Queenbees and wannabees: the struggle for power through bullying in adolescent girls PDF
Preview Queenbees and wannabees: the struggle for power through bullying in adolescent girls
Retrospective Theses and Dissertations 2008 Queenbees and wannabees: the struggle for power through bullying in adolescent girls DeAnn Valorie Miller Iowa State University Follow this and additional works at:http://lib.dr.iastate.edu/rtd Part of theCounselor Education Commons,Educational Sociology Commons,Home Economics Commons,Social and Philosophical Foundations of Education Commons, and the Student Counseling and Personnel Services Commons Recommended Citation Miller, DeAnn Valorie, "Queenbees and wannabees: the struggle for power through bullying in adolescent girls" (2008).Retrospective Theses and Dissertations. 15791. http://lib.dr.iastate.edu/rtd/15791 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by Iowa State University Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Retrospective Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Iowa State University Digital Repository. For more information, please [email protected]. Queenbees and wannabees: The struggle for power through bullying in adolescent girls by DeAnn Valorie Miller A dissertation submitted to the graduate faculty in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Major: Family and Consumer Sciences Education Program of Study Committee: Yvonne Gentzler, Major Professor Francine H. Hultgren Mary Gregoire Beverly Kruempel Robert Martin Iowa State University Ames, Iowa 2008 Copyright © DeAnn Valorie Miller, 2008. All rights reserved. UMI Number: 3307126 Copyright 2008 by Miller, DeAnn Valorie All rights reserved. UMI Microform3307126 Copyright2008 by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest Information and Learning Company 300 North Zeeb Road P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, MI 48106-1346 ii DEDICATION To my children, Sydney and Sumner who teach me everyday what it means to “bee” a human, a mother, and a life-long teacher. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER ONE 1: TURNING TOWARD THE PHENOMENON OF BULLYING...……..1 Being Called to the Middle.......................................................................................................1 Flying Beneath the Radar......................................................................................................4 Bullying in the Middle..........................................................................................................5 Adolescence, Royal Jelly, and Recognition..........................................................................8 The Journey to the Middle......................................................................................................13 Teacher in the Middle.........................................................................................................15 Middle School Girls and Teaching to the Soul...................................................................17 Bees and the Journey..........................................................................................................19 Queenbees and Wannabees.....................................................................................................22 Safety and Swarming..........................................................................................................23 The Sting of Bees and Bullies.............................................................................................24 Belonging of Bees and Bullies............................................................................................26 Flying with Broken Wings..................................................................................................29 Different, Yet the Same......................................................................................................32 Hermeneutic Phenomenology.................................................................................................33 Meaning Beyond a Number................................................................................................34 Layers of Meaning..............................................................................................................35 Tending the Hive, Exploring the Phenomenon...................................................................37 CHAPTER TWO: THE QUEEN OF MEAN: EXPLORING THE PHENOMENON..........39 “Bee”—ing—In the Middle....................................................................................................39 The Queen–Bee Phenomenon.............................................................................................42 The Queen–Bee and “She’s all That”.................................................................................45 The Secret Lives of Bullies and Bees.................................................................................49 Queenbee Communication......................................................................................................51 The Bystanders....................................................................................................................53 Float Like a Butterfly, Sting like a Bee..............................................................................54 Media, Books, and Fairy Tales...........................................................................................56 Queenbees and Cyberbullying................................................................................................57 The Sting: A Public Health Threat......................................................................................58 Calming the Swarm.............................................................................................................60 From Slam Books to Modern Cyberbullying......................................................................61 Heidegger and Technology.................................................................................................63 “Bee”—ing Stung: A Right of Passage?................................................................................64 Educating Others.................................................................................................................66 Unseen Scars.......................................................................................................................67 “Bee”—ing The Best that You can Bee?................................................................................68 To Bee or not to Bee...........................................................................................................69 Capturing the Essence of “Bee”—ing.................................................................................72 iv CHAPTER THREE: PHILOSOPHICAL GROUNDING AND METHODOLOGY............74 Being Called to Human Science Research..............................................................................74 “Bee”—ing Your Best........................................................................................................75 The Honeycomb, The Foundation......................................................................................77 Of Politics and Philosophy......................................................................................................79 Heidegger’s Childhood.......................................................................................................81 Heidegger and Politics........................................................................................................82 Nazism—Touching My Life...............................................................................................85 Harvesting the Honey of Heidegger and Gadamer.................................................................86 Cura....................................................................................................................................87 To the Things Themselves..................................................................................................89 Gadamer’s Hermeneutics....................................................................................................91 Hermeneutic Phenomenological Methodology.......................................................................95 Robbing the Bees................................................................................................................96 Turning to a phenomenon which seriously interests us and commits us to the world...97 Investigating experience as we live it rather than as we conceptualize it.......................97 Reflecting upon the essential themes which characterize the phenomenon.................100 Describing the phenomenon through the art of writing and rewriting..........................101 Maintaining a strong and oriented pedagogical relation to the phenomenon...............102 Balancing the research context ....................................................................................104 Human science is a practical science............................................................................105 Extracting the Honey/Engaging in Conversation.............................................................105 CHAPTER FOUR: EXTRACTING THE BITTERSWEET HONEY: FROM WORDS TO THEMES ..............................................................................................................................107 “Bee”—ing Touched and Touching Lives............................................................................107 The Source of Honey . . . The Participants.......................................................................109 Morgan..............................................................................................................................109 Bethany.............................................................................................................................110 Liza...................................................................................................................................110 Rhonda..............................................................................................................................111 Andrea...............................................................................................................................111 Harvesting the Power of Honey........................................................................................112 The Sting and Longing to “Bee”—long................................................................................115 Longing to “Bee”—long . . . Cliques and Adolescent Chicks........................................116 Teachers and Recognizing Longing to “Bee”—long........................................................118 Longing to “Bee”—long and the Power of the Queenbee................................................122 “Bee”—ing Invisible, An Outsider.......................................................................................124 “Bee”—ing an Invisible Rider..........................................................................................126 “Bee”—ing an Invisible “Nothing”..................................................................................128 “Bee”—ing an Invisible Outcast.......................................................................................130 “Bee”—ing Invisible, and New Stuff...............................................................................132 “Bee”—ing Different............................................................................................................133 “Bee”—ing Cyber-bullied....................................................................................................135 “Bee”—ing a Protective Support..........................................................................................139 “Bee”—ing a Parent..........................................................................................................139 v “Bee”—ing a Teacher.......................................................................................................141 “Bee”—ing a Friend, or Frienimie....................................................................................143 Girls, “Bee”—ing Powerful..................................................................................................145 The Buzz of Power............................................................................................................145 Power, Taking it Back.......................................................................................................147 The Clique: An Unspoken Buzz of Code Language and Code Silence................................149 “Bee”—ing Worthy, In the Clique....................................................................................152 The Sting of the Drone......................................................................................................154 “Bee”—ing Ignored..........................................................................................................156 Slowly, Healing Bullying......................................................................................................157 CHAPTER FIVE: THE HIVE: IN RETROSPECT..............................................................161 Examining the Bee and the Honey........................................................................................161 “Bee”—ing There: A Journey of Care, in Uncharted Waters..........................................163 The Flavor of the Harvested Honey..................................................................................164 “Bee”-ing and Cura..........................................................................................................165 Cura and Pedagogy...........................................................................................................167 Pedagogy: Being and Cura..............................................................................................168 “Bee”—ing Authentic....................................................................................................1700 "Bee”—ing Anxious........................................................................................................173 “Bee”—ing There . . . Making a Difference.....................................................................175 Recommendations for “Bee”—ing and Care in Pedagogy...............................................175 Longing.............................................................................................................................177 Being Invisible and Being an Outsider.............................................................................178 Differences........................................................................................................................178 Being cyber-bullied...........................................................................................................179 “Bee”—ing Transformed......................................................................................................180 Honey and Recommendations for Future Teachers..........................................................181 Bullying and Parents.........................................................................................................182 Future Research....................................................................................................................183 A Circle of Understanding................................................................................................184 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS………………………………………………………………...186 APPENDIX A………………………………………………………………………………188 APPENDIX B………………………………………………………………………………189 APPENDIX C……………………………………………………………………………… 192 APPENDIX D ………………………………………………………………………………194 REFERENCES.....................................................................................................................195 vi ABSTRACT In this hermeneutic phenomenological study, I explore the lived experience of 5 middle school girls in grades 5-9, who have experienced bullying. My question for this study asks, “What is the lived experience of adolescent girls who have experienced female bullying?” The metaphor of queenbees and wannabees has helped me understand adolescent ways of being in the world as they have been bullied. In addition, understanding the lived experience of female bullying is developed through the exploration of the phenomenological life-world themes of body, time, space, and relationality. The theme of body is examined through physical being, emotional being, and intellectual being. Lived time is explored as these females experience bullying and their perception of bullying. The theme of space surfaces from where and how they have been bullied, to the spaces in which they feel threatened or safe. The life-world of relationality is explicated through the peers and adults who surround these middle school girls. The in–depth conversations with the researcher focused on the continuing, daily experiences of these female adolescents. Themes that emerged from the text of the conversations disclose deeper meanings of what it means to be bullied: the deep desire to belong to a group; the feeling of being invisible, which includes the longing to have “new stuff;” the exclusion that accompanies being different; the helplessness of being cyber-bullied; the mighty sting of the queenbee, and the silent code language. These adolescents are, indeed, swimming in uncharted waters. I admire these brave adolescents for sharing their stories with me. And as busy as teachers may be, they need to recognize female bullying and the many forms of it hidden under the radar. Educators should encourage students to tell them when they have been bullied, or when they have been a witness to a bullying incident. Bullying vii occurs primarily at schools: the hallways, the classrooms, the playground, and while riding the bus. It is left to the legal system to answer the questions that arise from cyber-bullying that is meted out by the bully from home. Educators need to take action regarding the bully; middle school girls have the right to feel safe at school. Without the feeling of safety it will be difficult for adolescent females to reach their full potential. This study has created new pedagogical possibilities for viewing the experience of female bullying including implications for teacher in–service and school bullying policies. 1 CHAPTER ONE: TURNING TOWARD THE PHENOMENON OF BULLYING Being Called to the Middle All I ever asked for was some understanding, All I ever got as an answer Was a world too demanding. All I ever needed was some time, All I ever received Was losing everything that was mine. All I ever prayed for were some clues, All I ever felt in return were the blues. All I ever wanted was some love, All I ever received was a selfish shove. All I ever searched for was some hope, All I ever found was a joke. All I ever needed was to be free, All I ever had were chains enslaving me. All I ever got as an answer Was a world too demanding. (Esendemir, 2001, p. 21) The poem above provides us with a view into the life of one adolescent girl who has been bullied; her emotions are felt by many middle school girls, especially the victims of bullying. As I read the poem I find myself wanting to engage in a reflective conversation with her that might go like this:
Description:The list of books you might like
