Enacting a body-focused curriculum with young girls through an activist approach: Leveraging the after-school space

Abstract

ABSTRACT Background: Many girls do not want to engage in physical activity (PA) in places that do not provide feelings of safety, comfort, or protection. Nor will they engage in PA if it might compromise gender norms and place them at risk of being teased by peers. Media influences (e.g. social media, advertisements) target young girls and circulate gender norms and stereotypes. Many girls may compare themselves to an ideal female body, portrayed in media as slender, fit, pretty, fashionable, and White. This comparison can lead to negative perceptions about their bodies, which may lead to body image dissatisfaction and low body-esteem. To align with the ideal socially-constructed female body, girls may seek to embody normative feminine characteristics. Researchers have implemented body-focused curricula as interventions to help young girls navigate perceived barriers to PA and engage girls in critical analysis of media’s representation of women. Purpose: By creating the GIRL (Gaining Insight through Reflective Learning) sessions, the purpose of this study was to explore how coaches in one after-school program implemented a body-focused curriculum for girls through an activist approach. Method: Nine fifth and sixth grade girls from one low-income elementary school in an urban California school district participated in this year-long after-school program. Data sources included: a researcher journal, field notes, participants’ journals, semi-structured student interviews, researcher and school district personnel correspondences, and participant artifacts. The researchers used an activist approach to create and implement the GIRL sessions to provide: (a) a place where girls could practice high levels of confidence and satisfaction with their bodies and; (b) a safe place in which girls could discuss various concerns regarding the body. Activities were developed to align with these goals and tailored to individual and group interests. Data were analyzed using constant comparative method. Findings: Keeping girls at the center of decision-making was essential for streamlining curricular initiatives and implementation. This was possible through a responsive curricular approach that facilitated a flexible space for girls to engage with the curriculum. Cultivating trust and safety was a key aspect of implementing the curriculum. This involved rethinking traditional coach-student roles. Coaches engaged in reflexive practices which helped determine real-time changes to consider each week, and sense short-comings in critical perspectives they wanted to engage in with participants. Conclusion: If research on activist approaches is significant for transformation and creating new possibilities for girls, these findings are important for detailing what this looked like in practice, how it might work moving forward, and how it could work for others. Ultimately, an activist approach is about teaming with girls to realize transformational change (Oliver and Kirk 2016, ‘Towards an activist approach to research and advocacy for girls and physical education.’ Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy 21 (3): 313–327.). Our findings and discussion speak to the depth of trust needed to enact an activist approach. While GIRL coaches may have lacked critical perspectives to mitigate change, they demonstrated a dimension of cultivating trust through responsive pedagogy that may have been enhanced by the after-school space.