Boys Don't Try? Rethinking Masculinity in Schools

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Limiting boys’ exposure also has the clear knock-on effect of preventing boys from building cultural capital and promoting dominant ideas about masculinity. I thought things would be different in Devon – but it’s not so different, and it’s not all to do with class. Competitive lessons create losers not just winners, leading to boys’ withdrawal from academic competition as a self-protection strategy: “if I haven’t tried, I haven’t really failed”. A must-read for all black aspiring school leaders and anyone in a position to support their ambition, says Jess.

As I mentioned in a previous blog post, I decided to try out Gretchen Rubin’s strategy of pairing in an attempt to develop the habit of going for a walk every day. In fact, even in the working-class boys group, there has been a narrowing of the gap – for example, in relation to early school-leaving. Some boys, believing that they’ll never get recognition for any academic output, will try to seek attention by playing up in class. What we need is a big shift in ethos: too many teachers believe boys can do less, they don’t think boys can succeed as well as girls at school. Chapter 8: Violence– Some really thought-provoking questions asked as part of a suggested approach for dealing with violence in schools: Explanation – Reflection – Expression (E-R-E).With humility, but not the masochism that sometimes goes with teachers’ blogs, they trace the changes that experience has required of their thinking and practice. The pressure for boys to gain acceptance in peer groups over academic achievement are weighed against teacher bias, gender stereotypes and the influence of pornography, as the foundations of misogyny in UK schools and society are explored.

yes thats all dandy, but male suicide is almost nothing to do with men not talking, rather it is life experiences that disproportionately affect men and also a massive lack of resources, funding, and overall compassion. Appreciated the mention of teacher modelling openly talking about their emotions and shoulder-shoulder talks, which made me think of a Pivotal podcast that I listened to in my first year of teaching and has stayed with me since. The Education Endowment Foundation found that “overall, setting or streaming appears to benefit higher attaining pupils and be detrimental to the learning of mid-range and lower attaining learners”.So, next time a boy is acting up in class, do your best to remain calm and quiet as you address the problem, even if inside you’re shouting and swearing like a sailor who’s trod on an upturned plug. So, in the spirit of the book, here are a few examples of times I too think I have fallen into these gender traps and how I am now ‘rethinking’ them. The seating plan section made me laugh… creating a seating plan really should feature on teacher education courses! It is an area of Sociology that Iam particularly passionate about and the insights that students provide when we discuss this topic are endlessly fascinating! Then we matched them to the 12 features of high-quality lessons identified by Bruce Robertson in The Teaching Delusion as well as Rosenshine’s Principles.

Boys’ underachievement permeates education; it’s not just a class issue, linked to deprivation, they say. Despite the continued debunking of the learning styles theory, the notion that boys benefit from kinaesthetic activities persists. 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.Interesting section talking about the use of language and how we can address inappropriate language being used. Or he would play to their perceived strengths and interests and find pieces of writing for the boys to analyse based on football and boxing.