A good education: girls' extracurricular pursuits and school choice

Abstract

This paper draws on the case studies of six girls between the ages of 10 and 13 and considers their transition to secondary school and involvement in extracurricular sports. Within it, I explore how the girls' understandings of ‘a good education’ affects both their academic and extracurricular/sporting choices. Despite government educational targets which seem to value ‘performative’ academic results, I argue that ideas about a ‘well‐rounded student’ continue to hold particular resonance for middle‐class parents and students. Conversely, I suggest that models of excellence and achievement within education are increasingly echoed in students' sporting participation and that this has specific consequences for working‐class and middle‐class students. I draw particular attention to the girls' experiences of these systems with a view to their ability to convert physical capital accrued in physical activity into other forms of social or cultural capital.

Keywords:

• girls
• physical activity
• school choice
• extracurricular activities

Notes

1. This position has been criticised by feminist educationalists for its essentialism and over‐simplication of complex educational outputs.

2. The school names are both pseudonyms, as are all other names in the paper.

3. Tomboy identities: the construction and maintenance of active girlhoods. ESRC project number RES‐00‐22‐1032. Grant‐holder: Carrie Paechter. See also Paechter and Clark (2007) Who are tomboys and how do we recognise them? Women's Studies International Forum 30, no. 4: 342–54.

4. The relative higher valuing of sports participation in Australia as compared to Britain may account for this possibility.

5. The girls chose their own pseudonyms in Year 5 and their young age, as well as the dominance of English names, led to several Asian girls choosing Anglicised names. This represents one of the difficulties in defining ethnic minority identity in a dominant culture.

6. After a two‐week absence at the running club while she was away on holiday with her family, her coach accused Spirit of being a ‘skiver’. Girls were discouraged from going on holiday, and if they did so they were expected to continue training over holidays and warned of how quickly their fitness would deteriorate if they did not do so.

7. Danny is a classmate and friend of both Lindsay and Gazza who was interviewed with the girls in Year 7. She competes in football, ice skating and cross‐country running at high levels.