Inquiry and Pedagogy Across Diverse Contexts Series – serie

Geographies of Girlhood: Identities In-Between explores how adolescent girls come to understand themselves as female in this culture, particularly during a time when they are learning what it means to be a woman and their identities are in-between that of child and adult, girl and woman. It illuminates the everyday realities of adolescent girls and the real issues that concern them, rather than what adult researchers think is important to adolescent girls. The contributing authors take seriously what girls have to say about themselves and the places and discursive spaces that they inhabit daily. Rather than focusing on girls in the classroom, the book explores adolescent female identity in a myriad of kid-defined spaces both in-between the formal design of schooling, as well as outside its purview--from bedrooms to school hallways to the Internet to discourses of cheerleading, race, sexuality, and ablebodiness. These are the geographies of girlhood, the important sites of identity construction for girls and young women. This book is situated within the fledgling field of Girls Studies. All chapters are based on field research with adolescent girls and young women; hence, the voices of girls themselves are primary in every chapter. All of the authors in the text use the notion of liminality to theorize the in-between spaces and places of schools that are central to how adolescent girls construct a sense of self. The focus of the book on the fluidity of femininity highlights the importance of race, class, sexual orientation, and other salient features of personal identity in discussions of how girls construct gendered identities in different ways. Geographies of Girlhood: Identities In-Between challenges scholars, professionals, and students concerned with gender issues to take seriously the everyday concerns of adolescent girls. It is recommended as a text for education, sociology, and women's studies courses that address these issues.

Geographies of Girlhood: Identities In-Between explores how adolescent girls come to understand themselves as female in this culture, particularly during a time when they are learning what it means to be a woman and their identities are in-between that of child and adult, girl and woman. It illuminates the everyday realities of adolescent girls and the real issues that concern them, rather than what adult researchers think is important to adolescent girls. The contributing authors take seriously what girls have to say about themselves and the places and discursive spaces that they inhabit daily. Rather than focusing on girls in the classroom, the book explores adolescent female identity in a myriad of kid-defined spaces both in-between the formal design of schooling, as well as outside its purview--from bedrooms to school hallways to the Internet to discourses of cheerleading, race, sexuality, and ablebodiness. These are the geographies of girlhood, the important sites of identity construction for girls and young women. This book is situated within the fledgling field of Girls Studies. All chapters are based on field research with adolescent girls and young women; hence, the voices of girls themselves are primary in every chapter. All of the authors in the text use the notion of liminality to theorize the in-between spaces and places of schools that are central to how adolescent girls construct a sense of self. The focus of the book on the fluidity of femininity highlights the importance of race, class, sexual orientation, and other salient features of personal identity in discussions of how girls construct gendered identities in different ways. Geographies of Girlhood: Identities In-Between challenges scholars, professionals, and students concerned with gender issues to take seriously the everyday concerns of adolescent girls. It is recommended as a text for education, sociology, and women's studies courses that address these issues.

"I commend and celebrate the editors and authors for a remarkable book that engages the reader’s imagination, heart, mind, spirit, and body. Out of creative and courageous commitments to challenging orthodoxies by living and writing research that is personal, political, and poetic, these scholars invite the kind of vigorous dialogue that will continue to promote creative possibilities for inquiry in the social sciences."Carl Leggo, University of British Columbia, From the ForewordEvocative and provocative, this book presents the points of view of (often junior) scholars in the social sciences who used non-standard methods or writing practices to challenge the "research-as-usual" paradigm in the academy, while at the same time meeting the demands of quality and rigor set by their university examining committees and ethical review boards. The intent is to encourage new researchers who are also considering such a path. The authors discuss their lived personal experiences within and against traditional academic research and writing traditions, as well as their struggles and eventual successes. Chapters are written in dramatic form, in dialogue, in story, and include poetry, vignettes, testimonials and autobiographical accounts. Collectively, they form a unique, distinctive situated polyphonic case study of research in the social sciences from several perspectives, challenging the orthodoxies.

"I commend and celebrate the editors and authors for a remarkable book that engages the reader’s imagination, heart, mind, spirit, and body. Out of creative and courageous commitments to challenging orthodoxies by living and writing research that is personal, political, and poetic, these scholars invite the kind of vigorous dialogue that will continue to promote creative possibilities for inquiry in the social sciences."Carl Leggo, University of British Columbia, From the ForewordEvocative and provocative, this book presents the points of view of (often junior) scholars in the social sciences who used non-standard methods or writing practices to challenge the "research-as-usual" paradigm in the academy, while at the same time meeting the demands of quality and rigor set by their university examining committees and ethical review boards. The intent is to encourage new researchers who are also considering such a path. The authors discuss their lived personal experiences within and against traditional academic research and writing traditions, as well as their struggles and eventual successes. Chapters are written in dramatic form, in dialogue, in story, and include poetry, vignettes, testimonials and autobiographical accounts. Collectively, they form a unique, distinctive situated polyphonic case study of research in the social sciences from several perspectives, challenging the orthodoxies.