Boys Don't Try? Rethinking Masculinity in Schools

Product Information

As Roberts and Pinkett make clear throughout Boys Don’t Try, high expectations are far more useful to build student self-esteem. Similar classes I’ve taught more recently have completed the same tasks as top sets, with often just as good results. Again supporting Roberts’ assertion that setting is rarely just about ability.

Myths abound: engage boys by introducing a competitive element to your lessons; engage boys by using technology; engage boys by choosing topics that are relevant to their own lives… the list goes on. It can be concluded, then, that boys’ underachievement at school, and the social, biological and cultural forces that give rise to it, form part of a worrying trajectory for boys as they mature and become men.Our book, Boys Don’t Try? Rethinking Masculinity in Schools was born out of a response to the snake-oil solutions to raising male achievement that proliferate much of the discourse around boys and their relative academic underachievement in comparison to girls. Similarly, the author makes a cogent argument for not making all boys’ learning “relevant”. First, he refers to cognitive social scientist Daniel T Willingham’s example of how content doesn’t always drive interest. For instance, we’ve all attended an event or lecture we thought would be boring but ended up being fascinating. To get boys putting pen to paper, teachers need to have relentless high expectations when it comes to what you want them to produce. Stephanie Keenan is head of English at Ruislip High School. She blogs here and tweets @HeadofEnglish Refusing to produce what you deem to be an adequate amount of work in a given time frame is an act of defiance and should be treated as such.

Chapter 10: Other Voices– This was a slightly different chapter made up of short sections written by a variety of authors – teachers, leaders and parents – each with very their own stories to tell. I had to listen to this again (not on a walk) to take a note of all the quotes in it! Here Roberts explores anumber of reasons why this is problematic. One reason is that boys get bored of things that interest them eventually. Willingham ( 2009) in Why Don’t Students Like School? states: The Teaching Delusion: Why teaching in our schools isn’t good enough (and how we can make it better) by Bruce Robertson Learning in a home and school environment where the benefit of academic work is encouraged and a work ethic is valued gives students the confidence that comes with the expectation to do better; to achieve. The fact is, these myths, like all myths, are totally fallacious. If teachers really want to improve outcomes for boys, then they need to build positive relationships with them. We recommend the following steps to getting boys on side: 1 | Avoid confrontationThe Research Schools Network is anetwork of schools that support the use of evidence to improve teaching practice. We need to change the negative labelling of ‘masculinity’. The phrase ‘toxic masculinity’ is counterproductive and highly charged. Instead, the authors advocate language such as ‘tender’ and ‘non-tender’ masculinity. Tenderness carries with it connotations of sincerity, vulnerability, openness and strength. Too often, anti-social behaviour is described away as being ‘toxically masculine’, whereas it is simply anti-social. Be clear on exactly what you want everybody to produce and praise boys discreetly when they meet your demands.