The ETHNIC project: giving ethnic minorities access to science careers
Record Control Number : 20640
Date : 2003-07-28
Category : Programme implementation
General Information :
The European Commission is well aware that if the EU is to fulfil
it ambition of becoming the world's most competitive knowledge
based economy, funding levels for research and development must be
increased, and more qualified scientists must be produced to
exploit the extra levels of investment.
Policy frameworks aimed at raising citizens' awareness of science,
such as the Commission's 80 million euro science and society
priority, will play an important part in promoting research as a
career. Initiatives have also been launched to promote research
careers for women in an effort to reduce the gender inequality that
exists in science, and to widen the pool of research talent in
Europe.
However, few, if any, initiatives have thus far targeted the
fastest growing section of European society: ethnic minorities.
Recent census data from the UK suggests that ethnic minority groups
will account for more than half of the predicted 20 per cent
increase in the country's working age population by 2009. The trend
is the result of a rapidly ageing white population and an
increasing birth rate within young and established ethnic minority
communities. This pattern will also be mirrored in other EU Member
States.
This is why the Commission has chosen to fund the ETHNIC project,
the first EU initiative aimed at raising awareness of science and
technology among ethnic minority groups. Dr Elizabeth Rasekoala is
from the African-Caribbean network for science and technology,
ETHNIC's UK partner, and explained the importance of the project to
CORDIS News.
'The major obstacle to ethnic minority participation in science and
technology is the existence of stereotypes that reinforce the idea
that if you're not white, male and middle class, you can't be a
scientist,' she said. Dr Rasekoala explained that such stereotypes
are found particularly within schools and in the media. 'Children
then internalise these stereotypes and lose the belief that they
can become researchers or engineers.'
One way to break down such stereotypes is to identify successful
scientists from ethnic minority backgrounds who can act as role
models for children and young adults, and this approach is a key
part of the ETHNIC project. Dr Rasekoala and her partners in
Austria, Italy, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovenia will
arrange special events at schools in targeted locations in order to
give young people from ethnic minorities access to such role models.
The project will also work with the youngsters' teachers and
parents to highlight the existence of these negative stereotypes
and will enlist their help in challenging them. Furthermore, Dr
Rasekoala hopes that, indirectly at least, the project's very
existence will put the issue of ethnic minority participation in
science firmly onto the political agenda.
When asked how she and her colleagues hoped to assess the success
of ETHNIC, Dr Rasekoala explained that they would be using 'before
and after' questionnaires to examine how the attitudes of
youngsters, parents and teachers towards science have changed. She
was keen to stress, however, that despite the project's huge
significance 'it really is only the tip of the iceberg'.
The real challenge, according to Dr Rasekoala, is in ensuring that
the involvement of ethnic minorities in science becomes an integral
part of the wider science and society debate, in the same way that
gender issues have. 'This issue must be developed into a key policy
framework at national and EU level if Europe is at all serious
about establishing and maintaining a global leadership in science
and technology. The resources are there, it is the willingness to
recognise the scale of the problem and devise imaginative solutions
that are lacking.'
Data Source Provider : CORDIS News interview with Dr Rasekoala, ETHNIC project
partner
Document Reference : Based on a CORDIS News interview with Dr Rasekoala, ETHNIC
project partner
Programme Acronym : FRAMEWORK 6C, FP6-STRUCTURING, FP6-SOCIETY, MS-A C, MS-I C,
MS-UK C
Subject Index Codes : Social Aspects, Scientific Research, Education, Training,
Policies
Contact Person : For further information, please consult the following web
address:
http://www.bit.ac.at/Ethnic/index.html
