Biography

On countless playgrounds each day girls are at work crafting intricate social organizations through language and embodied action. In the ground-breaking ethnography The Hidden Life of Girls: Games of Stance, Status, and Exclusion, the voices of girls from a range of ethnicities and social classes show that rather than avoiding conflict, girls actively seek it out. The Hidden Life of Girls thus offers a challenge to the notion that girls are inherently supportive of each other. The moral universe that girls create, and in which they hold their peers (including boys) accountable, contradicts stereotypes that have dominated much work on female moral development. Goodwin examines the stances that girls on a playground in a multicultural school setting assume and shows how they position themselves in their peer groups and evaluate the relative status of others. The Hidden Life of Girls documents the language practices and degradation rituals used not only to sanction friends who violate social norms, but also to bully younger girls and those constructed as social deviants. This volume will not only provide us with a better picture of childrenrsquo;s worlds but also help guide policy and intervention strategies in schools.

Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

ISBN-10: 063123425X
ISBN-13: 978-0631234258