This thesis explores how young children perform their social identities in relation to social class, gender and ethnicity in primary school. In doing so, this study contributes to a growing body of literature that recognises the complexity and intersecting nature of children’s social identities, and views children as actively performing their social identities within discursively shaped contexts. The study operationalizes intersectionality as a sensitising concept for understanding the particular ways in which social class, gender and ethnicity are performed differently in different contexts, and for conceptualising the categories of social class, gender and ethnicity as constitutive of and irreducible to each other. An eight-month long ethnography was conducted in an urban Scottish primary school with young children (aged five to seven). Data were generated mainly from participant observation in the classroom, lunch hall, playground and other spaces of the school, interviews with children and staff, and from gathering a range of texts and documents (e.g. legislation and school displays). The findings of the study show that social class, gender and ethnicity intersect in the complex ways in which children perform their social identities. Particular identities are foregrounded in specific moments and situations (Valentine, 2007), yet the performing of social identities is not reducible to either social class or gender or ethnicity alone. In addition, age, sexuality and interpersonal relationships (e.g. dynamics of ‘best friends’, conflicts between dyadic and triadic groups, family relationships) all intersect within children’s social identities in particular moments. Thus, social identities need to be understood as deeply contextual, relational, and mutually constitutive. Emotions play a significant role for how social identities are invested with meanings and values and produce complex dynamics of belonging and being different. The study highlights the importance of the educational setting, the policy and legislation context and wider social inequalities for shaping the discourses within which children perform their social identities. Tensions and ambiguities – e.g. between ‘diversity’ and ‘inequality’ – in the relevant policies and legislations fail to address the different underlying dimensions of social justice in relation to social class, gender and ethnicity, and these tensions are reflected in staff’s discourses and practices, resulting in the foregrounding of certain aspects of diversity and the silencing of others. This study also highlights how through performing social identities in certain ways, wider social inequalities become manifest. Children are aware of and contribute to powerful discourses of social stereotypes and inequalities. Children also engage in the ‘politics of belonging’ (Yuval-Davis, 2011) by constructing dynamics of ‘us’ and ‘them’, engaging in processes of ‘othering’, and drawing boundaries around certain forms of belonging. The findings of this study emphasise the need for both a reflective practice in educational settings, as well as for policies and legislations to acknowledge and address the complex, intersecting nature of children’s social identities and the multiple dimensions of social justice.

The aim of this qualitative study was to examine how preschool teachers in contemporary Sweden think and talk about intercultural education in the current context in which Sweden is rapidly becoming a more culturally diverse country. Specifically, the study applied an intersectional framework to examine how teacher’s work and talk around cultural issues and how children’s books can contribute to the broader pedagogical project of developing intercultural education in preschool. The research questions guiding this research were: How do teachers in ethnically diverse preschools work with and talk about children’s books in their daily interactions with children? How do teachers in ethnically homogenous preschools work with and talk about children’s books in their daily interactions with children? Teachers from two preschools - differing in terms of the ethnic make-up of their child population - were asked to read a pair of children’s books whose storylines had obvious links to issues related to cultural diversity. The teachers were then asked to discuss the books in focus groups. Transcripts of the focus groups were then subjected to a thematic analysis from an intersectional perspective. These analyses revealed that teachers in both preschools considered children’s age and their relative intellectual and emotional competencies to be significant barriers for using culturally sensitive children’s book to promote an intercultural education in preschool. Furthermore, the teachers oriented to other social categories, such as gender and family, in their analyses of the children’s books. These findings raise questions about if and how preschool teachers choose to engage with cultural issues in their preschools.

Mothers of children with disabilities face a variety of problems compared to other mothers, but their experiences are not universal. This thesis provides a critical analysis of caregiving and disability by examining the experiences of a group of low-income African American mothers with children with disabilities. It explores the impacts of race, class, gender, and disability on mothers' experiences in the context of conflicting employment and caregiving demands for poor women. Drawing on in-depth qualitative interviews with ten low-income African American mothers of children with disabilities, I illustrate how the struggles of raising a child with a disability are amplified in the face of race and class inequalities. As a result, these women redefine the notion of personal responsibility and employ a series of survival strategies.

Work in general is under-theorised as a site of oppression in queer and intersectional studies, despite the power imbalances it manifests and its far-reaching effects on everyday lives. Anti-work theory is a useful conceptual tool for examining work critically. The purpose of this study is therefore to form a bridge between queer and anti-work politics and theory. Using a broad conception of work drawing on the Marxist and feminist concepts of social reproduction and emotional labour, this study explores anti-work politics situated in relation to the author (who is queer), in contrast to previous accounts which focus on a heteronormative division of labour. The text lays down a theoretical background bringing together elements of queer, anti-work and intersectional theory. With the lack of previous work on the topic, the study instead incorporates previous empirical research on queer work and delves into their problems, before returning to theoretical texts on the relation between queer and capitalism, and the politics of anti-work. This study is centred around the reports of nine queers in Berlin, Germany. It uses the ethnographic methods of semi-structured interviews and thematic analysis to gain intersectional insights into the links people make between queerness and the drive to work, resisting work, and the future.

At the core of this collaborative ‘independent’ project is a growing and shifting community of practitioners: design students, volunteers, professors, farmers, entrepreneurs, local nonhuman species and the soil; each of us performing our various roles together. By contextualizing this community within the growth economy: industrialization, globalization and capitalism and more specifically: patriarchy, oppression, and alienation, I aim to explore how, through design, we can perform local accountabilities that critically co-respond to the greater anthropocentric narratives of our time. By engaging with autonomous, post-capitalist feminist theories of care, and the queering of normative ways of world-making, I investigate the roles our everyday farm tools play in helping to further explore, ask questions and shape more resilient and convivial practices. Through the collaborative processes of workshopping and prototyping, my collaborators and I challenge the normative narrative of the ‘hero’ tool, looking to our everyday choreographies at the farm for those actions and labours that go unnoticed. Through discussion and material exploration we used the makerly practice of weaving as tool for coming together and helping to create a community of care.

Thesis advisor: Belle Liang / While a large body of research has established high prevalence rates of discrimination (i.e., unfair treatment because of perceived or claimed membership in a particular identity group) in youth and its negative impact on both mental health and academic outcomes (Fisher, Wallace, & Fenton, 2000; Russel et al., 2012), less is known about the effects of identity-based bullying (i.e., verbal or physical assaults targeting identity(ies)). In addition, very few studies examine both everyday forms of discrimination and identity-based bullying, and even fewer assess the differing experiences of youth with intersectional identities (i.e., multiple oppressed identities; Garnett et al., 2014). Finally, no studies to date have examined the potentially protective role of teacher-student relationships for youth facing identity-based victimization.  The current study sought to examine the impact of identity-based victimization (i.e., discrimination and identity-based bullying) on mental health and academic achievement in a large and diverse sample of youth who were assessed longitudinally. To capture the complexity of the outcomes associated with identity-based victimization for youth with an oppressed gender identity, sexual orientation, and/or race, an intersectional framework was used. Finally, the present dissertation examined the role of teacher-student relationships as a potential source of protection for students facing identity-based victimization.   Results from the present study indicated that identity-based victimization is a pervasive problem that is negatively associated with mental health and academic achievement in adolescents. Findings suggested that intersectional students face a higher risk of experiencing identity-based victimization, and mental health challenges when confronted with above average discrimination. Autonomy-enhancing and positive teacher student relationships had a moderating effect on the association between identity based victimization and mental health for some youth, but not others. Implications of these findings for research, assessment, and intervention are discussed. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2018. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Counseling, Developmental and Educational Psychology.

This study explores the accounts of first generation East Asian mothers living in England, for the purpose of examining if and how these women perceive their national and/or ethnic cultural heritage has affected their experiences and identity formation. In order to achieve this aim, the thesis investigates the gendered division of labour within the family and discourse around motherhood and employment, using biographical interviews with 30 first generation East Asian mothers with children under the age of 11. I develop an integrative theoretical framework by deploying various theories in order to analyse the complex and dynamic characteristics of identity formation for ethnic minority mothers. The concepts I draw on are ideology and discourse, storytelling and ‘othering’, patriarchy, masculinity and femininity, nation, ethnie, culture, class and intersectionality. The data was analysed by using discourse analysis, focusing on discursive themes across interview data, in conjunction with detailed narrative analysis of the individual life stories of four of the women. The findings of the data indicated that despite the increasing involvement of male partners in childcare and domestic work, women’s stories suggested that they continued to take on the majority of household labour. In addition, this pattern was more prominent among East Asian couples than mixed ethnic couples. This is suggestive of the persistent influence of the Confucian patriarchal norms among East Asian couples outside East Asia. Alongside this, the examination of discourse and narratives around motherhood and employment indicated that the motherhood ideologies of individual women, influenced by national and/or ethnic cultural heritage, had a major impact on mothers’ decision towards childcare and employment. For example, the majority of mothers from Korea and some mothers from Japan tended to endorse an intensive mothering ideology, in which women were expected to stay at home devoting their time and energy to looking after their children. The talk of home-stay mothers was dominated by the importance of the mother’s care for the psychological wellbeing of their children. In this discourse the mother’s absence was portrayed as having a detrimental effect on the healthy development of young children. But rather than referring to a Western notion of intensive motherhood (see Hays 1996), they talked of their decisions in reference to the way that mothers and fathers were expected to act in their country of origin. This contrasted with the discourse of employed mothers (especially from China), which did not necessarily support the incessant presence and availability of mothers for children, regarding childcare as replaceable by others, such as grandparents. The Chinese women talked of this in reference to their perception of the culture in China where all adults are expected to work, regardless of childcare responsibilities. However, despite notable differences in discourse around ‘good’ mothering and employment between home-stay mothers and employed mothers, the gendered idea about men’s and women’s roles seemed to continue to affect the predominant majority of women in my study, irrespective of their employment status. Hence, both home-stay and most employed mothers remained to be the primary care provider as well as taking the major burden of household labour, being subject to a gendered understanding of motherhood and womanhood.

This thesis explores the educational experiences of 17 Scottish Gypsy/Traveller girls supplemented by some 30 other informants involved with education and related areas impacting Gypsy/Travellers. It incorporates published and unpublished literature on the topic and sets out a theoretical framework informed by intersectionality. The girls’ stories are highlighted and juxtaposed alongside the general problems encountered by Gypsy/Travellers in Scotland to reveal a complex narrative. This research attempts to address a gap in the literature in which Gypsy/Traveller girls’ experiences are misrecognised and erased through non-recognition. My thesis offers space for the voices of Gypsy/Traveller girls to be heard and highlights their agency in the private spaces of home and the public spaces of education. Interpretations of the image of Gypsy/Travellers in Scotland are riddled with stereotypes and racialised misperceptions and assumptions. The stubborn persistence of these negative views appears to contribute to policies of neglect, inertia or intervention that largely seeks to ‘civilise’ or further assimilate Gypsy/Travellers into the mainstream settled population. The Scottish Government's Race Equality Statement (2009) accepts that Gypsy/Travellers are ‘a particularly discriminated against and marginalised group’. Within education, research by Wilkin et al. (2009) indicates that Gypsy/Traveller children are the lowest achieving minority group in the United Kingdom. There is currently no research that explores how girls and young women from Gypsy/Traveller communities fare in Scottish schools, and what they think of their experiences. It is against this backdrop that this qualitative inquiry seeks to explore how Gypsy/Traveller girls frame their educational experiences. I argue that traditional unidimensional approaches to investigating experiences of discrimination are inadequate, particularly within marginalised communities. Interview data collected for this doctoral study was analysed, identifying common themes that characterise the experiences of the Gypsy/Traveller girls and the ways in which their experiences differ and various subordinations intersect.

Como as práticas baseadas nos lugares de Mercado podem ser analisadas sob uma ontologia diferente? Esse trabalho é baseado na discussão de alguns prismas teóricos fundamentais na epistemologia de estudos de comportamento de consumo. Estudos envolvendo consumo geralmente focam-se no consumidor como indivíduo final, monolítico – portador de agência e voz. Portanto, esse trabalho busca compreender o descolamento aparente entre os humanos e os não-humanos (coisas). Para tanto, utilizei-me do conceito de coisa, advinda do campo da Antropologia, para estudos de comportamento de consumo. Escolhi, como tema, a sexualidade – visto que é um tema com pouca expressividade no campo de comportamento de consumo. Inicio meu argumento com três pilares teóricos: o conceito de coisa; o conceito de performatividade para gênero e sexualidade; e o conceito de interseccionalidade. Depois, apresento o método utilizado para unir os três pilares na análise empírica in loco. Por fim, ofereço uma discussão sobre a convergência da fundamentação teórica e o método. Meus achados iluminam como atores humanos envolvidos em uma malha de relações, que dividem práticas com outros atores, engajam-se em oclusão de consumo: a necessidade de esconder uma prática de consumo dentro de uma malha próxima de relações. Também iluminam como a cooptação de locais de mercado de forma institucional – adicionando lugares focados em diversidade – não preclude a exclusão. Observei a continuação das práticas exclusionárias dentro de ambientes de mercado considerados abertos à diversidade, ou exclusão interseccional. Ambos achados foram resultado da abordagem ontológica delimitada previamente, que resultou no conceito de gayscape – um conceito puramente qualitativo que contém a malha de interrelação dos atores (humanos e não-humanos) do campo de consumo gay. / How do the marketplace-based practices can be analyzed with a different ontology? This work is based on the discussion of some theoretical approaches fundamentally attached to consumption behavior studies. These studies are usually focused on the consumer as a finished, monolithic individual – bearer of agency and voice. Therefore, this work tries to comprehend the apparent detachment between humans and non-humans. To achieve this I use the concept of thing, from the anthropology field to study consumption behavior. My chosen theme is sexuality – seen it is regarded as an understudied in consumption behavior studies. I start my argument based on three theoretical pillars: the concept of thing; the concept of performativity connected to gender and sexuality; and the concept of intersectionality. Following this, I present the method that was used to unite these three pillars for data collection. Lastly, I offer a discussion about the convergence of the literature review and the method. My findings illuminate how human actors are involved in a mesh of relationships – sharing practices with other actors – engage in what I call Consumption Occlusion: the need to hide a consumption practice within a tightly woven mesh of relationships. I also illuminate how institutional marketplace cooptation – for example, adding diverse marketplaces – does not preclude exclusion. I observed the continuation of exclusionary practices within marketplaces regarded as open to diversity, or intersectional exclusion. Both findings are the results of a previously delimited ontological approach, resulting in the concept of gayscape – a purely qualitative concept that brings forth the relationship mesh among actors (humans and non-humans) of the gay consumption field.

This study focuses on the career paths and career projections of teacher professionals who are at a stage in their professional roles where they have not embarked upon senior leadership positions in the schools in which they work. Often research has focused retrospectively on the career paths of those already in leadership posts rather than those who are expected to be aspiring to leadership, have discounted this option or are yet to make a decision. Increasing numbers of re-advertisements for headship posts indicates a lack of willing or suitable candidates applying. Changes to school staffing structures and the role of headteachers in recent years have resulted in greater responsibilities including financial matters and the maintenance of premises. Government policies in favour of schools becoming academies has removed local authority support and placed increased pressure on individual school leaders. These factors coupled with the external inspection system and the media focus on so called failing schools has led to the role of head becoming unattractive to many and this study aims to collect the views of a sample of teachers regarding this role. Six schools of similar type were selected from within one local authority and a survey was utilised in order to collect data. This was initially in the form of a questionnaire completed by seventy nine teachers from which twelve participants took part in two interviews each. Teachers were subsequently organised into one of four career categories; 'careerist', 'serendipity', 'active choice' and 'stuck'. Analysis of the data indicates that many teacher professionals do not plan to become senior leaders or heads. This is in agreement with many serving heads who in existing research claim not to have planned their routes to headship. However, the majority of the sample in this study have already ruled out the role of head, finding the pressures and perceived stress of the role unappealing and not wishing to lose their identity as classroom teachers. The underrepresentation of women in headteacher posts does not look likely to be addressed in the near future as females in the study are more likely to feel unable to pursue leadership roles often due to family commitments. A larger proportion of females have made the choice not to pursue leadership roles than males, even when those females did not necessarily have the pressures of home responsibilities. For many females future decisions regarding starting families and seeking promotions produced dilemmas that men did not appear to have to confront. These factors look likely to lead to continued headteacher shortages in the short term with no real incentives to encourage females to pursue such posts now or in the future.