“It Was Always About Relationships and It Was Awesome”: Girls Performing Gender and Identity in an Out-Of-School-Time Science Conversation Club. - Chaire-réseau de recherche sur la jeunesse du Québec

Notice bibliographique

Gonsalves, A. et Rahm, J. (2023). “It Was Always About Relationships and It Was Awesome”: Girls Performing Gender and Identity in an Out-Of-School-Time Science Conversation Club. Dans A. Archer et H. Holmegaard (dir.), Science identities – Theory, method, and research (p. 47-66). Springer.

Résumé

This Chapter describes a program to engage non-dominant girls in science conversations during an out of school time (OST) “ConvoClub” for teen girls. We present qualitative data collected over 16 weeks in the form of interviews, group conversations and artifacts like digital stories and youth-led documentary-making to explore the identity performances of six girls as they engage in science-related activities. Drawing on Holland D, Lachicotte Jr W, Skinner D, Cain C, Identity and agency in cultural worlds. Harvard University Press, 1998 theory of identity-in-practice, and Butler’s (1990) theory of performativity, we examine which identity and gender performances in and beyond science are valued in this ConvoClub. We also examine the forms of cultural capital (Bourdieu P, The forms of capital. In Richardson J (ed) Handbook of theory and research for the sociology of education. Greenwood, pp 241–258, 1986; Yosso T J, Race Ethn Educ 8(1):69–91, https://doi.org/10.1080/1361332052000341006, 2005) that are valued in the OST space, and consider the exchange value these may have in other educational spaces. Data analysis demonstrates that performances of ‘pretty popular femininity’ (Read B, Francis B, Skelton C, Br J Soc Educ 32(2):169–183, https://doi.org/10.1080/01425692.2011.547304, 2011) influence how the girls position themselves in relation to science, and how they author themselves as members of the ConvoClub group. We describe how the girls build solidarity and bonding capital (Nasir N, de Royston, M M, J Res Math Educ 44(1):264–287. https://doi.org/10.5951/jresematheduc.44.1.0264, 2013) around the theme of ‘relationships’, which positions girls as insider-to-sciences in relation to the boys in the club but does not yield the same exchange value outside of the club.