Narratives matter: The politics of storytelling

Narratives play a significant role in human social and cultural life. They swirl around us as we enact and navigate plots of self-identity, family, community; simultaneously renegotiating the wider world (Shaw et al., 2013). Narratives possess the power to uphold or thwart cultures and subcultures, influence and shape our identity, and construct reality at the societal level (Watson and Watson, 2012). They reveal the powerful and powerless through the storyteller, the space the stories occupy, the methods used to share the tales and the number of times they are told. Narratives can empower and malign, they can humanise and demonise.

This investigation explores the persistent deficit master narrative of the Black Caribbean community in Britain particularly the underachievement of Black Caribbean male students, a matter of concern for policymakers since the 1950s (Demie and Maclean, 2017). This paper will explore the politics of storytelling, the space narratives occupy, the shapes they assume and the possible effects of the master narrative on Black Caribbean male pupils’ academic achievements. I will use Critical Race Theory (CRT) and narrative inquiry to better understand the politics underpinning the master narrative about the disenfranchised, the motives of those in power who shape and voice the version of their narrative, the counter narratives that have been silenced and marginalised, and what might be done to allow the disempowered the space to share their stories and forge their identities.

The deficit master narrative of being educationally subnormal defined Black Caribbean boys between 1940 and 1970 (Wallace and Joseph-Salisbury, 2022). Their linguistic and learning differences cemented their perceived inferiority in the dominant narrative, a mislabelling that resulted in Black Caribbean boys being sent to schools established for students with extreme behavioural and psychosocial needs (Wallace and Joseph-Salisbury, 2022). During that period, the educationally subnormal narrative flowed through social, professional and political discourses, declaring to Black Caribbean boys that they were not ‘as clever as White boys or girls’ and aspirations to progress to higher education were reportedly ‘unrealistic’ and overambitious’ (Griffin, 2000: 174). Coard’s publication (1971) argues that Black Caribbean underachievement was socially constructed, linking the deficit narrative to the racialised socio-political context of Britain (Coard, 2021; Wallace and Joseph-Salisbury, 2022). The ethnicity’s positioning as an ‘Other’ in Britain, is believed to influence teachers’ low expectations and schools’ disciplinary procedures (Ladson-Billings, 2021, Wallace and Joseph-Salisbury, 2022). Today, the underachievement of Black Caribbean male students is still a matter of educational and political concern, with only 16% of all Black Caribbean men having progressed to higher education. (Demie and McLean, 2017).

CRT underpins the project’s methodology and methods as it is the lens through which the participants’ experiences are analysed. The narratives of male students will be positioned in academic research as their voices have often been excluded due to the traditional valuing and privileging of adults’ viewpoints, mainly those of teachers and parents (Basset et al., 2008; Scott, 2008). It is vital that young people are trusted to share their perspectives and opinions because they are competent interpreters of occurrences and social constructions of their worlds; they are the ones living the experiences and are the experts of their lives (Scott, 2008). The narratives obtained are expected to highlight the participants’ realities regarding the ways in which the master narrative influences their way of life and being (Beck, 1979).

Black Caribbean male pupils studying the Key Stage 4 curriculum will be interviewed for approximately one hour, and relevant information about the influence dominant narratives have on their lives will be extracted and analysed. The interviews will be participatory in nature, designed to keep participants active and engaged while data is being recorded. With participants’ permission, the interviews will be audio recorded. Notes will be taken if participants do not wish to be recorded. Identifying data will be anonymised.

Due to the nature of the study, thematic analysis and narrative analysis will be used to analyse the data.
Thematic analysis will be used for identifying themes and patterns (Dapkus, 1995), and a systematic approach will be developed and employed to ensure generated themes are not derived from any pre-determined assumptions. The narrative analysis, however, will be used to interpret aspects of participants’ narratives where thematic analysis might not be suitable. It will allow the identification of plot elements, substantive themes and motifs, the participants’ purpose for telling the story, the narrative’s significance as well as the way in which the stories relate to the larger discourse in education (Parcell and Baker, 2018).




References
Bassett, R., Beagan, B., Ristovski-Slijepcevic, S., and Chapman, G., 2008. ‘Tough teens: The methodological challenges of interviewing teenagers as research participants’. Journal of Adolescent Research. 23(2), pp119–131.

Beck, R. N., 1979. Handbook in Social Philosophy. New York: Macmillan.

Coard, B. 2021. How the West Indian Child is Made Educationally Subnormal in the British School System: The Scandal of the Black Child in Schools in Britain (5th edition). Mcdermott Publishing.

Demie, F., and McLean, C. 2017. ‘Black Caribbean Underachievement in Schools in England’. Schools’ Research and Statistics Unit Lambeth Education and Learning.

Griffin, C. 2000. ‘Discourses of Crisis and Loss: Analysing the ‘Boys' Underachievement’ Debate, Journal of Youth Studies, 3:2, 167-188, DOI: 10.1080/713684373

Parcell, E. S., and Baker, B. M. A., 2018. ‘Narrative Analysis’. The SAGE Encyclopedia of Communication Research Methods. SAGE Publications, Inc.

Scott, J. 2000. ‘Children as Respondents: The Challenge for Quantitative Methods’. In: Christensen, P. and James, A., Eds., Research with Children: Perspectives and Practices, Falmer Press, London.

Shaw, J., Kelly, P. and Semler, L. E. (eds). 2013. Storytelling: critical and creative approaches. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Wallace, D. and Joseph-Salisbury, R. 2022. ‘How, Still, Is the Black Caribbean Child Made Educationally Subnormal in the English School System?’ Ethnic and Racial Studies, 45(8), pp. 1426–1452. doi: 10.1080/01419870.2021.1981969.