Private Girls Research Articles

Perceived barriers to achieving a healthy weight: a qualitative study using focus groups at public and private schools in Guatemala City

BackgroundOverweight prevalence among Guatemalan girls is higher in public than in private schools. Little is known about adolescent girls’ perceptions of the right ways to achieve a healthy weight. This study examines public and private school adolescent girls’ perceptions of a “healthy weight,” and barriers and facilitators to achieving it.MethodsWe conducted 4 focus groups in public and private schools in Guatemala City with girls from 13 to 15 years old. The discussion guide included open-ended questions and activities aimed at examining perceptions of “healthy weight” and barriers and motivators to achieving it within the school environment. Focus groups were audio-recorded and transcribed. Data analyses followed established methods of content analysis.ResultsTwenty-eight girls (private school, n = 12; public school, n = 16) of ages ranging from 13.1 to 15.9 years (median, 14, IQR, 13.6–14.9) participated in the study. Girls identified images of thin and fit women as healthy. They cited healthy eating and physical activity as ways to achieve a healthy weight. Within the school environment, barriers to maintaining a healthy weight included a lack of healthy food options and the prioritization of sports for boys over girls. In public schools, facilities were less than optimal; in private schools, girls’ access to facilities was limited. Public school girls stated that their uniforms were inappropriate for exercising.ConclusionOur findings support the need to provide more healthy food options in Guatemalan schools. In addition, physical activity for girls should be promoted and facilities made available for their use.

“I Hate You Everything”: Reading Adolescent Bad Feelings in Tamaki’s Skim

“I Hate You Everything”: Reading Adolescent Bad Feelings in Tamaki’s Skim Michelle Miller (bio) At the end of part 2 in Mariko and Jillian Tamaki’s graphic coming-of-age narrative Skim, a full-page panel shows tenth grade Kim Cameron (generally referred to as Skim) alone in a very large, snowy area.1 At the top of the page, the narration, which is drawn onto the scene as it is throughout the text, reads “Dear Diary.” Much further down, the diary entry continues, “It’s snowing.” In the bottom corner, there’s an inset panel with a photograph of a boy taken from a newspaper. On his forehead, someone has written “fag” with a marker. Readers have seen this photo before. It is of John Reddear, a local boy who has recently committed suicide. Reddear haunts the text—his image resurfaces at several points, as his ghostly presence is called up imaginatively and in both official and subversive curricula. While she never really knew him, having met him only once (she thinks), his life and death weigh heavily on Skim’s mind. [End Page 83] The photo is mounted on a large memorial bulletin board that hangs in the hallway of the private girls’ school Skim attends. The headline from the newspaper article accompanying the photo is “Teen Taken: too soon” (Tamaki and Tamaki 89). Throughout the book, this bulletin board, created and maintained by the “Girls Celebrate Life” club, sits at the centre of the conflicting atmospheres surrounding John’s death. The school is officially concerned with mourning John by “celebrating” life and investing in staying alive themselves. This official program of mourning, which involves participating in balloon-releasing ceremonies, watching Dead Poet’s Society, and taking part in public and semi-private grief exercises, is required of all students, whose compliance is monitored by teachers and counselors as well as popular students. Despite the intensity of the demand for compliance—or perhaps due to it—an oppositional discourse squeezes over and over into the school arena. This other discourse resists the requirement to have appropriately sad feelings about John and positive feelings about the future, joking instead that “death is cool” (77). The bulletin board, adamantly proclaimed to be “school property,” and therefore, ideally at least, immune to being undermined, offers students a site to express aggression, either passively, by sticking gum to it, or actively, by vandalizing or even destroying it. The homophobic inscription of “fag” is one such expression of aggression. In the larger scene, Skim walks a trail of letters—as long as she is tall—into the snow. This primary scene would be unseen by eyes on the ground: it’s only visible from our vantage above the action. We can thus read this as a deeply personal moment, in which Skim simultaneously expresses her feelings and keeps them obscured. Shuffling one foot in front of the other she inscribes the field with “I hate you,” then crosses out the “you” three times, replacing it with “everything.” We catch her before she finishes (she has written only “everythin”) and find her gazing back at her progress, even as we know she would be unable to make out her own words from her perspective. The co-presence of these separate but clearly related panels sharing the page signal that her school, social, and romantic/sexual situations are weighing on her. We can read the force of her hatred as directed at John, at the bulletin board containing this image, at the school hallways where the board hangs and where the unseen hand has inscribed him with “fag,” or at what readers know about Skim’s queer and complicated sexual life, which feels further complicated by the likelihood that this popular and supposedly well-adjusted boy’s suicide is attributed to the rumours that he is gay. [End Page 84] This simple panel, which temporally stretches through a quiet afternoon, arrests me every time I arrive at it. Like other quiet, expansive moments in this sparse text, the panel invites me to dwell inside of it: not only to read its surface but to feel and read its textures, to experience the time...

Investigation of the Relationship between Achievement Motivation and Parental Encouragement of Adolescent Girls in District Anantnag

The purpose of the present study is to investigate the relationship between achievement motivation and parental encouragement of adolescent girls in district Anantnag. The study was descriptive-correlational in nature and the data were collected using achievement motivation scale and parental encouragement scale through survey method. The sample of the study was 200 adolescent girls selected through random sampling technique. A significant positive relationship was found between achievement motivation and parental encouragement of adolescent girls. The study revealed significant difference on achievement motivation and parental encouragement among private and government adolescent girls in district Anantnag. Private school adolescent girls have higher achievement motivation and parental encouragement as compared to government school adolescent girls.

Researcher Patricia Martens turned dry data into stories.

Researcher Patricia Martens turned dry data into stories.

Mean Difference of Age at Menarche and Body Mass Index among Government and Private High-School Students of Mekelle City, Northern Ethiopia

Background: The mean age at menarche varies from one setting to another. Individual differences in timing of menarche are associated with age differences in the onset of sexual activity and first pregnancy. The study was conducted to determine the mean difference of age at menarche and body mass index (BMI) among government and private high-school students of Mekelle city. Method: A cross sectional study design was conducted in selected 6 governmental and private schools of Mekelle city. A total of 290 study subjects were interviewed. Systematic random sampling method was used to select study subjects. An independent sample t-test was done for two independent groups to compare age at menarche among governmental and private school girls in relation to various variables. One-way ANOVA and Pearson’s correlation analysis was conducted on the combined analysis for the relationship between age at menarche and independent variables. Result: The mean age at menarche was 14.24 year ±1.42 SD. The mean age at menarche was one year younger for private school girls compared with government school girls (t=6.2, P<0.001). Time spending sitting in a day (r= −0.25, p<0.001) duration of sleeping (r= -0.13, p=0.03), living in their own house (t= -2.42, P<0.05) were negatively correlated with age at menarche. There was significant difference of age at menarche among the participants maternal education (F=6.0, P<0.001), Father’s education (F=8.45, P<0.001), and father’s job (F=9.55, P<0.001). The mean BMI of the participants was 20.22 ± 2.66 SD. More than quarters of the participants were underweight (26.3%). Conclusion: The mean age of menarche found in this study was higher than the report from other African countries. The mean age at menarche was statically different among the government and private school girls. Time spending sitting, duration of sleeping, living in their own house were negatively correlated with age at menarche.

Assured optimism in a Scottish girls’ school: habitus and the (re)production of global privilege

This paper examines how high levels of social–cultural connectedness and academic excellence, inflected by gender and social class, constitute a particular school habitus of ‘assured optimism’ at an elite Scottish girls’ school. In Bourdieuian terms, Dalrymple is a ‘forcing ground’ for the ‘intense cultivation’ of a particular privileging habitus. The paper analyses the ‘institutional’ habitus of this particular private girls’ school, drawing on headteacher interviews and student survey and focus group data, and relevant documents. The school is currently re-positioning itself to educate girls for global professional futures through the production of a desired habitus and certain spatio-temporalities.

Participatory school health education on vector-borne diseases: engaging children as change agents

Vector-borne diseases contribute substantially to the global burden of diseases and disproportionately affect poor and under-served populations living in a country like India. Children can be effective change agents of health in their schools, peer groups, families and communities. We evaluated the effectiveness of participatory school health education on vector-borne diseases among 200 high school children, 100 each from government and private schools. Questions regarding vector-borne diseases, mosquito breeding sites, diseases transmitted by them and mosquito control measures were used to assess their knowledge before and after a health education intervention. Education included lecture, role play and community-based group activity. Average overall pretest score was 11.8 ± 5.03 which increased significantly to 19.3 ± 4.69 after intervention. Health education showed significant improvement in knowledge irrespective of type of school, gender or class of study. It was observed that private school children, girls and 10th class students' post-test scores were significantly better than their counter groups. Participatory school-based health education improved the knowledge of children regarding vector-borne diseases. This could be an effective medium in promoting health and possibly behavioural changes in the community. Such school-based vector-borne disease control could be applied to developing countries where there is good school enrolment and attendance.

The Secret Adoptee's Cookbook

The Secret Adoptee's Cookbook

Picturing natural girlhoods: nature, space and femininity in girls’ school promotions

This paper furthers a discussion about the ways in which idealised versions of gender permeate the aesthetic presentation and impression management strategies of elite private schools. Specifically, we consider how the written text, layout and images used in 12 Australian private girls' school prospectuses function in constructing discourses of ‘natural’ femininity. Far from being merely factual sources of information, we see school prospectuses as strategic texts that idealise and commodify gendered subjectivities that are likely to appeal to the perceived clientele of a particular school. Drawing on feminist and poststructuralist theoretical frames and utilising social semiotic techniques, we analyse how these promotional texts align the feminine subject with nature and the natural world. This alignment serves the dual function of constituting femininity as naturally beautiful, fragile, passive and vulnerably at-risk, while at the same time ameliorating such risk through more empowered (yet constrained) notions of interconnectedness. The tensions between such contradictory discourses of traditional and neoliberal femininity create impossible subject positions for girls, as in order to succeed with one version of femininity, they must simultaneously fail at another.

Cosmo girls: configurations of class and femininity in elite educational settings

In this paper we offer a unique contribution to understandings of schooling as a site for the production of social class difference. We bring together the rich body of work that has been conducted on middle-class educational identities, with explorations of the centrality of the feminine in representations of class difference from the field of critical girlhood studies. This is done in order to explore how young femininities mediate the representation of class difference in the environment of the private girls’ school. Drawing from our two research studies, located in private girls’ schools in Australia and the United Kingdom, we argue that the notion of ‘disgust’, commonly used in recent engagements around class, has only limited purchase in understanding the representation of class difference in these schools. It is the inconsistencies and complexities in how class and class relations are produced that we wish to illuminate.

For My Own Pleasure and Delight

For My Own Pleasure and Delight

The business of ‘bettering’ students' lives: physical and health education and the production of social class subjectivities

This paper explores the ways physical and health education is justified in two school settings: a private girls' school and a co-educational government school located in the same Australian city. Physical and health education policies and interview material with teachers are drawn on to explore the meanings taken up by the schools. Whilst similar sets of ‘truths’ around young people and health were drawn on to define the place of physical and health education in the lives of their students, there were also stark differences. It is argued that through these differences important discursive work is being performed. In particular, this paper explores how the schools are implicated in the discursive continuation of particular ‘classed’ subjectivities. For example, a set of discourses around ‘at-risk’, ‘disadvantaged’, ‘youth’ were drawn on by the teachers from the government school to construct physical and health education as a means for ‘saving’ their students' lives. By comparison, in the private girls' school's texts, emphasis was on inviting students to become particular ‘independent’, ‘responsible’ young women. It is argued that the exposure and access to these different notions of ‘health’ positioned students quite differently as particular ‘classed’ subjects.

Learning to BREATHE: A Pilot Trial of a Mindfulness Curriculum for Adolescents

This study reports the results of a pilot trial of Learning to BREATHE, a mindfulness curriculum for adolescents created for a classroom setting. The primary goal of the program is to support the development of emotion regulation skills through the practice of mindfulness, which has been described as intentional, non-judgmental awareness of present-moment experience. The total class of 120 seniors (average age 17.4 years) from a private girls' school participated as part of their health curriculum. Relative to controls, participants reported decreased negative affect and increased feelings of calmness, relaxation, and self-acceptance. Improvements in emotion regulation and decreases in tiredness and aches and pains were significant in the treatment group at the conclusion of the program. Qualitative feedback indicated a high degree of program satisfaction. The results suggest that mindfulness is a potentially promising method for enhancing adolescents' emotion regulation and well-being.

Neoliberal technologies of subject formation: a case study of the Duke of Edinburgh's Award scheme

The hegemony of neoliberalism as an economic and Governmental rationality on a global scale is well documented. How it has come to be that way, and how its relevance is upheld is a complex theoretical and historical–empirical question. This article contributes to the discussion by examining the ways in which neoliberal discourse enters into the production of subjectivity and comes to operate at the level of desire. While subject formation takes place in multiple and contradictory ways, and within and across a multiplicity of social sites, the article focuses on the popular Duke of Edinburgh's Award scheme as a technology of neoliberal subjectification. The article analyses how neoliberal discourse manifests itself in the Award's promotional material and programme and, drawing on qualitative semi‐structured interviews, how the Award scheme is taken up by students in a prestigious Australian private girls' school.

Promoting positive body image in young girls: an evaluation of ‘Shapesville’

The aim of the current research was to evaluate Shapesville, a children's picture book designed to promote positive body image in young children. Participants were a convenience sample comprising 84 girls (aged 5-9 years) recruited from four private girls' schools. Girls were randomly allocated to be read either Shapesville or a control book. Individual measures of body image, stereotyping on the basis of weight and media internalisation, as well as knowledge of non-appearance topics, were obtained at pre- and post-intervention, as well as at 6-week follow-up. Relative to the control book, girls' appearance satisfaction increased after reading Shapesville. In addition, stereotyping on the basis of weight and internalisation of media ideals was reduced. Finally, reading Shapesville also increased girls' knowledge base of non-appearance topics, such as recognising their special talents and awareness of healthy eating, at post-intervention. These gains were somewhat reduced at follow-up, yet were largely still significantly greater than at pre-intervention. The present study demonstrates that Shapesville has the potential to be a successful prevention tool for use with young girls. Schools can incorporate Shapesville into their curriculum as early as school entry, in order to help prevent the early development of body dissatisfaction and disordered eating.

The market, the media and the family in a school excursion rape case

This paper examines a local and specific instance of the effects of neoliberal markets on individual and institutional subjects of schooling. It reviews a court case between a prestigious private girls’ school and an ex‐student who sued the school for failing to provide adequate supervision on a school trip to Europe during which she was raped. It considers the incident in relation to the legal and discursive complexities of school excursions and turns towards neoliberal imperatives that drive school competition for an explanation of how the crisis was managed. Through analysis of print media reports during the week of the trial it traces how discourses of femininity, sexuality and sexual violence came into collision with ideals of reputation, control and proper behaviour, upon which elite schools depend for their marketing. Finally, the paper explores how figurations of the ‘family’ were mobilized by the school and those involved in the events.

Short contribution: Research skills revisited: to surf or not to surf

In the last ten years or so, with the availability of computers in schools and tertiary institutions there has been a marked trend towards dependence on the Internet as an information source. Advances in technology have exacerbated the situation to the extent that the library is no longer recognised and valued as a primary information disseminator. The authors, as practicing librarians at a private girls' school in Pietermaritzburg, discuss this impact on their libraries and how they are attempting to address the problem.Innovation Vol.33 2006: pp. 82-84

A statistical analysis of achievement in self-study summer books

In this article we present all the results obtained from our research based on the use of self-study books. In a previous report we outlined the way pupils and parents used the holiday books, whereas in this article we will focus our attention on the evaluation of the activities done by the students during their summer holidays. We will, in particular, analyse the results obtained by pupils from state and private schools, by boys and girls and by second and third cycle pupils.

From Finishing School to Feminist Academy: The Impact of the Changing Social Construction of Gender on Education in a Private Girls’ School in Western Australia 1945 – 1997

From Finishing School to Feminist Academy: The Impact of the Changing Social Construction of Gender on Education in a Private Girls’ School in Western Australia 1945 – 1997

“College girls don't faint”: The legacy of elsewhere

Summary This article is an attempt to pursue a localised cultural history of private girls’ schooling in Natal during the apartheid era. Using an autobiographical lens, it looks at the traces of Victorian rhetoric and its codification within a feminine/feminist militarism evident in the speeches and songs as well as social and cultural practices of Durban Girls’ College, a Presbyterian school in Durban. Using archival material and memory, my own and others’, to trace the signs of “Englishness” in the formation of identity in white girls coming from mainly privileged backgrounds, I direct a self‐reflexive gaze at the effects of such schooling on attitudes to race and culture prevalent at the time. In parallel, however, I also examine some archival material from Inanda Seminary, College's “sister” school, which has a different provenance, but which also catered for the privileged members of Zulu society. While I do not pretend to engage in a fully developed comparison of these schools, I hope to show that similar expectations about conduct and class were brought to bear on white and black girls in Natal during a specific historical period.