“Critical literacy seems really interesting, but why talk about menstruation?” A critical literacy approach to teaching and learning about menstruation Shire Agnew A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctorate of Philosophy at the University of Otago College of Education, Dunedin, New Zealand June 2017 Abstract For the majority of young people, puberty and sexuality education is an important source of information about menstruation. Menstruation is part of the Positive Puberty unit, Year Six to Eight in the New Zealand Health and Physical Education curriculum. The Positive Puberty unit states that students develop a positive attitude towards the changes occurring at puberty. However, dominant discourse of shame and secrecy still construct menstruation as a worrisome event that must remain hidden from awareness. I argue that a different approach to the teaching of menstruation is necessary if we are to achieve outcomes that construct puberty, particularly menstruation, in a positive way. This research uses a critical literacy where teachers and students mutually investigate a variety of possible multiple readings (re)created in the texts of print advertising produced by menstrual companies. Teachers and students from Year Seven and Eight (ages 11-12) made up the participants of this study. The teachers attended two workshops to explore menstruation and critical literacy, and mutually construct lesson plans for an observed classroom lesson with each participating teacher. From each classroom a mixed-gendered group of six students took part in pre and post-lesson interviews, and the teachers all participated in exit interviews. All workshops and interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed, and the transcriptions along with my field notes of the lesson and their activity sheets made up the data of this research. I subjected this data to post structural discourse analysis to explore the use of critical literacy as an approach to teaching menstruation. From this analysis, I argue that while teachers still take up and (re)produce discourses of shame and secrecy, students were able to use moments of resistance to explore alternative constructions of menstruation with critical literacy dialogue promoting this exploration. As a result, I argue that while shame and secrecy are still being (re)produced, a critical literacy approach can open up new ways to construct menstruation. However, both teachers and students may need further development and experience engaging with a critical literacy approach that challenges and expands discursive constructions of menstruation. And finally, as education and research into puberty and sexuality education remains underdeveloped, I propose that more research examining how we teach the subject, and in doing so how we expand the discourse that are made available to young people, is needed. ii Acknowledgements: To all the participants, thank you for agreeing to work with me on this research. You have my gratitude and respect. This thesis, quite literally, couldn’t have happened without you. To Dr. Susan Sandretto and Dr. Alex Gunn. Thank you for all the time and energy you gave me over this process. Thank you for your support, your encouragement, for the times you challenged me to do better (even if it did freak me out at the time), and thank you for putting up with me when I was so sure I should just quit. To my fellow post-graduate students, thank you for the interesting and supportive community that we created. It has been wonderful to journey with you all over the last four years. To Rafaela, thank you for offering to proof read, even as it took time away from your own study. And our morning conversations often made the hard work more bearable. Finally to Sassy and San, even though you live on the other side of the world, you’ve continued to show me a new definition of family, and your support has been invaluable. iii Table of Contents Abstract .......................................................................................................................ii Acknowledgements:..................................................................................................... iii List of Figures ........................................................................................................... viii Chapter One: Introduction ........................................................................................ 1 The research approach ................................................................................................ 2 Who am I? ................................................................................................................... 5 What is in this thesis? .................................................................................................. 6 Chapter Two: Theoretical Framework: Feminist Poststructuralism and Critical Literacy ...................................................................................................................... 9 Introduction ................................................................................................................. 9 Poststructuralism ....................................................................................................... 10 Language ........................................................................................................................ 10 Discourse ........................................................................................................................ 13 Subjectivity ...................................................................................................................... 17 Power .............................................................................................................................. 21 Positioning ................................................................................................................ 24 Agency ............................................................................................................................ 27 Feminist poststructuralism ......................................................................................... 32 Critical theory ............................................................................................................ 34 Critical literacy ........................................................................................................... 36 Conclusion ................................................................................................................ 41 iv Chapter Three: Literature Review ........................................................................... 43 Introduction ............................................................................................................... 43 The construction of menstruation ............................................................................... 47 Menstruation and puberty education .......................................................................... 55 Puberty Education within the New Zealand Curriculum ............................................... 59 Advertising menstruation ........................................................................................... 61 Critical literacy ........................................................................................................... 67 Conclusion ................................................................................................................ 72 Chapter Four: Research Design .............................................................................. 74 Introduction ............................................................................................................... 74 Feminist Methodology ................................................................................................ 76 Qualitative methods ................................................................................................... 78 Finding participants ................................................................................................... 79 Participants ............................................................................................................... 82 Data Collection Methods ............................................................................................ 85 Workshops ................................................................................................................ 85 Observations ............................................................................................................. 87 Interviews: An overview ............................................................................................. 91 Teacher individual interviews ........................................................................................... 93 Focus groups interviews .............................................................................................. 94 Discourse analysis .................................................................................................... 96 Ethics ........................................................................................................................ 99 Reflexivity ............................................................................................................... 102 v Conclusion .............................................................................................................. 105 Chapter Five: Using Power to Position the Experience of Menstruation ............. 107