This chapter reflects a review of the relevant literature concerning this topic. Overall the literature revealed that perception of racial discrimination still exists but it does not address how this perception is negotiated in the context of the post racialism racial project. Colorblind studies that have been done revealed that despite public discourse that race was irrelevant, empirical data disagree. Overall liberal ideologies like colorblind diversity create the social space for racism and discrimination to go unchallenged. Largely the research on racial perceptions has been shaped through quantitative methods and has rarely included the voice of the participants. The next chapter will present the method that will be used to conduct this particular study to answer to some of the areas that the literature has yet to address.
3 METHODOLOGY
The purpose of this study was to explore how post racial ideology impacts the professional development of college students between the ages of 18-30. The research questions guiding this study were as follows:
1. How does post racial ideology impact the professional development of college students between the ages of 18-30?
2. Is race and racial categorization important to this age group?
3. Are people in this age group able to recognize instances of racial discrimination? 4. Are people in this age group able to recognize instances of post racial influence? This chapter addresses the characteristics a case study qualitative research design. This chapter explains why a case study research design is useful in exploring the professional development of students between the ages of 18-30. Secondly, the chapter provides a discussion of how the sample was selected, criteria for participants, and the recruitment for participants. Next, a discussion of the data collection strategy for this study, semi-structured interviews, will be provided. A detailed explanation will be given for the utility of the data collection method used for this study. Lastly, this chapter addresses validity and reliability, as well as researcher bias and assumptions.
3.1 Design of the Study
This study will specifically seek to address gaps in the literature by exploring how the professional development experience of the millennial generation is being impacted by post racialism. Professional development was chosen as a variable to be measured because it has been shown in the literature as something that occurs within a collegiate context. Professional
development is a particularly informing variable to explore because it is an aspect of the collegiate experience that prepares students to be successful in future academic and professional endeavors.
The professional development or non-development of a student has implications for the life chances of a student. The case study qualitative methodology used in this study reviewed cases of
professional development, within the bounded site of Georgia State University, to gain insight about the impact of post racial ideology on the professional development of millennial students. A case study approach was also appropriate because several cases of professional development were
examined in order to gain understanding of an issue (Creswell, 2007). In addition to this , qualitative methods were used in order to use the voice of the millennial population to inform how post
racialism impacted the professional development of students between the ages of 18-30.
Literature and empirical research that has sought to uncover the details of the academic and college experience of student’s perceptions about race or the significance of race have equally used quantitative and qualitative methods (Sakamoto et. al, 2000; Lewis et. al 2000; Zamudio & Rios; 2006 Grodsky & Kalogrides 2008 Cohen-Marks & Faught, 2010; Apollon, 2011;). Quantitative data often looked to compare the outcomes in specific situations to determine if outcomes were different by race. Some of the situations that have been investigated were wage earning and job placement. In these studies the participants actual experiences were not reported, however conclusions were drawn about the everyday experiences of people based on the findings quantitative studies revealed.
Qualitative studies use the reports of the populations being studied in order to inform the research question being posed. The major difference between the quantitative and qualitative approaches has been the findings. Qualitative approaches have revealed that racial significance did not appear to be declining. The quantitative studies seeking to explore the same things have found proof that race was less significant in certain arenas. Though there are numerous studies that have investigated race within the context of colorblind ideology, few studies have investigated race in the context of post racial ideology. The majority of the literature about post racialism theorizes about it possible effects. Empirical research about post racial ideology is largely unchartered territory. Review of the
literature did produce one study that sought to determine if people between the ages of 18-30 felt that society was post racial. This particular study employed quantitative and qualitative methods in order to gather this data (Apollon, 2011). Although there was not a monolithic idea about how much race mattered, the study did reveal that people between the ages of 18-30 disagreed with the idea that they were post racial. The conversation regarding post racialism has largely excluded the voice of the millennial population which has been posited as the site of post racial ideology. The study conducted used a qualitative, focus group methodology in order to include the voice of the millennial generation in the conversation. This study was informative in producing data that showed that people between the ages of 18-30 did not agree that they were post racial, however it did not investigate how the presence of this ideology impacted the lived experiences of this age group. Creswell (2007) states that qualitative research is appropriate under certain circumstances. The scenarios that are conducive to qualitative research are as follows:
1. Qualitative research is conducted when a problem or issue needs to be explored. The exploration is needed, in turn because of a need to study a group or population, identify variables that can be measured, or hear silenced voices.
2. Qualitative research is conducted because we need a complex detailed understanding of the issue. This detail can only be established by talking directly with people, going to their homes or places of work, and allowing them to tell stories unencumbered by what we expect to find or what we have read in the literature.
3. Qualitative research is conducted when we want to empower individuals to share their story, hear their voices, and minimize power relationships that often exist between researcher and participants in the story.
4. Qualitative research is conducted when we want to write in a literary, flexible style that conveys stories or theater, or poems, without restrictions of formal academic structures of writing.
5. Qualitative research is conducted because we want to understand the contexts or settings in which participants in a study address a problem or issue.
6. Qualitative research is used to follow up quantitative research and help explain the mechanisms or linkages in casual theories or models.
7. Qualitative research is employed to develop theories when partial or inadequate theories exist for certain populations and samples or existing theories do not adequately capture the complexity of the problem being examined.
8. Lastly, qualitative research is used when quantitative measures and the statistical analyses simply do not fit the problem (pg. 40).
After reviewing the appropriate conditions under which qualitative research should take place, qualitative research was determined to be an adequate venue to explore how post racial ideology impacts the professional development of college students between the ages of 18-30.
In addition to qualitative research being an appropriate vehicle by which to conduct this study, the nature of the study also fit squarely within the realm of when qualitative research is useful according to Creswell. First and foremost this study interviewed participants in natural settings. Interviews took place where participants were most comfortable. Secondly, the researcher was the key instrument in the research. Although a protocol was formulated to garner information, the researcher verbally administered the protocol questions in order to gather information. The
protocols used to gather information were organic to this study and were not protocols formulated by other researchers. A third way that this study fit within the realm of qualitative research was that the data was analyzed in an inductive way. The data was “organized in an increasingly more abstract
unit of information. Transcripts of the data was reviewed “back and forth between themes and the database until a comprehensive set of themes were established.” A fourth way that this study was appropriate for qualitative inquiry was that the meanings that participants held about the problem or issue were sought out. The meanings that the researcher had or that the literature revealed were not used. The fifth area of congruency with qualitative research was that the researcher relied on an emergent design. Research was conducted with the awareness that research could shift after entering the field and collecting data. The sixth way that this research was a clear instance of qualitative research was the use of an theoretical lens, racial formation theory, to analyze the data. This research also employed an interpretive inquiry in order to decipher what was seen, heard, and understood from the data collection process. This was an eighth are of compliancy with qualitative research. Lastly this study fit the description of qualitative research in that it sought to give a holistic account. The aim of this study was to paint a complex picture of how post racialism impacted professional development (Creswell, 200, 37-39).
Through use of qualitative methods in this study provided a comprehensive and complex perspective of how post racial ideology impacted the professional development of millennials. By examining the role of race in this context , this study was able to gain insight about the significance of race for this generation, current meanings associated with race, and if people between the ages of 18-30 agreed that they were post racial. The design of the study was a direct response to the theory framing the study, racial formation theory. Through the use of qualitative method, the data gathered allowed information to be collected that garnered information that aided in determining the nature of professional development for students, the current ideas surrounding race and its significance, and opinions surrounding post racialism.