Interface Project

INTERFACE PROJECT

Thank you for asking for more information about the Interface research project which aims to explore how young people of Dual Heritage express their identity in different parts of their lives. If you are a young adult between the ages of 17 and 20 and are - Bradford born and bred - of Dual Heritage (i.e. whose parents are from different ethnic or cultural backgrounds), and

- a long-term user of social media, we would like to invite you to take part in the study. It is up to you to decide whether you wish to participate. Participation is voluntary and you are free to withdraw at any time. Before you decide, we would like you to understand what the project will involve for you and ask that you read through the information below. If you have any questions about the study, please feel free to email the researcher at [email protected]. If you agree to take part, we would then ask that you complete, sign and return two copies of the attached consent form. If you are below the age of 18, we suggest that you let your parents know about the study and your involvement by sharing the information sheet with them. Like you, they can contact us for further information as to what is involved. We ask that participants be long-term users of social media partly because this is likely to be with the knowledge and consent of their parents. Should your parents decide they do not wish for you to be involved, although you would like to take part, we will discuss with you the best way forward as we would not wish participation in the project to affect your family life and relationships. The project is about your identity, experience and interactions and, as such and in line with the law, we believe you have every right to consent to participate on your own behalf. If you are below the age of 18, a copy of the consent form signed by both you and the researcher will be sent direct to your parents so they are aware that you are participating in the research. Outlined below are details of what the research involves and what we are asking for from you. We appreciate that there is a lot of information and please let us know if you have any questions, if there is anything you would like explaining further or do not fully understand. The research will run for 9 months during 2016/17 and will take place entirely through virtual communication and on social media. You can contact us on the email address [email protected] with any questions. The consent form asks for your email address, social media usernames and URLs so the researcher can follow or friend you. Only your publicly shared material will be reviewed by the researcher. The reason for this is so that the researcher can see how you usually use social media, the kind of things you share publicly and your public interactions, as these are often an expression of your identity within your online networks and friends. This means that the researcher will use as part of the material for the research what you already choose to share publicly, your normal use rather than something particularly for the research. The researcher will not include anything personal or private that is included in these archives or as part of personal exchanges. The researcher will not engage online with your material. When you sign and return the two copies of the consent form, the signed copy for you to keep with the researcher’s signature as well as your own will be sent with an initial registration form to be completed which is the start of the research. We ask that you return this within 14 days, along with the supplementary information it asks for. This initial form asks for personal data - such as month and year of birth as well as ethnicity - as well as for details of family relationships and history. This private data will be stored offline in an external hard drive with additional backup copy and will be kept encrypted to ensure that your personal details are kept confidential. All data used publicly as part of the research project and its final report will be made anonymous so anything by which you might be identified is taken out and a pseudonym used instead. This material will be checked with you before any personal data belonging to you is used. The information you provide on this form at the beginning will be used as the beginning of a conversation between yourself and the researcher by email. We will ask you to share personal stories from both cultures which form your heritage and particularly concerning the experiences of your family in terms of migration, homeland, kinship and culture; what these stories mean to you and what you identify with. This will start from your answers to the initial form and will evolve as a virtual interview with follow-on questions asking you to explain or expand, to ensure that this is your story as you want to tell it. To protect you, as well as to make sure that you can revise and adapt your stories as the conversation progresses by referring back to the details previously written by you, this interviewing and storytelling will be done by email directly between you and the researcher. The researcher will ask leading questions and share material with you – such as about particular

PhD research project by C.Pickard, supervisor Patrick Allen August 2016 communities within Bradford – but the stories these trigger are yours and yours alone. It may be that the researcher wants to share something with the participants as a group which comes from your stories: as this information is confidential, you will be told about this beforehand and asked for your agreement. During the first month of the project, running from the end of September 2016, we ask that you engage in an email-based conversation with the researcher. Following this, in months 2 to 5 (running from October 2016 to February 2017), we will be asking you to respond to one story per day shared with the group by the researcher with associated questions for you to answer as well as to contribute your own thoughts about the story – these stories will include news and media pieces, memes and digitally circulated stories. These posts will offer a range of different perspectives on ethnicity and multiculturalism, some of which will be contrary to what you believe and may find personally offensive. You may not as a rule come across these specific stories on a regular basis through your social media feeds but may be exposed to stories and attitudes such as these in your daily life both in the real world as part of UK and Bradford culture and online: it is precisely these parallels and personalised responses we hope to gather. Examples of these daily posts: http://questionbridge.com/profiles/timecloud#conversations Do you have to be one thing that fits in a box? Or, does being Dual Heritage means you have more identities than most? [from QuestionBridge] What is common to those who identify as Dual Heritage or mixed race, that makes you who you are? [from QuestionBridge] What would you want to ask the rest of the group, about your experience or identity as someone of Dual Heritage or mixed race? [from QuestionBridge]

http://www.funnelogychannel.com/where-are-you-really-from/ Do you feel pressured to form a single identity? [from Mix’d Professionals Pack] Have you ever been told you should be ‘more...’ one culture than another, such as “more black” or “more white”? [from Mix’d Professionals Pack] What ethnicity do people guess you are? [National Geographic’s Changing Faces project]

http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/interactive/2013/jan/30/languages-mapped-england-wales- census What is the main language spoken in your immediate family? [UK Census 2011] Or is your immediate family bilingual? [Department for Education’s LSYPE2 “Our Future” survey] What other languages are spoken in your wider family? [UK Census 2011] What languages are most commonly spoken around where you live? [to compare the actual statistics with perception]

http://www.uprising-art.com/en/portfolio/leah-gordon-et-sa-serie-caste-portraits/ Do you feel the idea of ‘passing’ as one race or particular ethnicity over another is dated now? Is it still valid? Does it gain you more acceptance? [National Geographic’s Changing Faces project] Do you take after one parent more than another? Is this due to physical similarities such as skin colour or is it due to personality or character? [Fusion’s Massive Millennial Poll]

These stories and questions will be emailed directly to you and posted on the project’s Facebook wall. As a participant, it is up to you whether you respond to these by email or by directly commenting on the Facebook post when your online identity would be identifiable to other participants. Although we are looking for your honest responses as to how these pieces affect you, we would ask that all participants respect the right of others to express their views honestly and treat others with courtesy. The researcher will moderate all responses daily. We do ask that, due to the nature of these having personal meaning for each participant, you undertake to treat others in the group with the courtesy and respect you would wish to be shown yourself. This includes both how you respond to each other and enter into discussion about the material and that all personal contributions to the closed group are confidential. Just as the researcher will not share anything personal and confidential to you without your agreement, you as a participant undertake not to share anything personal or confidential to the other participants without their explicit agreement. For instance, you may share the original post and your own thoughts upon it external to the group on your own social media streams but you should not share someone else’s comment upon it or links they might have posted as a response without them agreeing.

PhD research project by C.Pickard, supervisor Patrick Allen August 2016 Participants can of course contact the researcher by email at any point to raise any concerns about the project or about interaction with other participants. It is up to you whether you respond to these stories and questions daily, weekly or monthly. However, in addition, you will be asked every Wednesday to respond to repeating questions about how you are feeling generally about your life which are mainly drawn from the Office of National Statistics’ Measuring National Well- being datasets. The reason for this is so we can compare the participants as a group to the results for young people across the United Kingdom from different backgrounds. These questions are as follows: On scale of 0 -10 where nought is ‘not at all’ and 10 is ‘completely’,

- Overall how satisfied are you with your life nowadays?

- Overall, to what extent do you feel the things you do in your life are worthwhile?

- Overall, how happy did you feel yesterday?

- Overall, how anxious did you feel yesterday?

What emoji or image sums your past week up? What six words sum up your past week? [Say It In Six project] During March and April 2017, you will be asked to continue an email-based conversation with the researcher following up on earlier stories. All material drawn from your participation in the project will be shared with you in this period for your agreement and can be amended as you wish. These research activities as outlined above are what participants are asked to commit to the project although you can withdraw your consent at any time. You have rights over your own private data and for what you personally share to be kept confidential and anonymous. Any of your data that is to be shared as part of the research will be anonymised with anything from which you might be identified taken out and you will be able to see this before it is shared. However, there are limits to these rights where the researcher is required by law to disclose potential risk of significant harm in order to protect both you and others. The researcher will not break confidentiality with you for any other reason and, should such a disclosure be necessary, the researcher will discuss it with you first. We hope that this information explains what you would have to do, as a participant in the project, and that you are still interested in being part of the project. The consent form for completion is attached.

Contact: [email protected]

Interface research project (C.M.Pickard), FAO Rekha Billoo, Horton D3.11, University of Bradford, Richmond Road, Bradford BD7 1DP

THANK YOU

PhD research project by C.Pickard, supervisor Patrick Allen August 2016 INTERFACE PROJECT – Consent Form

1. I confirm that I have read and understand the information provided for the above study. I have had the opportunity to consider the information, ask questions and have had these answered satisfactorily. 2. I understand that my participation is voluntary and that I am free to withdraw at any time, without giving a reason and that this will not affect my legal rights. 3. I understand that any personal information collected during the study will be anonymised and remain confidential. I understand that any material arising from emails between the researcher and myself may be shared publicly but will be anonymised and that the researcher will let me know beforehand. 4. I agree to take part in the above study as follows: a. Completion of registration form at the outset of the project

b. Email correspondence with the researcher during the lifetime of the project, providing personal stories and anecdotes as well as replying to follow-up questions

Email address: ___ _

c. Responding to daily posts and associated questions during months 2 – 5 of the project

d. Responding to weekly standard questions on a Wednesday concerning my wellbeing

e. Allowing the researcher access to my current social media streams

Social media usernames and web URLs: __ _

5. I understand that the material shared in the Facebook closed group is confidential and will not be shared without the consent of the person or persons concerned, whether myself or others in the group. I agree to treat other participants with courtesy and respect in the group interactions.

Participant:

______Name of Participant Signature Date

Researcher:

______Name of Researcher Signature Date

When the consent form is returned, please complete 2 signed copies for the researcher to also sign and return a copy to you. Please return to the following address: Interface research project (C.M.Pickard), FAO Rekha Billoo, Horton D3.11, University of Bradford, Richmond Road, Bradford BD7 1DP

PhD research project by C.Pickard, supervisor Patrick Allen August 2016