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ETD Abstract Container

Abstract Header

“Doing Gifted,” “Doing Girl": What Ritual Performances in School Reveal About Identity Negotiation

Fish, Leigh Ann
http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8573-8693
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1429859699

Abstract Details

2015, Doctor of Philosophy, Miami University, Educational Leadership.
This dissertation calls attention to the complex issue of how girls construct identity in schools given interactions that challenge them to negotiate their femininities and intellect in different ways. At the root of this problem are the conflicting messages about gender norms and anti-intellectualism that schools create, reproduce, and reinscribe, placing girls who are labeled as “gifted” in a double-bind in terms of performing social and student identity at school. Using a lens of critical theory, this study critiques the small, everyday school-based rituals based on interactions between teachers and students that influence fourth- and fifth-grade girls as they attempt to “do girl” and “do gifted” in their regular classrooms, in the gifted program in which they participate, and in the informal spaces of the school building. Through ritual critique, the role of power within those observed interactions and performances is uncovered and a space is revealed for reflecting upon the diversity of the girls’ lived realities. It is the hope of the author that this dissertation opens up and adds to the dialogue about the contexts in which young girls are growing up and that the questions raised in this study can help reposition schools as sites of empowerment rather than struggle.
Richard Quantz (Advisor)
Thomas Poetter (Committee Member)
Lisa Weems (Committee Member)
Susan Mosley-Howard (Committee Member)
133 p.
Education; Educational Leadership; Educational Sociology; Gender; Gender Studies; Gifted Education
gifted; girls; girlhood; high ability; ritual; ritual critique; identity; femininities; subjectivities; intellect; critical pedagogy

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Fish, L. A. (2015). “Doing Gifted,” “Doing Girl": What Ritual Performances in School Reveal About Identity Negotiation [Doctoral dissertation, Miami University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1429859699

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Fish, Leigh Ann. “Doing Gifted,” “Doing Girl": What Ritual Performances in School Reveal About Identity Negotiation. 2015. Miami University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1429859699.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Fish, Leigh Ann. "“Doing Gifted,” “Doing Girl": What Ritual Performances in School Reveal About Identity Negotiation." Doctoral dissertation, Miami University, 2015. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1429859699

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

miami1429859699
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© 2015, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Miami University and OhioLINK.