South Asian Girls Telling Stories: First Hand Accounts of South Asian Adolescent Girls in UK Secondary Schools

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This study explores how South Asian girls perceive their identities and the impact of friendship groups on their identities both within and outside of the secondary school setting. It further explores their views on the degree to which their secondary school allows them to maintain their first heritage, language and culture.
Semi-structured interviews were conducted with nine girls from each institution (one school comprising of a predominantly Asian cohort of pupils and the other a predominantly white cohort) and these interviews provided a forum for these girls to voice their first hand narratives.
This paper will consider not only the micro-level analysis of classroom based interactions but wider influences of race, gender, sexuality and power and the way in which these girls negotiate these strands and position themselves in daily aspects of their life.
There are still today, widely held public discourses about South-Asian girls. South-Asian girls tend to be classified as a homogenous group where they are often portrayed as being passive victims of oppressive structures, forced into arranged marriages through family pressures. Such discourses, however, are simplistic and naïve. This research aims to deconstruct some of these widely held discourses.
Within the paper, the term ‘South-Asian’ has been used to describe participants whose parents or grandparents have migrated from the Indian sub-continent (including those who have come to the UK via East Africa).
The paper will end by considering the implications of this study for various partners in the education process (researchers, those involved in Initial Teacher Training and school based practitioners).

Stream: Equity, Social Justice and Social Change; Community, Culture, Globalisation

Paper: A paper has not yet been submitted.

Geeta Ludhra is a lecturer in Education at Brunel University, West London. Presently she leads the Initial Teacher Training programme for primary education students (those training to teach pupils aged between 5-11 years of age). She has extensive experience of teaching in primary schools and has worked in leading literacy advisory roles within UK local authorities. Her research interests include the development of creative teaching approaches for trainee teachers and the role of speaking, listening and drama for bilingual pupils. Current research is being conducted with British South-Asian adolescent girls to explore how they see their identities and their views of schooling.

Dr Deborah Jones is a Reader in Education and has had extensive experience of teaching in UK primary schools. She has worked in various advisory Literacy roles and has taught on teacher training programmes in Hong Kong. She has written extensively on the role of speaking and listening within the primary curriculum and gender identities of male teachers in the primary school.