Welcome to My Inquiry Blog
What to Expect
This blog will be used as a space to record and reflect upon my passion project. I will be voluteering with the Sparks group (girls in K-Gr.1) of the Girl Guides program every Tuesday evening. What I hope to gain from this experience is an insight to the benefits of extra-curricular programs for youth. By observing the girls each week it will be interesting to see the changes in these girls’ relationships with one another, their leader, any myself. There could potentially even be changes in the girls’ behaviours, confidence, knowledge and skills. To further my inquiry into the topic, I hope to speak to older girls in the program and even girls who have been through the program and how they feel like they benefitted from being in the program and the things they learned.
My First Meeting
This past Tuesday, I attended my first Sparks meeting. I have never been part of the Sparks program, or any Girl Guides group, so this was a completely new experience for me.
As the Sparks began arriving, many of them seemed very enthusiastic for the meeting, with the exception of one little Spark who was quite sad and maybe a little bit scared that her mom was leaving. We began the meeting by singing the Sparks song and saying the Sparks oath, which is “I promise to share and be a friend.” Next, the Sparks worked on completing a shoelace challenge, in which they had to successfully tie a shoe, a skill they had been practicing since last week. For the remainder of the meeting the girls worked on making valentine boxes and making Valentine’s Day cards. Throughout the activities that girls truly demonstarted their Sparks oath by. sharing the materials and being friendly towards each other. Even the little Spark who was shy and sad at the begining of the meeting had now opened up and was having a great time.
This first meeting had already taught me some very important things. First, I saw how this positive environment can boost confidence and make the girls feel like they are in a safe and secure space. The little Spark who opened up throughout the meeting really reenforced this for me, being surrounded by age-alike girls who were all happy and friendly and leaders who wanted her to have fun allowed her to participate and enjoy the meeting. Secondly, with the shoelace challenge it became evident that even at this age, the Girl Guides programs is about much more than just having fun. These girls are being taught valuable life skills, which at this age consists of simple tasks that focus on making these girls more independent. I talked to Julie, the leader of the Sparks group, and she explained that right now the girls are working on physical self, which includes things like sports, yoga, and other things like that. The Sparks are also working on life studies which includes jobs and community; they willl hopefully be visiting different professionals to get a sense of what different careers are like. In this first week I have learned a lot about what the Sparks are focusing on and working towards in their meetings.
For additional inquiry this week I chose to look at some Girl Guide testimonials to get a sense of what this program does for young girls. After reading the testimonials on the Girl Guides Canada website I was absolutely blown away by the impact that program has in the lives of these girls. Most of these testimonials all had one thing in common which was the tremendous influence this program has on self-esteem and confidence. Some of the older members highlighted then how they took this new found confidence and were able to become mentors and role models to helping the younger members become confident and comfortable with who they are. Some of the older members also discussed the goal-setting nature of the program and the valuable lessons and skills they have learned. These simple testimonials really showed the impact of the program in various aspects of these girls’ lives.
Week Two – Valentine’s Day Party
This week the Sparks had their Valentine’s Day party with the Guides. The party and activities for this week were planned by some older members of the Pathfinders group. This meeting was mostly for the girls to share valentines, engage in fun games and activities, and share some treats with their friends. I even earned my first badge, for being a party animal!
For additional inquiry this week I took my inspiration from the older members taking on leadership responsibilities to plan this party for the Sparks and Guides. I chose to do some research surrounding youth leadership and here are some things I found.
As I began researching for articles pertaining to youth leadership I found a lot of articles related to developing leadership qualities and leadership programs. One article that addressed what I was looking for was one written by Daniel Gould and Dana Voelker (2012) regarding the enhancement of youth leadership through sport and physical education. While Girl Guides is not a sports-based program I believe the group setting and activity-based nature of the meetings aligns with the leadership skills that could be taught through sports and physical education and is perhaps even being taught already. What Gould and Voelker (2012) first address is that the ability for competitive sport to develop youth leadership is underutilized. Playing sports and participating in physical activity has the ability to provide leadership skills to youth if it is done properly. Participation does not foster leadership but requires “intentional effort” to provide leadership opportunities and teaching youth how to be effective in those roles (Gould & Voelker, 2012, p.38). What I saw this Tuesday with the older members leading the younger members in activities was an intentional effort by the leaders to allow for leadership opporunities for these older girls. An important finding of Gould and Voelker’s (2012) work is that “youths can and do learn to lead if leadership is intentionally developed through extracurricular activities” (p. 39). Girl Guides is an extracurricular program that focuses on empowering girls to not only participate in activities but also take the lead. By doing so this organization promotes leadership among girls and does so in an intentional way that allows the girls to learn to lead by doing so. Gould and Voelker (2012), emphasize the importance of taking a youth-centered approach when teaching leadership by having the adults give up some control and allow youth to participate in leadership. Every Sparks meeting is centered around what the girls want to do with some structure from the leader. This party was no different, instead the older girls took on full leadership roles by planning and preparing activities but the younger girls were allowed choice in when they wanted to do activities and for how long they wanted to do them.
Next week, I will see even more leadership as it is World Thinking Day in the Girl Guide community. I will even demonstarte leaership skills as I lead the girls through an opening song.
Reference
Gould, D. , & Voelker, D. (2012). Enhancing youth leadership through sport and physical education. Journal of Physical Education , Recreation & Dance 83(8), 38-41. Retrieved from https://search-proquest-com.cyber.usask.ca/docview/1095618014/abstract/BCB7B8C5835448B2PQ/1?accountid=14739
Week 3 – World Thinking Day
This week for Girl Guides they celebrated World Thinking Day which takes place every year, all around the world in different Girl Guides and Scouts organizations on February 22. The Sparks and Guides groups joined together for this meeting and took a trip to each of the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS) world centers. To begin, two other leaders and I led the girls through a song about World Thinking Day and the world centers. The leaders worked to put together a poster containing information on each of the world centers and the countries they are located in which include, Switzerland, India, England, South Africa, and Mexico. The girls had paper passports that were stamped at every country and participated in a different craft to represent each country and in the end got to taste a snack from each as well. This was a very engaging and hands-on way for the girls to experience a little bit about the different cultures and engage in learning about diversity among fellow Girl Guide groups.
There are two things that I chose to do as further inquiry this week which before the meeting included learning more about World Thinking Day and one thing that sparked my interest during the meeting. One of the other leaders and I were talking about selling cookies which is ultimately a big part of Girl Guides but she told me about how much of a bigger thing it is in the United States. What she said was that the Girl Scouts in America will actually do the ordering of the cookies themselves, create a marketing plan to sell the cookies, etc. and in high school, they may even earn an entrepreneurship credit for this work. I thought this was a really interesting idea and I wanted to do more research into it this week.
Starting with more inquiry into World Thinking Day. This day has been celebrated since 1926 to offer girls an opportunity to reflect on issues facing young women some groups will also use this as an opportunity to fundraise for Girl Guides organizations. Fundraising was not exactly the focus of World Thinking Day in the group I was part of but it is also interesting to see what other groups do to celebrate. A look into the more in-depth history of Thinking Day provided me with more information on how this celebration came to be. At the 4th World conference, delegates from around the globe decided that there should be a special day set aside for Girl Guides and Scouts to “think of each other and express their thanks and appreciation for [the] international movement” (WAGGGS, 2020, p. 4). February 22 was the chosen day as it was the birthday of founding Boy Scouts and Girl Guide and Scout individuals, Lord Baden-Powell and Olave Baden-Powell, respectively. (WAGGGS, 2020). This year’s World Thinking Day guide was entitled “Living Threads” with themes centred around diversity, equity, and inclusion (WAGGGS, 2020). WAGGGS put together a resource that could be used by leaders to engage in activities related to these themes. For the girls to earn their World Thinking Day badge they had to complete one activity from each of the 3 themes. Our group completed these activities by visiting each World Centre. A variety of different activities are provided within this resource so leaders can choose activities based on the interests of their groups. Overall, World Thinking Day is a chance for girls to learn about different Guides and Scouts groups from around the world and appreciate the Girl Guide movement as a whole.
More information on the US Girl Scouts cookie-selling campaign. Cookie selling in the United States is a 6-8 week-long campaign that is usually held sometime between January and April. There are many resources provided to the girls on how to successfully sell cookies available on the Girl Scouts website. Some of these materials include safety guidelines, marketing tools, charts and posters for cookie selling booths, etc. What was most interesting for me was the Financial Empowerment K-12 program document. This program aims to create financially empowered leaders among the Girl Scouts with five ways to do just that including: learning by earning, expanding business skills, building money savvy, developing innovative thinking, and inspiring girls in the digital space (Girl Scouts, n.d.). Furthermore, this document outlines skills and curricula for different aspects of cookie selling. The five outlined skills this program focuses on are goal setting, decision making, money management, people skills, and business ethics (Girl Scouts, n.d.). These then become transferrable skills that the girls take with them past the program into future employment possibilities. Innovation, cookie business, and financial literacy all contribute to the entrepreneurship program.
What I think is really interesting about the US cookie selling is the basis of entrepreneurship within it. Girl Scouts take on leadership roles to sell cookies which in turn supports other activities. An article written by Rachel Sugar takes a look at the various aspects of cookie selling and highlights that 100% of the money from cookie-selling stays within local troops and is divided up as they see fit (Sugar, 2019). For the most part, the revenue is split between funding cookie production and supporting programs for the girls. Sugar (2019) points out that this campaign is about much more than just selling cookies and highlights some statistics that show that more than half of female entrepreneurs and business owners are Girl Scout alums and that the majority of females elected to Congress were once Girl Scouts. These statistics truly highlight the value of the transferable skills these girls are getting through the cookie selling program. The five skills that this program focuses on sets girls up for a lifetime of success no matter what career they choose to pursue.
References:
WAGGGS. 2020. Living threads: Diversity, equity, and inclusion. Retrieved from https://duz92c7qaoni3.cloudfront.net/documents/WAGGGS_WTD2020_EN-WEB.pdf
Girl Scouts. n.d. Financial empowerment K-12 program. https://www.girlscouts.org/program/gs_cookies/pdf/2012_Financial_Empowerment_spreads.pdf
Sugar, R. 2019, January 24. How Girl Scout cookies captured the heart of America. Vox. https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2019/1/24/18195824/girl-scout-cookies-explained-thin-mints-buy
Week 4 – Visiting the Agriculture Greenhouse
This week the Sparks had their meeting at the Agriculture greenhouse on campus. The purpose behind this visit was for the Sparks to learn about science, plants, and bugs. During this visit the girls saw a variety of plants like wheat, peas, and beans and learned about the experiments that the greenhouse is conducting with them. Additionally, the girls got to see some tropical plants which included banana trees – even ones with pink bananas – papyas, passion fruit, and a large variety of succulents. The girls were then given the opportunity to take a cutting from a plant of their choosing and replant it and place it inside a mini greenhouse for them to take home.
Week 5 – Snowshoeing!
We took advantage of the warmer weather today and went snowshoeing! There was some struggles to get the girls going; snowshoeing is harder than it looks when you’re little and have never done it before. Once they got the hang out it they were able to go for a walk down a little trail, up hills, and through all the snow. Everyone had a great time!
Week 6 – The Unexpected End 😦
This week there was no Girl Guides meeting due to the recent situation surrounding COVID-19 all meetings are suspended. It is very unfortunate to not be able to learn and experience more things with these young girls. I will take my experiences with this group as I shift my focus a little bit for my inquiry project. Now, I will be looking at the Teen Mental Health curriculum and seeing how a curriculum like this could be used in a program such as Girl Guides. I will continue to post about the journey on this blog, but most of my learning will be presented in my final powerpoint and written reflection paper.
Continuing On…
Not much has changed in terms of my project thus far, I have just started going through the Teen Mental health curriculum. This is a great resource and I am already seeing a lot of connections on how something like this could be implemented into the Girl Guides program, maybe not fully into the Sparks group but definitely in older groups. I sure do miss spending time with those little Sparks, though!
Follow My Blog
Get new content delivered directly to your inbox.
411 Inquiry Project 