DOCUMENT RESUME ED 450 066 SO 032 593 AUTHOR Rhedding-Jones, Jeanette TITLE Girls, Subjectivity and Language: From Four to Twelve in a Rural School. PUB DATE 1994-02-00 NOTE 383p.; Doctor of Philosophy Thesis, La Trobe University, Bundoora, Victoria, Australia. PUB TYPE Dissertations/Theses Doctoral Dissertations (041) EDRS PRICE MF01/PC16 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Childrens Writing; Discourse Analysis; Elementary Education; Elementary School Students; *Females; Feminist Criticism; Foreign Countries; Gender Issues; Process Approach (Writing); Sex Role; Sexual Identity; Writing Attitudes; Writing Evaluation IDENTIFIERS Australia (Victoria) ABSTRACT This dissertation presents the construction and development of a thesis that investigates links between discourses of genderand the production of writing by girls at primary school. The researchtook place over three years in a one-teacher rural schoolin country Victoria (Australia). The girls were aged from four to twelve. The researchdocuments patterns in choices that seven girls made regardingtheir relationships to patriarchy, phallocentrism, feminisms, and each other. These patternslocate the girls as gendered subjects. Their writing is a culturalartifact representing their constructs, critiques, and resistances oflocations. This thesis deals theoretically with language and poststructuralisms,including some psychoanalyses. Methodologically, it selectsfrom micro-ethnographic and deconstructive research strategies to develop feminist poststructuralist theories of construction and repression. A research journaldocumenting spoken language, practices, and bodies serves as an additionalrepresentation of the girl-culture. Conversational interviews in the fourth yearof the study provide a further dimension to the data, which representshome- and school-based field work. From descriptions, multiple theories ofshifting subjectivities are suggested and exemplified. The thesis is thus an exploration of multiple ways to understand data by subjective engagementwith it. As such, the focus of the thesis is on writing and discourseproduction, both its own and that of the girls. The dissertation containsthe following chapters: (1) "A Study of Girls at School and An Exploration ofTheories"; (2) "Poststructuralist Theories and Possibilities"; (3) "Methodology: Life-Texts, Writings and Deconstructions";(4) "Post-Scriptions of Data"; and (5) "Endings." Appendices provide documentation. Includes abibliography. (BB) E TIRE DOCUMENT: POOR PRINT QUALITY Reproductions supplied by_EDRS are the best that canbe made from the original document. GIRLS, SUBJECTIVITY AND LANGUAGE: FROM FOUR TO TWELVE IN A RURAL SCHOOL Jeanette RheddingJones, TITC, BA, BEd, MEd. A thesis submitted in total fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Graduate School of Education Faculty of Economics, Education and SocialSciences La Trobe University PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE AND U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Bundoora, Victoria 3083 Off ice of Educational Research and Improvement DiSSE;viiNATE THiS iviATERiAL HAS MU:Ai:CNN- RESOURCES INFORMATION BEEN GRANTED BY CENTER (ERIC) /This document has been reproduced as received from the person or organization originating it. Minor changes have been made to -=-ch914.44_ February 1994 improve reproduction quality. TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) Points of view or opinions stated in this 1 document do not necessarily represent official OERI position or policy. stett COPY AVAILABLE 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS SUMMARY STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS vii PREFACE 1 CHAPTER ONE: A STUDY OF GIRLS AT SCHOOL AND AN EXPLORATION OF THEORIES 5 Introduction 5 Description of Methodologies. 9 Organization of Dissertation 11 Researching Girls and Writing 13 ConstructingFemininities 16 Discourses and Productions 18 Language Theories 20 Feminist Theories 23 Ending 26 CHAPTER TWO: POSTSTRUCTURALIST THEORIES AND POSSIBILITIES 29 1.Poststructuralist Theories 29 Poststructuralist Theories 29 Discourse 34 Deconstruction 38 Semiotics 43 3 2.Psychoanalytic Theories 45 Psychoanalytic Theories 45 Feminist Psychoanalytic Theories 52 Desire, Fantasy and Symbol/Symbolic 61 3.Ending 72 CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY: LIFE - TEXTS, WRITINGS AND DECONSTRUCTIONS 75 1.Ethnography 75 Feminisms and Research Methodologies 75 Micro-Ethnography 78 Empirical Research and Data Gathering 80 Exemplary Practices 81 Ethnography 84 The Ruralsville Fieldwork 87 2.Deconstruction 89 Doing Deconstructions 89 Practices from Education Research 90 Practices from Outside Education Research 98 Academic Writing 105 The Ruralsville Deconstructions 109 INTERLUDE 111 The town, the school, the girls, the families, the girls' writing, time summary, key writings, key events, ending. CHAPTER FOUR:POST-SCRIPTIONS OF DATA 139 1.IntroductoryPost-Scriptions 139 Deconstruction 140 Reading 146 Discourse 147 Postmodernism 153 2.Feminist Post-Scripdons 155 Agency 155 Gender 162 Subjectivity 167 3.Psychoanalytic Post-Scriptions 173 Jane 174 Eve 181 Chloe 188 Kylie 193 Metaphors, Desires and Fantasies 195 Reviewing Theories 203 4.CulturalPost-Scriptions 207 Semiotics 207 Femininities 214 Culture 221 CHAPTER FIVE: ENDINGS 227 Writing 228 Subjectivity 232 Power 238 Language 241 Culture 243 Resistance 248 Femininity 257 Reflections 260 EPILOGUE 263 APPENDICES 265 A. The Writings 265 Kylie'sWriting 265 Natasha's Writing 268 Jane'sWriting 269 Donna's Writing 272 Locy'sWriting 275 Chloe'sWriting 279 Margaret's Writing 282 Eve'sWriting 286 Boys'Writing 288 B. The Chronology 292 (4.2.89 - 19.11.91) C. The Interviews 319 (2.4.92 - 1.6.92) Kylie 319 Jane 321 Donna 323 Lucy 325 Chloe 325 Margaret 330 Eve 340 D. Extra Descriptions 347 a. Biographies of the girls 347 b. Literacy pedagogy at the school 348 c. Adulthood, boyhood and girlhood 348 d. Extract from published history 349 e. Extract from newspaper article 350 BIBLIOGRAPHY 351 iv SUMMARY The purpose of this research was to investigate links between discourses of gender and the production of writing by girls at primary school. The events researched took placeover three years in a one-teacher rural school in country Victoria. The girls were aged from four to twelve. The research documents patterns in choices that seven girls made regarding their relationships to patriarchy, phallocentricism, feminisms and each other. These patterns locate the girls as gendered subjects. Their writing is a cultural artefact representing their constructs, critiques and resistances of locations. For these girl writers, their narrative writing is an entry point into various femininities. The thesis deals theoretically with language and poststructuralisms, including some psychoanalyses. Methodologically, it selects from micro-ethnographic and deconstructive research strategies to develop feminist poststructuralist theories of construction and repression. A research journal documenting spoken language, practices and bodiesserves as an additional representation of the girl-culture. Conversational interviews in the fourth year of the study provide a further dimension to the data, which represents home-based as well as school-based fieldwork. Specifically, the research describes a particular culture of girlhood. From descriptions, multiple theories of shifting subjectivities are suggested and exemplified. The thesis is thus an exploration of multiple ways to understand data by subjective engagement with it. As such, the focus of the thesis is on writing and discourse production, both its own and that of the girls. Assumptions framing the research, from its fieldwork phase to its theorization,were that the analysis of qualitative data can never be complete, that meaning cannot be contained by language, and that the reading of poststructuralist work requires a deconstructive reader. The research is further evidence of the non-unified subject, as the girl writer appears again to split at the time of entry into written language. These splits, which are multiple and changing, rather than binary and fixed, are produced as girls try on a series of positionings wbact writing. In these ways the thesis produces theories and evidence of thecultural construction of girlhood and of language. V 7 PREFACE Five years ago I decided to research some of the links between writers and what they write. I was particularly interested in women's writing, and bow it seemed to strengthen not only the woman who reads it but the woman who wrote it Feminists teaching literature were researching published novels or short stories, and sometimes poetry and plays, but I knew from my experience that a woman writes often for herself or to friends. Writing is a way of working something out, or looking at a situation more clearly, or daring. I heard the women in amateur writing groups move out of timidity. I saw my own students amazed at what they could produce as print. I remembered myself, as I worked my way alone through three off-campus degrees. After the master's degree, nearly ten years ago now, I dreamt of a doctorate that never began. Not a possible topic, they said to my proposal of 'Women's teaching and their lives, including mine' So I wrote poetry, practised music and got on with my new life as a single parent. But the academic urge returned, and research was changing. First I found supervisors, and their university because of them. Next was a year of intensive academic reading, talk and scribble. The following year I enrolled and found a topic. I decided to make use of two peculiarities: my current geographical isolation