A WOMAN FOR ALL SEASONS: MARY WARD (1585‐1645), RENAISSANCE PIONEER OF WOMEN'S EDUCATION

The schooldays of Dutch upper‐middle and middle‐class adolescent girls in the nineteenth and twentieth century are related to identities of girlhood, with special attention to the question as to when and how girls entered the adult world. In the first half of the nineteenth century, leaving childhood meant entering the female world. After 1860, partly due to new ideas on girls’ education, girlhood became a distinctive period in life between childhood and adulthood. Until the 1960s, two conflicting identities of girlhood can be distinguished: a more ‘traditional’ one and a ‘new’ one. The first model was characterized by a sex‐specific school life, upholding an interconnection between girlhood and female maturity. Co‐education determined the character of the second model; this kind of school life contributed to a genuine separation between girlhood and female adulthood. Although ‘new’ girlhood finally gained the victory, the tension between these two models is still noticeable in the actual discussion about girls’ education.

     

The importance of being a ‘lady’: hyper‐femininity and heterosexuality in the private,single‐sex primary school

Drawing on recent ethnographic research in one single‐sex, private primary school, this paper will explore what it meant for the girls in this setting to embody the discourse of the ‘lady’. The paper will propose that classed and gendered discourses of respectability featured strongly in the girls’ lives, as they were expected to behave like ‘proper’ upper‐middle‐class ladies. However, the paper will also suggest that these discourses were being reworked through post‐feminist, neo‐liberal notions of modern girlhood, meaning that the girls also felt compelled to make themselves as heterofeminine ‘girly’ girls; as sassy, sexy and successful, as well as respectable and upper‐middle‐class(y) enough. By exploring the clash between these two sets of discourse, the paper will specifically seek to examine the lived embodiment of intersections of class, gender and sexuality and to explore the relevance of Judith Butler’s heterosexual matrix for these upper‐middle‐class girls.     

Both here and elsewhere: rural girls’ contradictory visions of the future

Girls' studies have made an important contribution to the literature on subjectivity and schooling in neoliberal times; however, girlhood studies within Western contexts remain predominantly urban in focus. This article brings an analysis of place to debates about gendered subjectivity formation by exploring gendered patterns within rural students' imagined futures. Drawing upon ethnographic research with grade 7/8 students in rural Ontario (Canada), the analysis demonstrates how girls construct contradictory future narratives envisioning urban femininities while insisting they will remain living in the country. I argue that this tension must be explored in relation to the gendered context of rural social space, as well as post-feminist discourses of ‘girl power’. The analysis contributes to the fields of rural education and girlhood studies by foregrounding the significance of place within the gendered formation of student subjectivities and future aspirations.     

Schooling the mean girl: a critical discourse analysis of teacher resource materials

This paper is a critical discourse analysis of teacher resource materials about girl bullying. The ‘mean girl’ phenomenon has been widely taken up as one of the current key narratives about schools and school girls. This paper argues for the importance of understanding the origins of this discourse within behavioural psychology, which coined the term ‘relational aggression’ to describe what is purported to be a uniquely female form of aggression. Our analysis problematises the ways in which this discourse reinforces gendered binaries and pathologises girls’ aggression. We trace the emergence of an ‘expert culture', exemplified by the texts we analyse, which disseminates this discourse and limits the range of ways in which girls’ aggression and friendships may be understood. We critique the raced and classed ways in which these texts establish hegemonic forms of white, middle-class girlhood. We show how the texts draw on neo-liberal ideologies of idealised forms of subjectivity and function as a mechanism for shaping these subjectivities within schools.     

Preteen girls,magazines, and the negotiation of young sexual femininity

The focus on, and concern about, young girls and preteens or ‘tweens’ relates to the ‘sexualisation’ of girlhood and the notion that girls are ‘growing up too fast’ and becoming ‘too sexy too soon’. In both popular and academic accounts, ‘tween’ magazines and the increasingly ‘sexualised’ images in teen magazines have been framed as significant contributors to this process. Yet, research on the ways in which preteen girls read these magazines has been notably absent. In this paper, we examine the magazine consumption and reading practices of 71 preteen girls in a New Zealand study. We employ a feminist poststructuralist approach to explore the ways in which participants employ the interpretative repertoires of ‘too young’, ‘too old', and ‘just right’ to categorise ‘tween’ and ‘teen’ magazines based on their sexual content and mark belonging to and/or distance from the categories of child, ‘tween', and teenager.     

Playing it down/playing it up: girls’ strategic negotiations of academic success

Through the lens of post-structural agency, this article focuses on how self-identified smart girls strategically negotiate their academic identities within the gendered terrain of the school. Based on interviews with 51 smart high school girls in Canada, our analysis complicates current narrative of girls’ easy achievement in school. Participants discussed balancing the hazards of being overly academic with the rewards of academic success. In response to this tension, girls carefully and consciously performed ‘smart girlhood’, drawing on resources that are more available to some girls than others, and indicating that girls’ academic success is neither easily embraced nor unambivalently accepted.     

‘The power to squash people’: understanding girls’ relational aggression

While researchers and concerned adults alike draw attention to relational aggression among girls, how this aggression is associated with girls’ agency remains a matter of debate. In this paper we explore relational aggression among girls designated by their peers as ‘popular’ in order to understand how social power constructs girls’ agency as aggression. We locate this power, hence girls’ agency, in contradictory messages about girlhood that, although ever‐present ‘in girls heads,’ are typically absent in adult panic about girls’ aggression. Within peer culture, power comes from the ability to invoke the unspoken ‘rules’ that police the boundaries of acceptable femininity. We thus challenge the notion advanced by Pipher and others that girls’ empowerment entails (re)gaining an ‘authentic voice.’ In contrast, we suggest that such projects must be informed by an interrogation of how girls are positioned as speaking subjects.     

Catholic girls: the mother–daughter nexus

This paper examines Catholic girlhood, womanhood and the mother–daughter relationship, and its socio-historical construction within a range of disparate discourses. The aim of the paper is to deconstruct dominant patriarchal constructions and images of femininity, particularly those embedded within the doctrine of Catholicism. Moreover, the paper intends to reveal traces of maternal connections and relations which are often hidden by more dominant discourses. Rather than providing a historical account of Catholic girlhood, the object is to tell a perspectived story of the local and contextual experiences of growing up and being educated to be a ‘good Catholic woman’ in suburban Melbourne, Australia in the 1920s and 1960s. In telling the story it is hoped that other women can momentarily engage with this narrative of Catholic girlhood and the mother–daughter relationship.     

New girlhood and lost boys: analysing the cultural politics of gender and education through film

The ‘coming of age’ films Bend it like Beckham, Whale Rider and Harry Potter feature distinctive narratives about girlhood and boyhood that provide a perspective on the changing historical and political context of gendered identity construction in the new millennium. The early 2000s represented a particular moment in thinking about the possibilities, risks and threats of gender relations in Western countries. This was overwhelmingly represented by a discourse of crisis and loss in relation to boyhood and a discourse of hope in relation to girlhood. These films reflect the tensions and contradictory readings of the new cultural politics of gender in the early 2000s, drawing on many of the discourses present in academic discussions about young people's gendered identities. We show how an analysis of ‘coming of age’ films offers a lens for examining the cultural politics of gender and education, and for reflecting on social change and the perceptions and anxieties that this brings.     

‘Due to all this fear,we’re getting less freedom’: young people’s understandings of gender and sexual violence in New Delhi,India

This paper explores young people’s understandings of gender and sexual violence in New Delhi, India, based on multi-method research conducted with young people (aged 15–17) in three co-educational secondary schools. Fieldwork took place shortly after the 2012 Delhi gang rape that sparked widespread debates about violence against women in India, and so sexual violence became an important frame for students’ discussions around gender and sexuality. Young people’s understandings are considered within gender narratives – of ‘can-do’ and ‘vulnerable’ girlhood, and of ‘hero’ and ‘good boy’ masculinities – which already shaped their day-to-day experiences of schooling. Findings suggest that tensions arising from these often contradictory narratives led to frustrations among girls, while the dominance of conversations about sexual violence led to confusions in both girls’ and boys’ understandings of sexuality. Reflections are offered on ways schools can better support young people as they learn about gender and sexuality from diverse and contradictory sources.     

Super-Girl: strength and sadness in Black girlhood

This paper complicates notions of Black girlhood by examining the dual experiences of gendered racism that result in both strength and sadness in Black girls’ educational experiences. I highlight the need for a curriculum of liberation to combat historical and current social conditions negatively impacting school-aged Black girls, such as harsh disciplinary practices, low academic expectations, and sexual objectification. The Super-Girl phenomenon serves as a metaphor illustrating the balance and imbalance of multiple social constructs. Utilising constructivist grounded theory [Charmaz, K. 2006. Constructing Grounded Theory. London: Sage], the key concepts in the research derived directly from the voices of 18 school-aged girls (8–13) as well as my observations, interpretations, and related experiences. Data collection utilising observation notes, interviews, written responses, and activity products provided from monthly sessions over the course of two years, offer critical insight into some of the complexities of Black girlhood. The most striking common themes abstracted from their voices were concepts related to ‘strength’ and ‘sadness’ in their lives. Thematic narratives were found to be most relevant to (1) negative teacher–student relationships, as well as, (2) policed bodies and sexual objectification. This work offers specific recommendations for future girl empowerment programming, curriculum, and evidence-based intervention development that can aide in liberating Black girls.     

The Picture of Madness–Visual Narratives of Female Mental Illness in Contemporary Children’s Literature

This article analyses a selection of contemporary children’s visual texts (for economy and specificity ‘contemporary’ is taken to mean the current century), covering a cross-section of age demographics to better understand how the texts depict female characters suffering with mental illness. It examines these primary texts not only to see how such characters are represented but also to see whether they either bolster or challenge the idea of the female being viewed as the male's ‘Other’. A brief historical and cultural contextualisation of the relationship between mentally ill females and the male-centric profession of modern psychiatry is followed by a close analysis of four primary texts, analysing visual narratives of mentally ill female characters in two picture books, an illustrated book and a graphic novel, noting how contemporary visual depictions contrast with early ideas and images supporting the nineteenth-century feminisation of madness. The conclusion is that, from the limited selection of texts analysed, contemporary children’s visual texts represent a clear contrast to the historical image of the frail and winsome madwoman. The findings are that they do not uphold the image of the female madwoman as Other.     

Ethnographic account of a pedagogical project: sisterhood institution in the Hizmet Movement

This article focuses on the pedagogical project of the Hizmet Movement, with a special focus on its gender politics as they were activated and performed at one of the movement’s schools in a peripheral rural city in western Turkey. Through an ethnographic, conversation-based account of female teachers as active and committed adherents of the Movement, this article traces a two-tier approach to the community’s pedagogical project: the first is the examination of micro-institutional mobilization units of the Movement, while the second tier is an analysis of key themes in the discourses surrounding gender, characterizing the role and the extent of women’s participation in the movement. Drawing on the central gender discourses of the movement, this article reveals the emerging pedagogical model developed by the Movement as the constitution of a new hegemonic form, which I call the ‘conservative sisterhood.’     

Cinderella in the Classroom. Children's Responses to Gender Roles in Fairy‐tales

The project described in this paper was designed to test the feminist hypothesis that the Cinderella‐style fairy‐tales promoted by Anglo‐American society harmfully reinforce restrictive images of girlhood and womanhood. The research was based on work with over 100 boys and girls aged 9‐11 in five Cornish primary schools. Responses came from the children through group discussion, drawing pictures and writing stories. Although the figure of the pretty princess predominated in the girls’ pictures, it was apparent through the children's discussion and stories that few girls identified with this image. The girls favoured ‘upside‐down’ fairy‐tale scenarios that gave their heroines independence, while the boys clung to the traditional image of the prince for the same reason. These results indicate that girls of this age are ‘resisting readers’, able to criticise and manipulate — as well as enjoy — the gender images presented to them in the dominant fairy‐tales of our culture.     

Skater girlhood and emphasized femininity: ‘you can't land an ollie properly in heels’

This study draws from interviews with 20 girls in British Columbia, Canada who participated to varying degrees in skateboarding culture. We found that skater girls saw themselves as participating in an ‘alternative’ girlhood. Becoming skater girls involved the work and play of producing themselves in relation to alternative images found among peers at school, at skate parks, online and in music videos. The alternative authority of skater girl discourse gave the girls room to manoeuvre within and against the culturally valued discourse of emphasized femininity. A subgroup of middle class skater girls, the ‘in‐betweeners’, used skater girl discourse as a way of distancing themselves from the sexism evident in skater culture as well as emphasized femininity. They used one discourse against another and took advantage of contradictions within skater discourse to forge a positive identity for themselves.     

OP-ED Approaches to international comparative research on curricula and curriculum-making processes

This is the second of four essays discussing Wu’s ‘Interpretation, autonomy, and transformation: Chinese pedagogic discourse in a cross-cultural perspective’ (JCS, 43(5), 569-590). The essay is interesting against the background of recent debates, both inside and outside China, about the relationship between the Chinese and Western traditions of curriculum and pedagogy. The essay helps one to understand that there is no clear divide between the so-called Chinese and Western traditions. The modern Chinese language as well as its pedagogical discourse have been hybridized with something western, with the implication that it is difficult to distinguish one from the other. However, the paper falls into a trap of cultural judgement: it (re)interprets the Confucian ‘authentic’ texts as ‘desirable’ and attributes many ‘contemporary’ pedagogical practices and/or the discourse of the so-called ‘Confucian heritage’ to the influence of the West.     

尊重传统文化 吸收西方精华——帕慕克笔下的土耳其当代文化发展观

地跨欧亚两大陆的土耳其是历史上＂最自我撕裂的国家＂,东方与西方（或称传统与现代）是土耳其知识分子一再重复表现的重要主题。作家帕慕克在自己的作品中描述了土耳其从全盘西化到目前伊斯兰复兴的整个过程,认为未来土耳其的道路既不是全面西化,也不是回归过去,而是在尊重传统文化、吸收西方精华的基础上,创立一种使东方与西方可以结合在一起新的本土文化。     

From the frozen wilderness to the moody sea: rural space,girlhood and popular pedagogy

This paper turns to debates in post-critical public pedagogy to focus on how a small body of films might potentially work as vehicles for teaching and learning about youth, gender and space. It is argued that representations of the rural shape what is possible for girlhood, being both enabling and constraining for the subject. Framed by discourses around the politics of representing the rural, a range of popular Australian films will be analysed to think about how popular film might use representations of the rural to educate spectators about girls as ‘successful’, ‘in crisis’ and/or as girls asserting ‘girlpower’. The films include four key Australian ‘coming of age’ films about girls growing up in rural/rural coastal locales: Peaches set in a sleepy town on the banks of the Murray River, Somersault set in the frozen wilderness of Jindabyne in the Snowy Mountains, Caterpillar Wish set in the coastal town full of secrets and lies, and in Indigenous film maker Ivan Sen's Beneath Clouds, showing the Country passed through during a rural New South Wales road trip.     

The same old hocus-pocus: pedagogies of gender and sexuality in Shrek 2

The Shrek films are a popular worldwide and economic success. Drawing on an analysis of the film as well as responses from undergraduate students enrolled in a children's literature course, we analyze Shrek 2 as a teaching machine in which normative discourses of gender and sexuality circulate under the guise of ‘girl power’. We argue that while Shrek 2 purports to offer viewers a more progressive curriculum about girlhood in relationship to other media texts such as Disney, it ultimately reifies heterosexual white femininity as the norm.     

Claiming modernity through clothing: gender and education in Pakistani Muslim and Indian Hindu communities

Through focusing on forms of clothing, this article reveals how educated women from marginalized communities in Pakistan and India made differential claims to being modern. Our analysis of two ethnographic studies shows how the participants mobilized their subjectivities as modern and educated women through a distinction between ‘local modern’ and ‘local traditional’. In this article, our goal is not to define modernity, but instead to illuminate what it meant to be modern in both contexts. We integrate the narratives of young, rural Muslim women in Pakistan with those of young, rural Hindu women in India to disrupt the linear telling of the production of universal and homogenous modernity through education.