Young men from disadvantaged contexts are the least likely to attend university in Australia; furthermore, when they do attend, they are likely to struggle. This article draws on empirical data documenting the aspirations and resilience of first-in-family young men in Australian higher education, with the aim of nuancing their classed experience…

As Australian higher education grapples with its colonial history, there has been significant attention to recruiting Indigenous students. However, while we have seen increases in Indigenous participation, males lag significantly behind. Very few Indigenous males enter university and even fewer enter the upper echelons of the stratified higher…

Drawing on interviews we explore the centrality of belonging to rural places, embedded within time, in shaping life as a male reader, regardless of country of origin, or generation. Place theory explored the assemblages of spaces important for 6 boys (10-11 year-olds) from Australia and 6 men (25 year-olds and 60 year-olds) from Sweden in their…

This paper considers whether societal changes are making space for some working-class boys to go against the grain and foster positive reader identities. Drawing on interviews with 30 Australian boys about their experiences at school, Nancy Fraser's social justice framework is used to explore their parity of participation as readers. Responses…

Students with AD/HD experience difficulty concentrating in the classroom due to unwanted behaviours. This article focuses on what six Australian adolescent boys have to say about teacher and teaching factors that enabled them to regain focus (if distracted) and concentrate on classroom learning. A multiple, instrumental case-study was used to…

This study explored the experiences of 32 male Aboriginal students from regional and remote towns and communities while they attended a metropolitan boarding school away from home and family in Perth, Western Australia. Using narrative interviews it specifically investigated how these Aboriginal students construct meaning around the transition…

The underrepresentation of males from particular equity groups in Australian universities continues despite recent gains in achievement. This article presents a case study of the transition of one Aboriginal student, Robbie, from a school located in the Western suburbs of Sydney to an urban Australian university. Drawing on recent theorisations of…

Within literature relating to the broad field of boys' education attention is regularly drawn to the significant difference between essentialist and anti-essentialist accounts of "the boy problem" and the limitations of gender-based educational reforms which rely upon deterministic notions of what boys are "really" like and, by…

This sociological qualitative study identifies reasons why female pre-service teachers believe males are underrepresented in primary education courses at Australian universities. The findings of the study suggest that the nineteenth century naturalistic discourse of nurturance continues to sustain the notion that primary school teaching is a…

This book presents an ethnographic study of the experiences of teenage boys in an Australian high school. It follows a group of thirteen to fifteen year olds over a period of more than two years, and seeks to understand why so many boys say they hate school yet enjoy being with one another in their daily confrontations with the formal school. The…

The invaluable use of ethnography in researching educational settings has been demonstrated through many studies and furthered by many passionate researchers. One of such leading lights is Geoffrey Walford. In this paper, Walford's discussion of groups in two public schools, as depicted in his book "Life in public schools", serves as a…

This paper focuses on what is known internationally from research about some aspects of men's learning. It explores the similar and different factors that shape men's attitudes towards learning in diverse national and cultural contexts. It also identifies some possible parallels (and differences) between the experiences, participation and outcomes…

This study investigated whether values were taught or caught in the experiences of Year 3 students in a Uniting Church school for boys. Research indicates the need for values education particularly for boys (Lovat and Schofield, 1998), the importance of the home and family in establishing a values foundation (Astill, 1998a, 1998b) and the role of…