Dr Sheryl Clark
Staff details
Sheryl Clark is a researcher and lecturer in the field of educational studies with interests in gender, sport, identities, youth, schooling and girlhood. In particular, Sheryl’s research makes use of qualitative methods working with children and young people in schools and other physical activity settings. Sheryl’s work draws on poststructural perspectives to consider processes of social identification in relation to learning, gender and achievement in schooling and other contexts. Her work critically interrogates the discursive effects of health and achievement codes on children and young people’s embodied subjectivities with particular attention to social inequalities.
Academic qualifications
- PhD in Educational Studies, Goldsmiths 2010
- MA in Cultural Anthropology, University of British Columbia 2006
- BA in Cultural Anthropology, University of Calgary 2001
Teaching and Supervision
BA Education, Culture and Society, MA Education, Culture, Language and Identity, PhD and MA supervision.
Research interests
Girls into Skateboarding (2021-)
Girlhood and Athletics (2017)
Evaluation of a Widening Participation Initiative (2013)
Children's Learner Identities in Mathematics at Key Stage 2 (2007)
Tomboy Identities in Primary School (2006)
Publications and research outputs
Book
Clark, Sheryl. 2021. Sporty Girls: Gender, Health and Achievement in a Postfeminist Era. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan/Springer. ISBN 9783030672485
Book Section
Clark, Sheryl. 2020. Responsible Girlhood and 'Healthy' Anxieties in Britain: Girls' Bodily Learning in School Sport. In: Liza Tsaliki and Despina Chronaki, eds. Discourses of Anxiety over Childhood and Youth across Cultures. Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 119-142. ISBN 9783030464356
Paechter, Carrie F. and Clark, Sheryl. 2010. Schoolgirls and power/knowledge economies : using knowledge to mobilize social power. In: Carolyn Jackson; Carrie F. Paechter and Emma Renold, eds. Girls and Education 3-16 : Continuing Concerns, New Agendas. Berkshire, UK: Open University Press, pp. 117-128. ISBN 9780335235629
Article
Clark, Sheryl and Sayers, Esther. 2023. Skateparks as communities of care: the role of skateboarding in girls’ and non-binary youth’s mental health recovery during lockdown. Pedagogy, Culture and Society, ISSN 1468-1366
Francombe-Webb, Jessica; Clark, Sheryl and Palmer, Laura. 2020. Embodying Sporty Girlhood: Health and the Enactment of "Successful" Femininities. Thresholds in Education, 43(1), pp. 33-49. ISSN 0196-9641
Clark, Sheryl. 2018. Fitness, fatness and healthism discourse: girls constructing ‘healthy’ identities in school. Gender and Education, 30(4), pp. 477-493. ISSN 0954-0253
Paechter, Carrie F. and Clark, Sheryl. 2016. Being ‘nice’ or being ‘normal’: girls resisting discourses of ‘coolness’. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 37(3), pp. 457-471. ISSN 0159-6306
Clark, Sheryl; Mountford-Zimdars, Anna and Francis, Becky. 2015. Risk, Choice and Social Disadvantage: Young People’s Decision-Making in a Marketised Higher Education System. Sociological Research Online, 20(3), pp. 110-123. ISSN 1360-7804
Clark, Sheryl. 2015. Running into trouble: constructions of danger and risk in girls' access to outdoor space and physical activity. Sport, Education and Society, 20(8), pp. 1012-1028. ISSN 1357-3322
Conference or Workshop Item
Clark, Sheryl. 2015. '"I don't want to be skinny, I just want to be fit' Healthism discourse and girls' participation in physical activity'. In: Feminisms, Power and Pedagogy: 10th Biennial Conference of the Gender and Education Association. University of Roehampton, United Kingdom.
Thesis
Clark, Sheryl. 2010. Girlhood, Sport and Physical Activity: The Construction of Young Femininities in the Transition to Secondary School. Doctoral thesis, Goldsmiths, University of London
Further profile content
Featured publications
2021:
Sporty Girls: Gender, Health and Achievement in a Postfeminist Era
Book
2020:
Responsible Girlhood and 'Healthy' Anxieties in Britain: Girls' Bodily Learning in School Sport
Book chapter
2020:
Embodying Sporty Girlhood: Health and the Enactment of "Successful" Femininities
Journal article
2018:
Fitness, fatness and healthism discourse: girls constructing 'healthy' identities in school
Journal article
2015:
Risk, Choice and Social Disadvantage: Young People's Decision-Making in a Marketised Higher Education System
Journal article
