The Resources and strategies boys use to establish status in a junior school without competetive sport

The data in this paper comes from an ethnographically-based study of Year 6 (10-11 year old) boys in an English junior school. It investigates the resources and strategies used and created by the boys to classify themselves, and to construct and perform their masculinity in a tightly regulated school where competitive sport (including playground football) is prohibited for the majority of the school year. The paper considers the relationship between the formal school culture and informal pupil culture, and, in particular, the options open, limited and closed to the boys to construct their masculinities and establish status/prestige within their immediate peer-group. One option open was being able to work hard in class without peer reprovement, but despite the limitation of competitive games/sport, the most favoured form of masculine status was still exemplified by embodied forms of athleticism and physicality. The paper also explores another way of gaining status which was by a form of verbal abuse known as ‘cussing’: this was a pervasive and prevalent part of school life, and is viewed as another form of competitive, stylised, performance

Needing to be 'in the know': strategies of subordination used by 10-11 year-old schoolboys

It is important for educators to understand the tactics used in subordination between young people if they are going to take effective measures to counter them in their pedagogical practice. This paper explores strategies used by school boys aged 10-11 to subordinate and position boys at the bottom of the pupil hierarchy. The findings are based on data gathered from a year long empirical study (between 1998 and 1999) set in three UK junior schools which were differentiated by the social characteristics of their intake. The research emphasises the role of the body in the construction of masculinity. The hegemonic, or most idealised, form of masculinity at each school was constructed around activity and, in particular, various forms of embodied physicality/athleticism (exemplified through skill, strength, fitness and speed), and boys who did not wish to, or who were unable to, use these resources generally found themselves marginalised and/or subordinated. Many of the subordinated forms were symbolically assimilated to femininity, and the paper proposes that the main strategies of subordination can be summarised under the generic heading of ‘difference’. The final section discusses the pervasive use of homophobia, and concludes that it should be conceptualised in terms of gender as well as sex

The resources and strategies that 10-11 year-old boy use to construct masculinities in the school setting

The data in this paper comes from an ethnographic exploration into the construction of masculinities in three junior schools in the UK between 1998 and 1999. I argue that the construction and performance of masculinity is inextricably linked to the acquisition of status within the school peer group, and I delineate the specific series of resources and strategies that the boys draw on and use in each setting to achieve this. The different meanings and practices at each school, and the different array of resources available, means that there are a different set of options and/or opportunities within each school setting to do boy, and I classify these as being either open (possible), restricted (more difficult), or closed (almost impossible). The principal and most esteemed resource used by the boys was physicality and athleticism, and I highlight the link between masculinity and the body

Teachers' attempts to integrate research-based principles into the teaching of numeracy with post-16 learners

This paper describes some outcomes of a nine-month design-based research study into the professional development of 24 numeracy teachers with post-16 learners. The teachers were encouraged to integrate eight research-based teaching principles into their classroom practices as they implemented a set of discussion-based mathematics learning resources. A mixed methods approach was used to evaluate the outcomes, including interviews and classroom observation. The paper examines: teachers’ perceptions of the project; the reasons why they found some pedagogical principles more difficult to incorporate than others and the factors that enabled and impeded their use of the learning resources. In particular it is noted that the principles that teachers considered to be most important were not the ones that they were observed using most effectively. The paper concludes by considering the implications of the research for initial and continuing teacher education