As a practicing middle school English Language Arts teacher and researcher in the Northeastern US, I am interested in the stories adolescents tell about their lives. To this end, my research in classrooms is ethnographic and privileges the stories girls tell about their experiences of being marginalized, silenced, and punished, often by other girls. One story in particular has resonated with me, and I have come to refer to this story as “The Story of the Sluts” – thus named, however crudely, because that is how the story was presented to me by the girls who told it. It all came about when Lily (a pseudonym), an eighth grade student, was meeting with me during a writing conference about revisions for a short story she was writing in my class. During this writing conference, it came out that a party had taken place the previous weekend. Lily explained that two of my other students, Melanie and Kelly, had gone ‘into the woods’ with two boys who also attended our school. Continue reading “Into the Woods”
School inspections: do they tell us about sexual bullying in schools?
Ofsted published a thematic review on 19 June that looks at what schools can do to create a positive school culture and to prevent and tackle bullying. 37 primary schools and 19 secondary schools were included. One aspect of the survey, ‘No place for bullying’, was inspectors’ focus on pupils’ own experiences and understanding of bullying and its effects. Inspectors asked pupils what they would do if they were bullied, whether they had been bullied while at their current school and how well they thought their school dealt with bullying. Continue reading “School inspections: do they tell us about sexual bullying in schools?”
Boffins and geeks: geek or chic?
The labels swot, ear ’ole, boffin, keeno, geek and nerd resonate meaningfully across generations of school-goers and echo through the terrains of popular culture. Our Gender and Education viewpoint started life as a conversation about our own research into how such identities are imagined and lived. We wondered: Has ‘the rise of the nerd’ meant that being a ‘boffin’ at school has lost its stigma? Continue reading “Boffins and geeks: geek or chic?”
Influences on Young Children’s Gender Identity: Observational Reflections
Bobbie: I’m Snow White.
(Bobbie has placed a cup on his head to symbolise a tiara and has draped his coat around his shoulders like a cloak)
Bobbie looks delicate, has long, blond hair and is easily mistaken for a girl. I made a mistake as I watched Bobbie and a group of boys and girls playing pirates. Thinking Bobbie was a girl, I was shocked when Terry and David, said: “He‘s always like this” “Bobbie is a girl.” “He’s a sissy.” Bobbie‘s response to me about these comments also left me stunned: “You might think this is strange, but I like girls and I like being a girl.” These brief exchanges and the realisation that Bobbie was a boy made me question my understanding of gender. Why had the boys reacted to Bobbie as they had and why, at such an early age, was their behaviour so stereotypical and Bobbie’s not? Perhaps Terry and David were being ‘normal’. Continue reading “Influences on Young Children’s Gender Identity: Observational Reflections”
LGBTQ Resources and Schooling
In the first initiative of its kind in Australia, the Victorian Government has provided $80,000 to the Safe Schools Coalition Victoria (SSCV), a partnership between Rainbow Network Victoria and the Foundation for Young Australians (FYA). Continue reading “LGBTQ Resources and Schooling”