Managing the ‘popular girl’ and ‘challenges at home’ discourses at secondary school: the perspectives of 12-14 year old girls, predominantly from lower-income White British families

ABSTRACT

This article explores the perspectives of 23 girls in their second and third years (12–14 years) at four English secondary schools. Having tracked the girls since their final year of primary school (10–11 years), the article explores how they continue to negotiate powerful discourses in their lives. It uses a Foucauldian framework (1979) to explore the potential for a ‘plurality of resistances’, initially focusing on how girls reached a ‘compromise’ with the dominant ‘popular’ girl discourse through the adoption of what was described as a ‘middle person’ discourse, as well as examples where a ‘compromise’ was not achieved. The article continues by exploring a sub-sample of 12 girls – predominantly from lower-income White British families – who were negotiating the ‘popular girl’ discourse with an additional intersecting ‘challenges at home’ discourse. It explores where Foucauldian part-‘resistance’ and ‘compromise’ was possible for the girls, and where it was not. This article is significant in that it focuses on the intersection of powerful discourses from the perspectives of some of the most vulnerable members of our school communities. In recognising the girls’ challenging positions, the article identifies practical strategies for supporting this group more widely in school.

KEYWORDS:

• Girls
• discourse
• popular
• challenges at home
• power
• resistance

Acknowledgments

With grateful thanks to the Society of Educational Studies, the girls, their families and the schools for their support with this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1.. In the English system, children transfer to secondary school aged 11. Secondary school is divided into two Key Stages: Key Stage 3 (11–14 years) and Key Stage 4 (14–16 years). Children have a ‘home’ tutor group, but are usually taught individual subjects by specialists. At the end of Key Stage 4, they sit the General Certificate in Secondary Education (GCSE).

2.. Funded by the Society of Educational Studies.

3.. ‘Ever 6 FSM’ is defined as having been in receipt of Free School Meals (FSM) at any point in the last six years (DfE 2012), and comes with additional funding per pupil – the Pupil Premium – which was £900 at the time of the data collection (DfE 2014).

4.. The term ‘working at’, ‘working below’ or ‘working above’ the expected level is used in schools to identify the progress of individual pupils. At the time of writing, this was matched to the National Curriculum levels (Levels 1-8 and ‘exceptional performance’), with Levels 5-6 representing expectations for most 14 year olds (QCDA, 2010). Therefore, ‘working at’ was used to describe children working within Levels 5-6.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Society of Educational Studies

Notes on contributors

Helen Fisher

Helen Fisher is a Senior Lecturer in Special and Inclusive Education. She has published in the areas of literacy, literacy difficulties and pupil perspective, and her most recently funded project focuses primarily on the perspectives of lower-income girls across six school years.