to take photographs of their everyday lives. Work package 2 seeks to understand black pupils' experience of exclusion and belonging in secondary schools in Kent and Manchester, through interviews and focus groups with young people, school teachers and social work trainees in school settings. Six schools in Medway and Manchester will be sampled based on the racial and ethnic diversity of the schools. We will approach Head teachers, teachers unions and recruit pupils directly through social media. A total of 60 interviews (30 in Manchester and 30 in Medway) will be conducted with black pupils and teachers along with 15 focus group discussions to understand young people's peer group experiences. Young people will also be given cameras to record video diaries of their experiences of belonging in school settings.This research project is significant in exploring racial inequalities in social care and education.