Background: There is widespread agreement that participation in post-compulsory physics needs to be widened and increased, particularly among women and under-represented communities. This paper contributes to understanding of the processes that produce unequal participation, Methods: The paper undertakes a Bourdieusian analysis of longitudinal…

Introduces a special issue that is positioned against the backdrop of the current "boys in crisis" debate. It focuses on how the articles address embodied identities and material inequalities; social mobility and working class femininities; resisting individualism and rationality; power and responsibility; masculinity and the middle class; and…

Discusses how to theorize diverse, working-class male students' masculinities within an inner-city, multicultural context. Data from discussions with boys at one inner-city London school are used to illustrate the boys' complex constructions of culturally entangled masculinities. Examines boys' constructions of "bad boy" masculinities…