Discarded Data
Data, if not saturated,
Often are discarded.
Data that affect are fated
To be disregarded.
*
In my BA we were all taught
Research starts with a gap.
Sara Ahmed sparked a new thought:
Why not start with a snap[1]?
*
I used a box to try to contain
Data that were troubling.
The lid came off under the strain;
Spilt, the mess was bubbling.
*
The focus on relaxation
Transformed into unrest.
To defend such deviation:
Put research skills to test.
*
Domestic violence must be stopped!
With youths’ views we will start.
Rigid gender roles must be dropped!
But kids know scripts by heart.
*
Girls know that they lack agency
Responding to violence.
A lesson learnt with blatancy:
They speak out yet silence.
*
Girls may receive, after a blue,
Band-Aids to soothe the scare.
Then taught a fairy-tale or two,
Girls become “full of care”[2].
*
Boys and girls know exactly who
Are the ones with power.
The will of boys is listened to;
Girls avoid Block Tower.
*
Fighting feels good the boys assert
Foes freeze on his command.
None of my friends or me get hurt;
Their confidence is grand.
*
By tipping out what was contained,
With Ahmed as my guide,
Insights into power are gained.
Let’s move on open-eyed.
[1] Ahmed (2017) discusses ‘snap’ in Living a Feminist Life
[2] (Ahmed, 2017, p. 24)
[3] This poem is drawn from the author’s PhD thesis: Cooke, E. (2021). Relaxation an unrest: A crystallization of children’s experiences in early childhood education and care [PhD dissertation]. University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.
[4] See also. Cooke, Emma, Coles, Laetitia, Clarke, Andrew, Thorpe, Karen, and Staton, Sally (2022). Discarded data: an Ahmedian engagement with young children’s gendered accounts of violence and power. Gender and Education 1-17. https://doi.org/10.1080/09540253.2022.2078795
Credit: Photo by Steve Johnson on Unsplash
