Grammar Gazette- Issue 2, 2006

IN FOCUS

IN FOCUS

achieving better results, and in higher numbers, than young men, which has contributed inevitably to a backlash demanding a refocus on the educational needs of boys. Female graduates now outnumber males in fields such as medicine, law and business. Many become CEOs and attain positions of seniority, although there are still disheartening statistics of the relative number of female CEOs in many professions, including teaching. Whilst some leading Brisbane girls schools do appoint male CEOs, there would be a revolution if any of the leading private boys schools were to appoint a female principal.

others struggled to initiate. Given that change is a constant in our postmodern society, it would seem simplistic even to assume that the faces of feminisms in the 21st century would mirror those of the 1970s and 1980s. Indeed, if feminisms are to have continued relevance in the education and in the lives of young women today, they have to be allowed to be reconstituted in ways that best empower their individual subjectivities.

Even though most young women no longer appear to be engaged in any readily identifiable or collective forms of feminism, the paper argued that the legacy of feminism informs and pervades their lives, manifested in their assertiveness, their strong positive sense of gendered identity and their unflinching conviction of an equality of gender opportunity inherent in their choices and expectations. Young women who are the inheritors of second wave feminism may not seem to be activists as such, but they are in fact implementing in their daily lives the most vital tenets of feminisms and equality that their mothers and

A Case Study of Shifting Feminist Paradigms and Pedagogies

[A synopsis of the paper presented to the 2006 Alliance of Girls’ Schools Conference by Dr Robyn Colwill, Director of English]

From the 1970s onwards, feminist educators examined how traditional curriculum parameters operated to marginalise or to exclude the role and contribution of women. Both the content and methodology of most disciplines in the Humanities therefore saw a radical re/visioning of both pedagogies and curriculum that was profoundly shaped by feminist research, so that women’s issues and gender issues were increasingly integrated into teaching programmes. Brisbane Girls Grammar was at the forefront of feminist initiatives in education and in the development of curriculum that incorporated feminist principles and practice. Girls schools such as ours that not only articulate but also practise mantras such as “Girls can do Anything” on a daily basis, with capable and well-educated women as role models in their educational communities, tend to develop autonomous, assertive and ambitious young women, aided by the clear advantages of parental and personal expectations. In 1975, 1984 and 1987, Federal governments established three national enquiries into the schooling of girls. The Commonwealth Schools Commission of 1987 funded developments designed to enhance gender equity and equal opportunity for girls. The decade following the 1975 Girls Schools and Society Report was an exciting one as affirmative action measures manifested profession. The lofty goals of the Report have been met in large part, with our schools producing young women who are “competent, high in self-esteem, self reliant, independent and … capable of co-operation, empathy and social interaction.” The success of decades of Federal initiatives, at least in terms of academic outcomes in schools and universities, is evidenced in the statistical shift to girls in curricula, classrooms and the workplace, including the teaching

From group or gang to supportive network What women can do to encourage teenage girls to develop healthy relationship-building capacities that will continue with them into their adult lives.

[A synopsis of the paper presented to the 2006 Alliance of Girls’ Schools Conference by Ms Karen Belbin, School Counsellor]

The paper looked at how important it is for adolescents to feel a strong sense of connection with their world and how difficult this can sometimes be. A central and important task of adolescence is to form and manage social relationships and belonging to a group is part of this process. The paper asked, “How do adolescents form these very important social relationships with others when their own selves are not yet fully formed and established. How can another person ‘see’ the adolescent as they are when they are still very much in the process of developing a cohesive sense of themselves?” The paper explored whether this complexity might partly explain why some relationships become so difficult during adolescence. Adolescence is a time for reworking many of the issues of infancy and the first five years of life, especially the social issues. The paper began by returning to this time of infancy. It explored how the basic but important functions and processes which are part of how we develop both a sense of ourselves, and a sense of ourselves in relation to others, are acquired during this time and how the attainment and management of these processes continues to affect and influence us and our relationships, especially during adolescence. This understanding was then linked to how some adolescent groups function, especially destructive groups where group members seem to become stuck at earlier levels or ways of functioning. The paper explored the way group membership allows these adolescents, who fear falling to pieces or not having a cohesive sense of their identity, to manage their anxieties through colluding to keep certain areas of emotional conflict completely outside consciousness. It outlined how group members use projection and attack to maintain the group’s functioning, both of

Despite assertions that feminism “no longer matters” to girls, a study of pedagogical and pastoral practices across three decades in a secondary school for girls reveals that feminism functions as an active and empowering presence rather than absence in the education and in the lives of young women today.

which negatively impact on their social relationships. The paper concluded that understanding these processes can assist each of us to be available to our adolescents as thinking, non-judgmental, non-attacking adults so that a space for reflection can be opened up for them. This will, over time, allow a kind of honesty and reconciliation between the adolescent’s inner and outer world to occur so that the adolescent can successfully move on from an emotionally-stuck position to the position of functioning as an adult.

6 grammar gazette spring 2006

grammar gazette spring 2006 7