NCJ Number
162557
Date Published
1993
Length
7 pages
Annotation
This article draws on the results of an ethnographic study of working class secondary school girls in suburban New South Wales over a 5-year period commencing when they were in 8th grade.
Abstract
The girls were officially classified by the school as children at risk, although they were more popularly labeled by teachers as troublemakers. The girls were seen as having no interest in learning and as causing discipline problems. They refused to accept the passivity of the traditional female role and had adopted many typically male behaviors, for example, bragging about their sexual prowess and resorting to fisticuffs when they deemed it necessary. Like the oppositional subcultural style of boys, the girls also used a characteristic mode of verbal expression. While the girls fought teachers with strategies derived from their experiences as being female and from the working class, the evidence did not suggest that they resisted the educational process or that they were more interested in female youth culture than in schooling. They knew they needed educational qualifications to acquire the desired material goods and lifestyle, and they cared a great deal that their academic progress was insufficient. The girls were subjected to certain acts of sexual harassment, and school authorities generally did not take action when the girls complained. In addition, the girls complained of general discrimination and neglect by school authorities and refused to accept without question the legitimacy of teachers' decisions. The author believes the failure of working class girls in formal schooling cannot always be explained by an aversion to education caused by immersion in youth culture and the culture of feminity. 12 references and 1 photograph