'Even the girls are lads in Hawk class!': an ethnographic study of the interplay of language and gender in a North London primary school.

研究背景利用迄今为止尚未开发的数据集——一个来自伦敦中产阶级背景的10岁和11岁小学生班——这项研究将挑战语言和教育研究中关于性别的现有发现，特别是“幼稚”与学业失败密切相关的说法（Clare 2003; Jackson 2006）。29岁的混合性别群体似乎在协商一种新的少年身份，并将其作为学业和社会成功的资源。本研究将使用人种学方法（观察和参与者意见）以及语言微观分析来将互动置于语境中，探讨霍克班（化名）的孩子们在多大程度上抵制传统的性别期望，利用小伙子气概作为身份建构的资源，甚至可能提供21世纪性别角色变化的证据。研究目的和目标本项目旨在回答以下研究问题：-霍克班的孩子如何通过他们说话的方式来表现他们的性别？在多大程度上，他们所采用的“小伙子气概”有助于他们在学业和社会上的成功？-在她们的领导表现中，女孩们是如何利用她们的孩子气的？-在这个群体中，淑女、性别和礼貌之间的相互作用是什么？初步研究确定了三个感兴趣的领域：性别与成就；2. 女性领导;3. 礼貌策略。性别与成就关于性别与成就之间关系的担忧在教育话语中很常见，在这些话语中，男孩和女孩的考试成绩通常归因于性别。学校里男孩文化的增长已经引起了评论家的警惕（参见Epstein et al 1998），他们将其视为男孩成绩不佳的代名词。Jackson（2006: 1）将这种“幼稚”的概念描述为鼓励男孩（最近也包括女孩）通过行为不轨来获得同伴的认可，并觉得学习很无聊的行为，而这项研究中的孩子们恰恰反对这种行为。本研究将通过检验这一群体对其的理解在使他们在小学实现社会和学业目标方面所起的作用，来质疑小伙子气概的意义。性别与领导力朱迪思·巴克斯特（2010）概述了女性在领导中面临的“双重困境”（Lakoff 1975）：既要树立权威，又要遵守社会对女性的期望。这项研究的初步人种学研究表明，小组中有四个女孩被视为领导者：这些女孩是如何在班上获得其他人的尊重，同时避免被认为是专横的？他们的“小伙子”身份在多大程度上促成了他们的成就？本研究将研究这些女孩使用的策略来执行他们的领导身份。性别和礼貌最初的研究表明，参与者挑战了关于性别和礼貌的传统观念（Brown & Levinson 1987），经常扭转性别刻板印象。男孩在寻求帮助时通常使用“顺从”的礼貌风格（Lakoff 1990: 34），而女孩使用更直接的礼貌风格。本研究旨在展示这些互动中的“各种动机、意图和兴趣”（Mills 2003: 19），这些互动使说话者能够表现出他们的身份，从而暴露出小伙子气质的影响。潜在的应用和好处这项研究将对教育产生影响：它的目的是表明，小伙子气概可以用来促进，而不是阻碍，男孩和女孩在社会和学业上的成就。最近对青少年的研究主要集中在口音或方言特征上（Pichler 2009: 5），因此在话语层面进行探索可以发现跨学科研究背景下未探索数据集所使用的新实践。这种方法使其结论与语言学和教育以外的研究领域相关。

Research ContextDrawing on a hitherto unexplored data set - a primary-school class of 10- and 11-year-old pupils from mostly middle-class backgrounds in London - this study will challenge existing findings on gender in linguistic and education research, in particular the claim that 'laddishness' goes hand-in-hand with academic failure (Clare 2003; Jackson 2006). The mixed-sex group of 29 appears to negotiate a new form of laddish identity and uses it as a resource for academic and social success. Using ethnographic methods (observation and participant opinion) alongside linguistic microanalysis to place interactions into context, this study will explore the extent to which the children in Hawk class (pseudonym used) resist traditional expectations of gender, exploit laddishness as a resource for identity construction, and perhaps even offer evidence of changing gender roles in the 21st century.Research Aims & ObjectivesThis project seeks to answer the following research questions:- How do the children in Hawk class perform their gender through the way they speak?- To what extent does their adopted version of laddishness contribute to their academic and social success?- How is laddishness exploited by the girls in their performance of leadership?- What is the interplay between laddishness, gender and politeness in this group?Initial research has identified three areas of interest: 1. gender and achievement; 2. female leadership; 3. politeness strategies.Gender and AchievementConcerns about the relationship between gender and achievement are common in education discourses, where exam results of boys and girls are regularly attributed to gender. The growth of laddish culture in schools has alarmed commentators (cf Epstein et al 1998), who see it as synonymous with boys' underachievement. It is this concept of laddishness - described by Jackson (2006: 1) as behaviours which encourage boys, and, more recently, girls, to misbehave to gain peer approval and to find learning boring - that the children in this study defy. This study will question the meaning of laddishness by examining the role that this group's understanding of it plays in enabling them to achieve both social and academic goals in primary school.Gender and LeadershipJudith Baxter (2010) outlines the 'double-bind' (Lakoff 1975) women face in leadership: enacting authority whilst adhering to societal expectations of women. Initial ethnographic research for this study suggests there are four girls seen as leaders in the group: how have these girls achieved respect from others in the class whilst avoiding perceptions of bossiness? And, to what extent has their 'lad' identity contributed to their achievement of this? This study will examine the strategies these girls use to perform their leadership identities.Gender and PolitenessInitial research suggests that the participants challenge traditional ideas about gender and politeness (Brown & Levinson 1987), often reversing gender stereotypes. The boys often use 'deference' politeness styles when asking for help (Lakoff 1990: 34), and the girls use more directness. This study aims to show 'the various motivations, intentions and interests' (Mills 2003: 19) in these interactions that enable speakers to perform their identities, exposing the influence of laddishness.Potential Applications & BenefitsThis study will have an impact in education: it aims to show that laddishness can be used to facilitate, not hinder, achievement both socially and academically for boys and girls. Recent studies on adolescents focus mainly on accent or dialect features (Pichler 2009: 5), so conducting an exploration on a discourse level enables new practices used by an unexplored data set in a cross-disciplinary research context to be uncovered. This approach allows its conclusions to be relevant to fields of study beyond linguistics and education.