“Well, what do girls do?”: Using the Arts to Learn Why and How Girls Engage in Activism

Abstract

The aims of this arts-based dissertation are to highlight and better understand the experiences of girls who are engaged in activism. Inspired by years of community social work practice with girls, I came to this project with the firsthand knowledge that girls were working hard to create change in their schools, communities, and beyond. I also saw through my community practice that girls’ efforts were often patronized, ignored, and not taken seriously. The goal of this project was, therefore, to showcase and learn about the social and environmental change work of girls, including what motivated, helped, and hindered them in their political pursuits.

My dissertation was guided by a critical childhood citizenship theoretical framework, which I developed by integrating theoretical concepts from critical childhood studies and critical citizenship studies. Methodologically informed by principles of feminist participatory action research, I engaged nine girls, aged 8-12 years, from the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (Ontario, Canada) in individual semi-structured qualitative interviews and arts-based focus groups. Girls who participated in this study thus had opportunities to both individually and collectively articulate their key concerns and tensions as related to their engagement with gender and activism.

Study findings illuminate why gender matters when thinking about girls’ activism and citizenship. More specifically, these study findings elucidate the gendered nuances of citizenship, the impacts of feminist and postfeminist tensions on girls’ social and environmental change work, and what may constitute “good” and “bad” citizenship for girls. This co-created knowledge makes meaningful contributions to child-centred research, social work research and practice, and the broader study of girls’ citizenship. It is my dream that this work inspires others to take girls seriously as citizens and change-makers, seek out and centre their perspectives and knowledge, and to turn to them as collaborators and co-conspirators as we work towards more socially and environmentally just worlds.