International Encyclopedia of Men and Masculinities
Education has traditionally been a selection mechanism for reproducing the dominant social and economic role of men in society. However, there is now a concern in many education systems that boys are not succeeding in school as much as they should. This conclusion is usually based on comparisons with the performance of girls, though some have questioned whether this is an adequate explanation for the recent prominence of debates about the education of boys (Griffin 2000).
Emphases on boys’ education in policy and research have arisen particularly from concerns about boys’ disruptive behaviour in the classroom, their reluctance to engage in such ‘feminine’ activities as literature and the arts, and, almost universally in Western countries, lower literacy achievement and school retention rates.
Literacy in particular has received much attention, where international studies show that boys’ literacy performance is on average lower than that of girls, although boys perform better on mathematical literacy. These traditional patterns are problematic as they reflect and reproduce stereotypically narrow curriculum choices by many boys and girls.
In the case of boys, these outcomes are seen as incompatible with employment trends towards professional, service and culture industries which require a more literate workforce.
Explanations of these problems are varied (Weaver-Hightower 2003). Some have argued that they are biological, though this argument fails to explain historical and cultural differences. Others accuse educators of ignoring the needs of boys in favour of promoting equity for girls, or blame ‘feminised’ pedagogies, curricula and female-dominated teaching. Avoiding gender essentialism, a more balanced approach recognises the varied needs of different boys arising from the construction of masculine identities and how these relate to the cultures of schooling (Gilbert and Gilbert 1998). This has led to increasing recognition of the intersections between the construction of masculinities and the experience of other forms of identity and difference, especially race and sexuality (Lesko 2000; Martino and Meyenn 2001).
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