Problem Girls

This book explores the issues surrounding girls and young women who are seen as troubled or troublesome. It sets out to further our understanding of young women who face or cause difficulties, offering a diverse and complex view. Recognising the increasing importance of schools as the primary source of support for girls and young women, the chapters discuss the implications for practice of teachers and other professionals, covering important issues like: - girls' classroom behaviour - mental health problems - violence and sexuality - exclusion and community offences. By presenting a range of theoretical perspectives, readers of this book will be encouraged to reflect on what underpins the actions of girls and young women and take their voices seriously. It will be essential reading for practitioners and professionals in Education, as well as students and academics in the field.

Gwynedd Lloyd is Senior Lecturer at Moray House Institute of Education, Univeristy of Edinburgh

Introduction: Why We Need a Book about Problem Girls  1. Not Knowing their Place: Girls' Classroom Behaviour  2. Feeling Under Pressure: Low-Income Girls Negotiating School Life  3. Girls' Mental Health Problems: Often Hidden, Sometimes Unrecognised  4. Exploring the Psychological Landscape of 'Problem' Girls: Embodiment, Relationship and Agency  5. 'Violent Girls': Same or Different from 'Other' Girls  6. Growing Up Mean: Covert Aggression and the Policing of Girlhood  7. The Trouble With Sex: Sexuality and Subjectivity in the Lives of Teenage Girls  8. Black Femininities Go to School: How Young Black Females Navigate Race and Gender  9. Girls in Trouble in the Child Welfare and Criminal Justice System  10. 'EBD Girls': A Critical View  11. 'I Was Never Really There': Reflecting on Girls' Non-Participation in School  12. Engaging Girls' Voices: Learning as Social Practice  13. "My Special Little House": Reforming the Risky Geographies of Middle School Girls at Clifftop College.  Afterword: 'Problem' Girls - A Complex Picture