Documents that Informed this Study

In preparation for the interviews, observations and generally to inform this study, it was important that I understood the background of FM policy. Therefore, I reviewed relevant key policy documents, ranging from international and national policy documents including Acts of Parliament, White and Green Papers to related publications listed below. The participating institution’s policy on addressing FM and relevant localised policies also formed part of the background reading (Wetherell et al., 2001). The documents were:

• Forced Marriage (Civil Protection) Act 2007

• Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014

• Multi-Agency practice guidelines: Handling cases of forced marriage 2014

• Multi-Agency statutory guidance for dealing with forced marriage 2014

• Charity lesson plans for schools and colleges

• The institution’s teaching material power-point slides

• FMU annual reports for 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016

• UN Convention on Eliminating all Forms of Discrimination against Women 1929

• House of Commons’ Standard Notes on FM

• The participating secondary school’s policy on FM

• FMU e-learning resources

These documents provided an understanding of how the government framed FM and the message that they wanted articulated by the schools to young people. The

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contribution made by reviewing these documents meant that I was able to discuss this framing and message with the teachers and stakeholders during their interviews.

The final stage of the analysis linked the data to the research questions. The data collected and the themes identified, such as personal and professional identities professionalism and emotions are explored in chapters four to seven and linked to the literature that was reviewed in chapter two.

3.14.5 Intersectionality

Initially, I was not intending to apply intersectionality to analyse teachers’ identities.

Having accepted that identities are multi-layered (Cooper and Olson, 1996), I had decided to limit the strands of diversity for identity analysis to gender and race. This reflected how the majority of teachers interviewed were women and from diverse ethnicities (European, South Asian, African, Canadian). However, other strands of diversity emerged (see chapter 5) through the data which could not be ignored, and are therefore included in this study.

Culture can be complex and problematic in terms of the factors included to define culture and how it is interpreted, hence my reluctance to include it as part of exploring identities. However, the overwhelming importance teachers gave to culture as part of their identities could not be ignored. Originally, I thought that culture would be linked to, and therefore covered by, ethnicity. Thus, for the purpose of this study, culture will not incorporate simply national culture, but instead the amalgamation of different influences, including country of origin, immigration, subsequent country of residence and even professional culture.

Once again, I tried to avoid focusing on religion because of its complexities of different sects, factions and scholarly interpretations. However, due to the teachers’ strong sense of association with their religion as part of their identities, this category could not be dismissed. For the purposes of this study, religion reflects the ‘world religions’

(Haynes, 2008) as described by the participants.

The study explored gendered experiences, along with sexuality which emerged within the fieldwork. Added to this the concept of embodiment was relevant (Foucault, 1990;

Braidotti, 1994), with the final strand of diversity being that of ethnicity. As this study focused upon four strands of diversity, an appropriate framework was required to

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understand the relationships and links between these categories and how these categories affect teachers’ identities, hence intersectionality has been employed.

My personal identities as an Asian, female, Muslim, mother and professional describe me as a meaningful whole. This construction of [my]self is interdependent and mutually constitutive (Crenshaw 1991) upon my experiences based upon my gender, ethnicity, religion and professional culture. I do not consider my identities as competing. Hence this study is adopting the constitutive, emic approach (Tatli and Özbilgin, 2012) to intersectionality, and rejects the etic approach (Holvino, 2010) of marginalised positions as a competing hierarchy of categories (Knudsen, 2006).

Tatli and Özbilgin (2012) stated that the emic approach should be sensitive to specific places and time. This coincides with the Foucauldian ideology that society is fluid and evolves through the passage of time. This study has drawn upon the emic framework using Foucault’s (1980b) approach to determine how teachers’ multiple identities shift and (re)position over time. Also considered through a feminist post-structural framework are specific experiences of teachers through their multiple identities and diverse strands relating to gender, race, culture and religion.

Initially I drew upon my own multiple identities, and I partially pre-constructed teachers’ identities based upon race and gender. However, this study recognised the categories that emerged in the field as also important to the participants (i.e. religion and culture). Identities are transient and at times and, as highlighted in the emic approach, some strands are more prevalent than others, or can be privileged or disadvantaged (Holvino, 2010; Tatli and Özbilgin, 2012).

Tsouroufli (2016) conducted a study of Greek women negotiating their gender and cultural identities in an academic professional setting. Tsouroufli (2016) described how Greek women have historically been considered as both heroic (privileged) and sacrificing (disadvantaged). The study concluded that, despite the passage of time, Greek women continue to position themselves in this manner.

Chapter five demonstrates the intersection between gender, race, religion and culture, and how they are implicated in teachers’ positioning in connection to teachers’

discourses relating to FM. The operation of these different strands of diversity in the complex nexus of power, privilege and disadvantages (Holvino, 2010; Tatli and Özbilgin, 2012) is also explored.

80 3.15 Study’s Robustness

This study rejects individuals as objective and neutral subjects, and follows the hermeneutic argument that bias is the precondition of all enquiries (Gadamer, 2008).

Although teachers are expected to, and may have their own best intentions to remain unbiased, professional and politically correct, it would be naïve to accept that this is actually possible. Feminism claims that no one is neutral (Hughes and Cohen, 2010), as we all base our knowledge and understanding upon our own subjective experiences and biases, and that all experiences are equally valid (Hammersley, 1992).

This study involved the participants in the thesis write-up stage by offering to send them the transcripts of the interviews and observations, to ensure accuracy and for their comments. This inclusion demonstrated how the study engaged with a feminist post-structural framework, although it is recognised that this inclusive approach is not exclusive to a feminist post-structural framework. However, the participants declined, stating time restraints as their reason for refusal. They indicated, though, that they were happy that my transcripts would be accurate, as I had used two digital recording devices, in case one failed, along with handwritten notes. I contacted the participants again by email, to explain that I had almost completed a draft of the thesis, and that I was happy to share a copy with the participants to read and comment on before submission. Four of the twelve participants responded by email to say that they would not be able to read the thesis, due to a heavy workload. The remaining eight participants did not respond at all.