Publications by year
In Press
Allan A, Charles C (In Press). Cosmo girls: new configurations of class and femininity in elite educational settings.
British Journal of Sociology of EducationAbstract:
Cosmo girls: new configurations of class and femininity in elite educational settings
Abstract
In this paper we offer a unique contribution to understandings of schooling as a site for the production of social class difference, by bringing together recent work on middle-class educational identities in neoliberal times (O’Flynn and Petersen 2007, Reay et al 2007, 2008) with explorations of classed femininity from the field of critical girlhood studies (Harris 2004, Ringrose and Walkerdine 2008). Drawing on data generated in two recent research projects in Australia and the UK our aim will be to explore how class mediates the construction of young femininities in the private girls’ school. Our particular focus will be on exploring how articulations of identity within such schools are configured through discourses of mobility and global social responsibility.
In line with the broader ‘cultural turn’ in the social sciences (Devine 2005) we discuss class and femininity in this paper in cultural and symbolic terms. We draw on Butler’s (1993) notions of performativity to understand the multiple and processual nature of identity constitution and Bourdieu’s (1987) understandings of class (based on symbolic struggles for capital in social space) to enable us to explore the ‘subjective micro distinctions’ through which class is expressed, embodied and lived; viewing class as a set of fictional discourses that inscribe and produce identities (Walkerdine et al 2001). This understanding of class was deemed particularly important in these studies of elite educational institutions, for the research was undertaken in schools where class was apparently ‘everywhere and nowhere’, never named or ‘directly known as class’ (Lawler 2005, Skeggs 2004). This underplaying of class identity is often linked to neo-liberalism, and in this paper we would like to link these constructions of ‘the private school girl’ with neoliberal subjectivity by focusing on two main characteristics.
First we will consider the notion of mobility, where we will discuss the ways in which these girls constructed themselves as ‘cosmo’ girls (global citizens at ease with traversing national borders) and the ways in which the schools supported this through educational practices which enabled the students and their families ‘to exploit and strategically pursue economic and cultural capital’ (Doherty et al 2009). We will also focus on the struggles that the schools and students encountered as they attempted to balance these discourses of global mobility with more traditional discourses of privilege (often associated with national boundaries and based within a predominantly British model of schooling steeped in colonial history). Second, we will look at discourses of responsibility, to explore how these girls were incited to take responsibility for themselves and their futures but also to embrace diversity and to commit themselves to social service. In doing so we will examine the competing discourses of instrumentalism and social justice that were at play in these schools; the ways in which pupils expressed a genuine commitment to social service but also how this was being refigured and reshaped in relation to the need for a ‘portfolio self’ and as part of an individualist quest for ideal neoliberal subjectivity.
Methods
The paper draws upon two recent studies conducted in Australia and the United Kingdom, both seeking to explore configurations of class and gender in the context of the elite private girls’ school. The Australian project, based in one secondary school, adopted a tiered approach for study – generating data at three different levels of institutional practice: at the ‘school level’ (considering media representations of the young women and interviewing members of staff), at the ‘classroom level’ (through observation and collaboratively developed lessons) and at the ‘student level’ (interviewing small groups of girls). The UK project, based in two secondary schools, adopted a longitudinal, ethnographic approach, combining focus group and individual interviews (with parents and students) with observation and participatory film and photographic methods. In this paper we principally analyse three of these forms of qualitative data: school promotional media and interviews with students and staff.
Expected outcomes and conclusions
By exploring the interlinking of these discourses we seek to demonstrate the significance of these schools, as key sites that play a central role in new articulations of classed identity. We will attempt to draw some firm conclusions about the impact that these configurations of classed femininity may have on those ‘others’ who remain outside of these elite settings. Indeed, we will argue that the analytical frame of disgust (the rejection of the working class other), often mobilised in the class difference literature, cannot, on its own, explain how class distinction was being produced in these schools. It is also our contention that these are not purely local concerns (not simply confined to the UK or Australia) but that they are mirrored in different ways in the experience of educational development in a number of Northern European countries (see, for example, Lichfield 2010).We hope that this paper will prompt further questions about the possibilities of social and educational mobility in ‘global times’ and for elite educational practice outside of this British model of private schooling.
Abstract.
Allan A, Charles C (In Press). More than a class act? Dilemmas in researching elite school girls' feminist politics. Feminist Theory: an international interdisciplinary journal, 1-28.
Hall J, Allan A, Tomlinson M, Kelly A, Lindorff A (In Press). Negative capital: a generalised definition and application to educational effectiveness and equity. Oxford Review of Education
Allan A, Cullen F (In Press). Picturing innocence? Innocent pictures?: Representation and the use of self-directed photography in studies of children and young people’s cultural worlds. Childhood
Allan AJ (In Press). Preparing for life in the global village: producing global citizen subjects in UK schools.
2022
Angoy P (2022). Decolonising Leadership in International Education.
Abstract:
Decolonising Leadership in International Education
ABSTRACT
This study articulates the journey, across more than six decades, of one black woman from birth through schooling to international school leadership. The purpose of the study is to open a debate about the challenges faced by women of colour in leadership roles in international schooling to be seen and heard. This is necessary firstly because it is only in the last decade that women of colour have started to be deliberately seen and heard in these roles, and secondly because the matter of colour and gender has largely been invisible in the decolonisation of leadership within international schooling. This act of invisibilisation undermines the perspectives of black women. It can therefore be argued that if such perspectives remain absent from the discourse, the decolonisation of leadership in international schooling cannot begin.
This study introduces the reader to the role silence and invisibility play in international school leadership. Using the methodology of autoethnography, I am able to explore decolonisation through personal and professional narratives and show how these narratives uncover the role of silence and invisibility in a life led and attempts to illuminate the drive to decolonise international schools, from the perspective of one woman of colour. The narratives that are structured across the four phases that cover four distinct periods:.
1. Colonial period and early life in Guiana (1956-1968)
2. United Kingdom: student and early career (1968-1981)
3. International career in schools and beyond (1981-2010)
4. Return to Europe and beyond (2010 -2021)
Abstract.
Ghemmour R (2022). Telling Stories of an Invisible Cohort: Exploring Algerian EFL Students’ Experiences, Challenges and Hopes of Learning about Research Methodology and Writing Dissertations at Master’s Level.
Abstract:
Telling Stories of an Invisible Cohort: Exploring Algerian EFL Students’ Experiences, Challenges and Hopes of Learning about Research Methodology and Writing Dissertations at Master’s Level
This thesis sought to gain critical insights into Algerian EFL (English as a Foreign Language) students’ lived experiences, challenges and hopes of learning about research methodology and writing dissertations at master’s level. Within Algerian universities, master’s EFL students are expected to conduct a piece of independent research and write an MA dissertation demonstrating multidisciplinary contents and research skills which they acquire during both their BA and MA programmes. However, according to many scholarly local studies, master’s students studying towards a degree in English Language Education encounter several challenges which hinder their dissertation progress despite previous research learning inputs.
A decolonising methodology grounded in an Indigenous approach was adopted in order to avoid perpetuating ‘otherness’, but rather position participants as research collaborators and educators who can shape the research selection, design, analysis and production of knowledge. In fact, twenty-five students and eleven research methodology lecturers were invited to unpack their lived experiences and critically reflect upon assumptions, attitudes and paradigms shaping research methodology teaching and learning within and beyond classrooms. To reach such aim, participant-observation was used to gain an in-depth insight into the daily learning and teaching experiences of the participants, followed by a series of conversational interviews to explore into more depth the nuanced experiences of the knowledge-holders.
The findings reveal a multi-dimensional picture. They show the multiple challenges which the students encountered over the course of their research learning and dissertation stage. Furthermore, these challenges were critically analysed based on both macro and micro levels revealing issues of teacher-student power dynamics, voice, the social and cultural reproduction within and beyond classrooms and the nature of the overall learning and teaching practices which were grounded in knowledge transmission. To analyse such major themes, Freire’s Critical Pedagogy (CP) and other critical ideas advanced by some key luminaries such as Biesta, Bourdieu, or Giroux were utilised to provide a pluriversal critical analysis of the accounts.
In light of the findings, the study demonstrates implications for lecturers and universities as well as recommendations for future research. The thesis also provides reflexive accounts regarding the tensions and intents of doing a critical and decolonising work.
Abstract.
2021
Stentiford L, Koutsouris G, Allan A (2021). Girls, mental health and academic achievement: a qualitative systematic review. Educational Review
Mennai C (2021). Pasts, Presents and Possible Futures in an Expanding Postgraduate Landscape: Gender, Remote Residency and Transitions to Postgraduate Education in Algeria.
Abstract:
Pasts, Presents and Possible Futures in an Expanding Postgraduate Landscape: Gender, Remote Residency and Transitions to Postgraduate Education in Algeria.
This thesis examines the narratives of women graduates transitioning to postgraduate education within a rapidly changing higher education structure that is expanding into remote areas, namely the Algerian south. It contests dominant narratives which view HE as a linear pathway or as linked to individual successes and failures, and sheds light on the gender related and the systemic issues that influence this transition, which have been less thoroughly explored areas in the reviewed literature. A two-phase narrative multiple case study design was employed to gain insight into diverse female experiences, and to amplify the marginalized voices of those wishing to access postgraduate education. More specifically, the study explored the lived experiences and ongoing changes that graduates navigated, as well as the various factors, enablers and barriers that influenced their process. In the first phase, to capture the critical moments of their journeys throughout HE, the participants were asked to use a creative interview tool, Creative River Journey Chart, as a stimulus in subsequent interviews. In total, 20 in-depth individual interviews were conducted, together with four joint interviews. The second phase involved conducting 20 individual semi-structured interviews with the participants.
The findings reveal a complex picture of the transition into postgraduate education. They show the various and unique adjustments and challenges associated with navigating the system, and revealed a number of systemic issues. Furthermore, the participants described the influence of perceived and genuine barriers to accessing postgraduate education. Additionally, the intrinsic and extrinsic motivations for pursuing postgraduate education were identified. In light of the findings, the study concludes by highlighting significant implications for policy, theory and practice, as well as offering recommendations for future research.
Abstract.
Grosse F (2021). The role of organic linguistic repertoires and complementary schooling in young people's identity construction: Doing linguistic ethnography in a German Saturday school in London.
Abstract:
The role of organic linguistic repertoires and complementary schooling in young people's identity construction: Doing linguistic ethnography in a German Saturday school in London
The motivation for this research was to explore the relationship between linguistic repertoires and complex identities of young people attending a complementary language school in a multilingual city. The research design was influenced by linguistic ethnography (LE) and the context of a complementary school. Research was conducted in a German Saturday school, over a period of six months, using observations, language portrait work and semi-structured interviews with five young people and their teacher. I further gathered contextual data such as the background of students currently attending the school and wrote a research diary. All data were transcribed and analysed using a combination of post-structural discourse analysis and thematic analysis (PDTA). The findings highlighted the complexities of young people’s identities in relation to their organic linguistic repertoires (OLR). The term OLR points toward the dynamic nature of ‘languages’ that appear less visible in the term language repertoire or plurilingualism.
The findings of this study suggest that young people’s language practices can be associated with linguistic identity, and where a variety of discourses are at play in complementary schools as sheltered spaces, thereby shaping young people’s identity development. The study further suggests an alteration of students’ identity development throughout the study and their increased awareness of their OLR was a result of the language portrait activity. I demonstrate how the relationship among different languages, language varieties, accents and dialects in a young person’s OLR are related to classroom performances and how the young people cross linguistic boundaries. The study is also unique in attending to everyday language practices, through a linguistic ethnographic lens, of young people attending a German Saturday school in the context of complementary schooling in the UK. In addition, focusing on young people in an A-level classroom depicts a much-understudied group and further sheds light on the similarities between students in these settings and perhaps other complementary schools.
Abstract.
2020
Allan A (2020). Feminist Perspectives on Qualitative Educational Research. In Delamont S, Ward M (Eds.)
Handbook of Qualitative Research in Education, Edward Elgar, 1-522.
Abstract:
Feminist Perspectives on Qualitative Educational Research
Abstract.
Charles C, Allan A (2020). More than a class act? dilemmas in researching elite school girls’ feminist politics. Feminist Theory, 23(2), 266-284.
2019
Cole S (2019). Exploring young people’s views and experiences of relationship abuse: and the role of education in framing this perspective.
Abstract:
Exploring young people’s views and experiences of relationship abuse: and the role of education in framing this perspective.
This thesis investigates young women’s experiences of domestic violence and abuse within teenage heterosexual relationships and the role of education in understanding these experiences. Domestic violence and abuse has often been defined and located as an adult issue. However, there is increasing awareness that young people experience greater levels of violence and abuse in their relationships, from as young as thirteen (Barter et al 2009); with comparable deleterious effects as for older women. This research focuses on young women (all under the age of nineteen) who were at school when they experienced violence and abuse in their romantic relationships. The research utilises a theoretical framework which draws on insights from feminist post-structural approaches to gender and sexuality. It does so in order to explore the discourses available to young women with which to make sense of their experience of relationships in a context of violence and abuse. It also seeks to explore the young women’s experience of education, both formal and informal; the role it played, and the role it could have played.
There is a dearth of empirical research that has explored, in depth, young women’s experiences of violence and abuse, and subsequently, little is known about the ways in which they understand and make sense of their experiences. This research adopted a feminist narrative approach to the interviewing in order to allow the young women participating in the research to give voice to their experiences of violence and abuse in the context of their education. The discourses the young women drew on in order to narrate and explain their experiences reflect dominant heteronormative discourses of love. Their ‘stories’ were supported by narratives which were infused by popular culture – these were hierarchically gendered in nature and appeared to perpetuate inequality in a way which simultaneously allowed violence and abuse to remain hidden amongst dominant ‘practices of love’ (Donovan & Hester, 2015). From my analysis this included experiences of pregnancy and motherhood which were weaponised and bound up with gendered power relationships and complex experiences of love.
The research presented here will argue that these young women’s narratives were at times incoherent, as they worked to find ways to understand their experiences in an apparently limited and confining heteronormative framework. This ‘identity work’ is recognised as part of their attempts to reproduce, resist and rupture discourse, and goes some way in explaining the contradictory and fragmentary nature of these stories. A particularly pertinent focus of the research was the focus on education, and the fact that these young women’s experiences were explored within their broader educational context (and both in terms of informal and formal educational arrangements). This educational exploration was also important because of the means in which it has allowed for an understanding of the ways education has frustrated their understandings rather than used as a space to challenge their experiences and disrupt confining discourses, however, it also highlighted the ways in which education might be able to transform young people’s experiences, understandings and their constructions of relationships.
Abstract.
2018
Fullwood M (2018). Teacher Resistance to Oralism in the 1970s: a Case Study of a School for the Deaf.
Abstract:
Teacher Resistance to Oralism in the 1970s: a Case Study of a School for the Deaf
The central aim of this research was to investigate teacher resistance in a deaf school, in the South West of England, as they responded to contradictions in their careers during the oral method of deaf education. The most notable contradiction was that the oral methods failed a sizeable portion of deaf students who had no recourse to other methods. Other contradictions revolved around differences between the interpretation of deaf lives from a cultural or medical viewpoint and tensions between the influences of normalisation and the growing acceptance of diversity.
Giddens’ (1984) ontological project of structuration is used as a sensitising lens for the study because of its focus on both structures, rules and resources for social actions, and individual agency blended in a recursive relationship. A bricolage of interviews and historical documents are used to create a history of the school outlining the dominant structures in deaf education and the development of the oral method through time, ultimately to the late 1970s when, in this case study, the oral method was augmented with Cued Speech and Sign Supported English. This case study focuses on thirteen teachers who taught mainly through the 1970s, of which eleven participated in semi-structured interviews. Grounded theory is used as a way of collecting and analysing data so that the findings were, in large, inductive.
Conformity to the oral method, in most cases, required a state of consciousness that Giddens (1984) called a practical consciousness, where teachers replicated existing patterns of society, including the more durable structures associated with their social positioning, that is their socially legitimated identities. Oppositional behaviours, including resistance, required a discursive consciousness where agents explored other opportunities triggered as a result of contradictions that arose in their lives. Most participants conformed to the oral method but a few employed occasional oppositional behaviours, for example allowing students to sign to those who could not profit from the oral teaching. Three participants resisted the oral method, evidenced by developing Deaf cultural competencies and with that a growing awareness of deaf epistemologies. This epistemic reflexivity led them to value and learn sign language and Deaf culture and develop transformative practices, creating different deaf pedagogies in safe spaces away from the prying eyes of other teachers and the school leadership. From limited discussions with some pupils, who attended the school during the 1960s and 1970s, these behaviours and teaching styles were welcomed and appreciated by the students.
Abstract.
Allan AJ (2018). Using the once familiar to make the familiar strange once again: engaging with historical inquiry and autobiography in contemporary ethnographic research.
Qualitative Research,
18(5), 538-553.
Abstract:
Using the once familiar to make the familiar strange once again: engaging with historical inquiry and autobiography in contemporary ethnographic research
This paper builds on Delamont’s (2010) strategies for fighting familiarity, particularly her argument that we need to revisit educational ethnographies of the past. The paper argues that wider historical accounts, from both inside and outside of education, can also cultivate the sociological imagination in this way. Inspired by feminist historical inquiry the author will demonstrate how she has used history (e.g. feminist autobiography) to make the ‘familiarity’ of contemporary girlhood ‘strange’. The paper will draw on examples from the author’s own experience of interpreting and representing the lives and experiences of girls in elite educational settings, to show how this subject, which was once considered strange, can become all too familiar and thus prey to historical amnesia. An argument is made here for the need for strategies which help us fight familiarity in our interpretations and theorisations of the lives of those we study. The paper suggests that historical accounts represent one way in which we can bring an openness and playfulness to this process, in order to question the self-evidence of what we see.
Abstract.
2016
Allan AJ (2016). A Monster Lurking in the Shadows? One Researcher’s Crisis of Representing Class and Gender. In (Ed)
Gender Identity and Research Relationships, Emerald, 65-83.
Abstract:
A Monster Lurking in the Shadows? One Researcher’s Crisis of Representing Class and Gender
Abstract.
2015
Allan AJ, Tinkler P (2015). 'Seeing' into the past and 'looking' forward to the future: visual methods and gender and education research.
Gender and Education,
27(7), 791-811.
Abstract:
'Seeing' into the past and 'looking' forward to the future: visual methods and gender and education research
A small number of attempts have been made to take stock of the field of gender and education, though very few have taken methodology as their focus. We seek to stimulate such discussion in this paper by taking stock of the use of visual methods in gender and education research (particularly participatory and image-based methods). We undertake this exercise by looking at the claims researchers have made about the ways in which visual methods have advanced gender and education research, and by examining the use they have been put to in research practice. Our argument is that the visual has become somewhat invisible in accounts of gender and education research. We conclude by considering different ways in which we might develop image-based research in the future.
Abstract.
Allan AJ, Tinkler P (2015). Taking Stock: a Framework.
Gender and Education,
27(7), 733-743.
Abstract:
Taking Stock: a Framework
‘Taking stock is to think carefully about a situation or event and form an opinion about it, so that you can decide what to do’ (Cambridge Definition Online). The phrase is an English idiom, but its meaning has international resonance. ‘Taking stock’ is an everyday activity, but this special edition focuses on ‘taking stock’ as an important and timely aspect of our practice as scholars of gender and education.
This Special Issue begins a process of taking stock of the gender and education field. Our approach stresses the importance of taking stock as a broad range of practices and foci that embrace the past, present and future. This is potentially a huge undertaking and far too large to be accommodated in a single issue of Gender & Education. The aims of this Special Issue are, therefore, more modest and geared towards enabling an ongoing process. The articles featured in this volume provide examples of taking stock of different aspects of gender and education from a range of perspectives. We hope these will spark productive discussions but also encourage further reflections on where we have come from, where we are and where we are heading.
to this end, we hope that this special issue will create further openings for dialogue and that others will be inspired to move beyond the ideas represented here and submit articles on this theme in the future. In this introduction we suggest a number of ways in which authors may consider taking up this exercise, but it would seem particularly apt that this future work is done from a range of different vantage points in order to extend the work started here (e.g. further ‘looking’ and ‘asking’ from beyond the Global North).
To facilitate this ongoing project in gender and education, here we present a framework for taking stock and address some of the challenges involved in this practice. Before doing this we reflect briefly on previous appraisals of the gender and education field and why it is timely to engage in a more extensive taking stock.
Abstract.
2014
Allan AJ (2014). The Importance of Being a ‘Lady’: Hyper‐femininity and Heterosexuality in the Private, Single‐sex Primary School. In (Ed) Approaches to Fieldwork, Sage Benchmarks in Social Research Methods, Sage Publications.
2013
Charles C, Allan A (2013). Cosmo Girls: New Configurations of Class and Femininity in Elite Educational Settings. British Journal of Sociology of Education, iFirst
Allan A (2013). Power, participation and privilege: methodological lessons from a project with elite young people.
Sociological Research OnlineAbstract:
Power, participation and privilege: methodological lessons from a project with elite young people
The dominant concern with understanding the ‘problem of youth’ has inevitably meant that some groups of young people have been researched more than others (France 2004). Those young people who are viewed as ‘elite’ are also those who are often regarded as unproblematic and unworthy of research attention. Whilst these young people often account for an isolated and unrepresentative minority of the population, as Howard (2008) suggests it is not enough for researchers to solely focus on oppressed groups. Instead there is a real need to divert attention back towards privilege.
A growing body of literature now exists to address what it means to conduct research with elite adults, but there remains a dearth of information on research with elite youth. Drawing on a year-long qualitative project with young women in two elite sixth-form colleges in the UK this paper will attempt to redress some of these silences by focusing on issues of access, timing and relationships, in order to explore the complex subjectivities and social locations of the researcher and the research participants. The paper will particularly focus on issues of participation and power relationships; asking important questions about how these play out with more powerful groups and the wider lessons that they afford youth researchers.
Abstract.
Allan AJ, Charles C (2013). Preparing for life in the global village:
producing global citizen subjects in UK
schools. Research Papers in Education, iFirst
Allan AJ (2013). Preparing for life in the global village: producing global citizen subjects in UK schools. Research Papers in Education, iFirst
2012
Allan A (2012). Power, participation and privilege - methodological lessons from using visual methods in research with young people.
Sociological Research Online,
17(3), 256-266.
Abstract:
Power, participation and privilege - methodological lessons from using visual methods in research with young people
The practice of using participatory visual methods in research with young people is one that has come under scrutiny in recent years. Many scholars have examined these practices in order to question the singular and simple notions of voice that are often represented in these accounts. Taking up the challenges laid down by these scholars, this paper attempts to critically disturb some of the claims that have been made about this supposedly inherently collaborative and empowering practice. Drawing on research with a group of privileged young people the paper will argue that there is a real need for researchers to examine the ways in which different subjectivities are performatively produced in the participatory research process - to explore the ways in which the methods themselves may work to constitute difference and to position young people as powerful or powerless in this process. A call is also made for researchers to inspect their own practice and use of visual methods, in order to recognise the particular knowledges, subjectivities and truths that are constituted as a result. © Sociological Research Online, 1996-2012.
Abstract.
2011
Allan A (2011). Doing ethnography and using visual methods. In Bradford S, Cullen F (Eds.)
Research Methods for Youth Practitioners, Routledge.
Abstract:
Doing ethnography and using visual methods
Abstract.
Allan A (2011). Feminism and Qualitative Educational Research. In Delamont S (Ed) Handbook of Qualitative Research in Education.
2010
Allan A, Charles C (2010). Cosmo girls: new configurations of class and femininity in elite educational settings. European Conference for Educational Research. 23rd - 27th Aug 2010.
Abstract:
Cosmo girls: new configurations of class and femininity in elite educational settings
Abstract.
Allan A, Charles C (2010). Cosmo girls: new configurations of class and femininity in elite educational settings. Australian Women's and Gender Studies Association. 29th Jun - 2nd Jul 2010.
Abstract:
Cosmo girls: new configurations of class and femininity in elite educational settings
Abstract.
Allan AJ, Charles C (2010). Facing the interface between cultural studies and the sociology of education. Australian Association of Educational Researcher's Conference. 28th Nov - 2nd Dec 2010.
Allan AJ (2010). Picturing success: young femininities and the (im)possibilities of academic achievement in selective, single-sex schooling.
International Studies in Sociology of Education,
20(1), 39-54.
Abstract:
Picturing success: young femininities and the (im)possibilities of academic achievement in selective, single-sex schooling
Female educational achievement has often been portrayed as a celebratory success story with no cause for concern. As Mcrobbie (2007) remarks, over the last decade it is young women who have come to be widely understood as the bearers of educational qualifications. It is girls who are now seen to have ‘the world at their feet’ and to be able to attain the glittering prizes of academic success associated with elite universities and top occupations (Harris 2004). and it is upper middle-class girls, in particular, who appear to be achieving the most; a ‘super class’ of pupils who are supposedly able to effortlessly succeed in everything that they do (Power et al 2003).
Drawing on ethnographic research that took place in one single-sex, private primary school in the South of Britain this paper seeks to question this post-feminist success story (Ringrose 2007). The paper will critically explore how one class of twenty-five girls (aged ten and eleven) negotiated their academic identities as high-achieving, successful schools girls. It will begin by outlining the girls’ outstanding achievements and by examining the neo-liberal discourses that they cited in the construction of these ‘successful’ identities. It will then move on to explore the multiplicity of discourses which fused together in order to determine the possible identities open to the girls as good/bad students and achievers (Youdell 2006).
The paper will argue that the girls in this school often struggled with owning academic success for themselves, for despite attending a school where success was openly celebrated, many of the girls felt restricted to perform success in narrow and competitive ways that clashed with dominant discourses of femininity (Walkerdine et al 2001). The paper will conclude by questioning what this means for other girls who remain outside this super-class of pupils and who are constantly denied access to these academic prizes, but are still expected to live this dream of feminine success.
Abstract.
Allan A (2010). Power, participation and privilege: methodological lessons from a project with elite young people. British Sociological Association - Youth 2010: Identities, Transitions, Cultures. 6th - 8th Jul 2010.
Abstract:
Power, participation and privilege: methodological lessons from a project with elite young people
Abstract.
2009
Allan AJ (2009). Private education, risk and the protected social worlds of upper-middle class girls. Gender and Education. 24th - 27th Mar 2009.
Abstract:
Private education, risk and the protected social worlds of upper-middle class girls
Abstract.
Allan AJ (2009). Rebels’, ‘bad girls’ and ‘misbehavers’: exploring underachievement in the selective primary school. In Jackson, C, Renold, E, Paechter, C (Eds.)
Girls and Education 3-16: Continuing Concerns, New Agendas, Oxford: McGraw-Hill, 50-61.
Abstract:
Rebels’, ‘bad girls’ and ‘misbehavers’: exploring underachievement in the selective primary school
Abstract.
Allan AJ, Atkinson E, De Palma R, Brace E, Hemingway J (2009). Speaking the unspeakable in forbidden places: researching approaches to sexualities equalities in the primary school. In De Palma R, Atkinson E (Eds.)
Interrogating Heteronormativity in Primary Schools: the No Outsiders Project, Stoke-on-Trent: Trentham.
Abstract:
Speaking the unspeakable in forbidden places: researching approaches to sexualities equalities in the primary school
Abstract.
Allan AJ (2009). The importance of being a 'lady': hyper-femininity and heterosexuality in the private, single-sex primary school.
Gender and Education,
21(2), 145-158.
Abstract:
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 Butler’s (1990) heterosexual matrix for these upper-middle class girls.
Abstract.
2008
Allan AJ, Renold E, Ross N (2008). Look at the state of me!”: Researching and representing everyday identities and relationship cultures in participatory research with young people in care. Vital Signs: Researching Real Life. 9th - 11th Sep 2008.
Allan AJ, Cullen F (2008). Picturing innocence? Innocent pictures?: Representation and the use of self-directed photography in studies of children and young people’s cultural worlds. Advancing the use of visual methods in research on children’s cultures. 16th - 16th Apr 2008.
Abstract:
Picturing innocence? Innocent pictures?: Representation and the use of self-directed photography in studies of children and young people’s cultural worlds
Abstract.
Allan AJ (2008). Snapshots of subjectivities: using photographic methods in identity research with young children. Childhood and Youth: Choice and Participation International Conference. 4th - 6th Jul 2008.
Abstract:
Snapshots of subjectivities: using photographic methods in identity research with young children
Abstract.
Allan AJ, De Palma R, Atkinson E, Brace E, Hemingway J (2008). Speaking the unspeakable in forbidden places: addressing lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality in the primary school.
Sex Education: Sexuality, Society and Learning,
8(3), 315-328.
Abstract:
Speaking the unspeakable in forbidden places: addressing lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality in the primary school
This paper interrogates the ways in which school is produced as a particular bounded place (or collection of places) where sexuality, and particularly non-heterosexuality, is kept outside the boundaries. Drawing upon data generated in primary schools during a nationwide action research project (No Outsiders), we focus on three very different school places: the classroom, the staff room and a school-based after-school art club. Our analysis engages with the contingency of place-making to show that place is neither a unitary experience nor a neutral stage upon which social relations are enacted. The three vignettes analysed offer insight into the critical potential of consciously and persistently working across (apparently) boundaried spaces within and beyond schools.
Abstract.
Allan AJ (2008). Sporting success? Young girls negotiating the (im)possibilities of physical education and active girlhood. British Educational Research Association. 3rd - 6th Sep 2008.
Abstract:
Sporting success? Young girls negotiating the (im)possibilities of physical education and active girlhood
Abstract.
Allan AJ (2008). Struggling for success: young femininities and the (im)possibilities of academic achievement. Australian Educational Research Association. 28th Nov - 4th Dec 2008.
Abstract:
Struggling for success: young femininities and the (im)possibilities of academic achievement
Abstract.
Allan AJ, Maxwell C (2008). Young, posh and privileged?: young girls negotiating class and gender through the years in private schooling’. Sexuality, schooling and schizoid agendas: BERA Sexualities SIG One-day conference event. 30th - 30th Oct 2008.
Allan AJ (2008). ‘Analyse that!’ – Engaging young girls in data analysis and interpretation. Childhood and Youth: Choice and Participation International Conference. 4th - 6th Jul 2008.
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‘Analyse that!’ – Engaging young girls in data analysis and interpretation
Abstract.
2006
Allan AJ, Renold E (2006). Bright and beautiful: High achieving girls, ambivalent femininities and the feminisation of success in the primary school.
Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education,
27(4), 457-473.
Abstract:
Bright and beautiful: High achieving girls, ambivalent femininities and the feminisation of success in the primary school
This paper refocuses attention on and problematizes girls’ experiences of school achievement and the construction of schoolgirl femininities. In particular, it centres on the relatively neglected experiences and identity work of high achieving primary school girls. Drawing upon ethnographic data (observations, interviews, and pupil diaries) from a broader study of girls’ and boys’perceptions and experiences of schoolwork and achievement from two contrasting primary schools in a city in South Wales (UK), the paper will explore the gendered subjectivities of high achieving girls from diverse social and cultural backgrounds. Three narrative case studies are re-presented
and analysed to explore the feminization of success and thus the tensions and contradictions as girls negotiate the pushes and pulls to be both ‘bright’ (i.e. succeeding academically) and ‘beautiful’(succeeding in ‘doing girl’). of key interest are the possibilities, costs, and consequences of girls producing ambivalent femininities and the rearticulation and transgression of normative ways of ‘doing clever’ and ‘doing girl’ in 21st century primary schools.
Abstract.
Allan AJ, Lester C (2006). Teen sexual health needs: asking the consumers. Health Education, 106(4), 315-328.
Allan AJ (2006). Using photographic diaries to research the gender and academic identities of young girls. In Walford G, Jeffrey B, Troman G (Eds.)
Methodological Issues and Practices in Ethnography, Oxford: Elsevier, 19-36.
Abstract:
Using photographic diaries to research the gender and academic identities of young girls
Abstract.