Generating data from small group interviews with 41 boys aged 10-11 years from two London schools in 2022, this paper contributes to the field of gender by introducing a new form of non-hegemonic and positive masculinity, which I am calling 'blended' masculinity, and which was the most common formation in each school. Although its features…

The past two decades has seen widespread academic and public concern about boys' academic achievement and the emergence of discourses that identify girls as academic 'winners' in the primary classroom; however, this article aims to problematise these trends. Drawing on ethnographic research carried out in a primary school classroom in London, this…

In recent years, male students at UK schools and universities have been falling behind their female peers in academic achievement. Previous studies have shown that male students are less likely than female students to seek academic help, but have not investigated the relationship between gender-typical attitudes and reluctance to seek academic…

Science education has a seemingly intractable gender problem and remains largely the reserve of White, middle-class men and boys, especially in the physical sciences. In this paper, taking an intersectional approach to Butler's idea of identity as performance, we explore the affordances and limitations of a specific science learning space (a…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to consider how working-class boys constitute themselves as subjects of "value" through a close examination of their occupational aspirations. The authors consider two significant influences on the aspirations of these young men: "space" and "place"; and neoliberal discourses…

This paper examines the relationship between 'aspiration' and identity as rendered within discourses of power. Focusing on the deeply ingrained values of a group of 23 white working-class boys from South London (aged 14-16), the research critically considers the conception of power within a neoliberal era which produces both new subjectivities and…

In this paper, we explore how what we term "sext education" pedagogies intersect with young people's understandings of, and talk about, sexting through a feminist analysis of two cyber-safety campaign films: "Tagged" from Australia and "Exposed" from the UK. The films tell alarming stories about the ways in which…

In the US and UK, Black fatherhood has long been steeped in narratives of pathology. Despite the promotion of nuanced understandings of Black fatherhood in recent scholarship, research on Black fathers' positive engagement with urban schools remains remarkably limited. This article adds to the literature by highlighting the strategies Black…

Recent research suggests that trans* pupils are subject to much trans-exclusionary practice in schools and find there is little positive change in attitudes, despite statutory requirements and greater recognition of trans* identities. This paper explores the ways in which two female to male trans* pupils in a London girls' school were excluded in…

This article traces links between subjectivity, peer relations and neighbourhood risk for a group of boys living in an area of London with high levels of crime, gang activity and socio-economic inequality. Drawing on data from a qualitative study of young people and neighbourhood risk, we use a psycho-social approach to analyse how gendered…

Gender distinction has been shown to characterise both undergraduate experiences and outcomes. Yet research recounted in this article supports work that shows that young people are often unaware of such trends, subscribing instead to individualist perspectives that foreground equality of opportunity and agency. This article examines the gender…

As an opinionated and often challenging class of year 10 boys, they demonstrated a strong sense of their identity as a group of "bright boys". One of their English teachers described the class as "boisterous, but very motivated--they love discussing texts", but she also recognised their tendency to "descend into…

This paper is about how 9-11-year-old children, particularly girls, co-construct tomboy and girly-girl identities as oppositional positions. The paper sits within a theoretical framework in which I understand individual and collective masculinities and femininities as ways of "doing man/woman" or "doing boy/girl" that are…

This article considers the responsibility for schoolboys' behaviour and character when in liminal spaces between home and school, in an historical account of the annual cricket matches in London between Eton, Harrow and Winchester in the late 1850s. The episode is situated in the context of the Clarendon Commission's discussions on school sports,…

Drawing on ESRC-funded research (RES-000-22-0832), this article examines the accounts of men participating in London access and foundation programs in relation to their shifting masculine identifications. The author considers how the men's early memories of schooling shape their student masculinities. Their accounts are contextualized in relation…