MIAMI UNIVERSITY the Graduate School Certificate for Approving The
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MIAMI UNIVERSITY The Graduate School Certificate for Approving the Dissertation We hereby approve the Dissertation of Kimberly A. Haverkos Candidate for the Degree: Doctor of Philosophy _______________________________________________ Director Dr. Richard Quantz _______________________________________________ Reader Dr. Sally Lloyd _______________________________________________ Reader Dr. Kathleen Knight-Abowitz _______________________________________________ Graduate School Representative Dr. Nazan Bautista ABSTRACT DOES GOING GREEN WEAR A SKIRT? HIGH SCHOOL GIRLS, SUSTAINABILITY, AND RITUAL CRITIQUE by Kimberly A. Haverkos How do performances of girlhoods interact with performances of sustainability? The research presented in this dissertation suggests that going green does wear a skirt—that the girls in this research performed sustainability because it was a “natural” and expected performance of girlhoods within the particular school spaces studied. However, girls’ performances of sustainability did not provide these girls with access to science as previous research has indicated. In the current educational environment, there is a push for more students, particularly girls, to enter the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) fields. Knowing the complicated relationship between girlhoods and science, this dissertation looked at how girls’ interactions with sustainability might provide a link to that STEM field. Focusing on girls at two private schools in the Midwest, one all-girls school and one co-ed school, the research gathered in this study looked at girls’ performances of girlhoods, science, and sustainability. Through the lenses of ritual critique, standpoint feminism, and eco-justice, the girls’ performances illuminated the ways in which girls and sustainability continue to be marginalized by science, limiting the possibility of girls accessing science, or STEM more broadly, through issues of sustainability. By examining the interactions between performances of girlhoods and sustainability, the research suggests girls are performing sustainability and going green because it is a “natural” part of feminine nurturing and caring. The legitimacy of science as it is conceived at present is upheld at the expense of both girls and sustainability because this conception of science is divorced from rituals of sustainability. While sustainability may not be a way into science for these girls, it is a way to challenge expected gendered performances of the “good girl student” within these schools. The author suggests a re-articulation of STEM to mean Sustainable Transformative Educative Movements in which girls can legitimate their experiences and knowledges through sustainability as service. DOES GOING GREEN WEAR A SKIRT? HIGH SCHOOL GIRLS, SUSTAINABILITY, AND RITUAL CRITIQUE A DISSERTATION Submitted to the Faculty of Miami University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Educational Leadership by Kimberly A. Haverkos Miami University Oxford, Ohio 2012 Dissertation Director: Dr. Richard Quantz © Kimberly A. Haverkos 2012 TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………………… 1 Chapter 2 LITERATURE REVIEW………………………………………………………. 14 Chapter 3 METHODS……………………………………………………………………... 38 Chapter 4 CONTEXT……………………………………………………………………… 62 Chapter 5 RESULTS………………………………………………………………………. 77 Chapter 6 RESULTS………………………………………………………………………. 101 Chapter 7 CONCLUSIONS………………………………………………………………... 136 APPENDIX………............................................................................................................... 152 WORKS CITED…………………………………………………………………………… 168 iii CHAPTER 1 AN INTRODUCTION Propagating A Little Shop of Horrors with a STEM Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math make up the STEM field, a field which is being centered in education discourses in order to funnel more (Western1) girls and boys to pursue careers in these fields. STEM initiatives are often linked to programs that seek to increase the number of girls or minorities who are participating in science and who are taking up science careers. Girls and science have had a complicated relationship, though, with girls often being marginalized by and through their participation in science. While this idea of marginalization will be developed more thoroughly throughout this dissertation, it is important to recognize that attempts to have more girls involved with science, to graft them onto the STEM system, have increased over the past several decades. From 1998 to 2007, the number of academic camps focusing on STEM and girls rose 140% to 58 camps within accredited camps (Cavanagh, 2007). Of the 2500 choices in accredited camps and any number of camps run by individuals, schools, or other institutions that are not accredited, 58 choices seems limited and limiting. In terms of education, STEM initiatives tied to increasing the number of girls in STEM related careers are now part of the driving force behind receiving governmental funding through the Race to the Top program (http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/microsites/ostp/ostp- women-girls-stem-november2011.pdf). Girls and STEM have recently received attention from the Council on Women and Girls, which put together panels of trailblazing STEM women who spoke about the importance of getting more girls involved in the fields represented by STEM (http://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/eop/cwg). Providing role models to girls around the country, this initiative is one of many that are attempting to grow girls into careers in science. But what if girls, particularly those within the United States, do not want to be involved in the field of STEM as it is today? On a separate front, humans’ interactions with the environment have become a politically hot topic, with discussions around climate change, environmentalism, dependence on oil, and 1 A discussion of STEM development and pushes for more people to take up these careers within the “Developed” world vs. the “Developing” world, where many are taking up STEM careers, is worthy of its own discussion, but is beyond the scope of this project. 1 issues of sustainability taking on more urgency and more resistance. Ecological and economic consequences of human decisions and usage of resources are often at odds with each other. Take for example the discussions around the Keystone XL Pipeline, the 1,897 km pipeline that will pipe oil from Alberta, Canada to Nebraska (http://www.transcanada.com/keystone.html) and then to the Gulf Coast should the plan be approved by the U.S. government. Bitter divisions politically, economically, and environmentally have arisen from the debates around the approval of this project. In addition to political, scientific, and economic discussions, there are also issues of equity—who benefits from this project and who is marginalized? Whose way of life is legitimated and whose is de-legitimated? The projected pipeline is to travel through Native American lands, possibly disturbing what some Native Americans consider sacred space. The conversations around this one issue, the Keystone XL Pipeline, point to the inter-relatedness of environmental, economic, and equity issues. Issues of the environment, economics, and equity are tightly bound together, with no easy, one-size-fits-all solution. Finding ways to develop a critical literacy around these issues, through environmental education and more integrative curricula, is an important enterprise that needs to be taken from the margins to the center of educational discussions. Again, this topic will be discussed in greater detail, but the inter- relatedness of difficult topics, such as those found when issues of the environment, equity, and the economy come together, might be a place to develop relationships between girls and science. Let me play with a metaphor for a minute. Plants are amazing living systems—roots, stems, leaves, flowers, fruits, bark, cell walls, etc. It is even possible, given the right environment, to propagate an entire plant from just one small piece of a plant. We have all seen the avocado seed, stuck with toothpicks, growing roots into a plastic cup; the potato “eye” growing off a spud; a pineapple plant sprouting from the cast off tops of the fruit. Science has made it possible to splice and dice and graft pieces from different plants together to continue propagation. Cloning and genetic modification is now “common” among those who grow plants to increase yield, prevent disease, and fight off insects. Problematized by some, others argue that genetic modification is tied to human history since humans have genetically modified most plant foods since time immemorial by cross breeding certain types with others to draw out and create stronger plants and higher yields. Today’s genetic modification of plants is a bit trickier. The insertion of bacterial DNA laced with pesticides into the genetic makeup of a plant so that it produces its own “natural” pesticide is a bit more advanced than noticing that certain plants give 2 higher yields than others and their seeds are worth saving and possibly crossing with the plant that seems to not get diseases…Or is it? And why this talk of genetic modification and plants to explore building relationships between girls and science? If we take a plant stem, by itself, and do not provide any propagative tools (a place to graft it, root developing chemicals) or healthy plant environments (healthy soil, proper amounts of water, sunshine), we doom the plant that might have