Improving the academic and social outcomes of boys -- specifically boys from low-SES backgrounds -- remains of international importance. With this in mind, research continues to document the ways in which relational learning is integral for the well-being of students, specifically those students in disadvantaged school contexts. This paper focuses…

Within the social imaginary of Australia's dominant 'White' culture, ethnic minority men, particularly Muslim men, are often depicted as 'folk devils,' resistant to the cultural norms of mainstream society. Muslim masculinities have been problematically conflated with notions of radicalisation, terrorism and violent extremism. There has been…

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…

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…

Female underrepresentation in postcompulsory physics is an ongoing issue for science education research, policy, and practice. In this article, we apply Bourdieusian and Butlerian conceptual lenses to qualitative and quantitative data collected as part of a wider longitudinal study of students' science and career aspirations age 10-16. Drawing on…

This article addresses the idea of "failure" of young black males with respect to schooling. Perceptions of black masculinity are often linked to "underperformance" in the context of school academic achievement. This article addresses how young black men, by great personal effort, recover from school "failure". It…

An essentialist, "traditional", Maasai gender ideology that poorly reflects the day-to-day gender realities of residents is being reproduced and dominating in the modern schooling setting of a Maasai community in Southern Kenya. Through an ethnographic analysis based on long-term fieldwork and mixed-method approaches, this paper explores…

China has seen dramatic transformations in ideals of femininity since the 1970s. This article explores what it entails for young women of the only-child generation to construct "modern" womanhood within a context of multiple and conflicting gender discourses. Based on life history interviews in Beijing, the article shows that both a…

During the last few decades, the South Wales Valleys (UK) have undergone a considerable economic, social, cultural and political transformation, altering youth transitions from school to work. Drawing on a two and a half year ethnographic study, in the paper I concentrate on a group of academically successful young white working-class men aged…

There is international concern over persistent low rates of participation in postcompulsory science--especially the physical sciences--within which there is a notable underrepresentation of girls/women. This paper draws on data collected from a survey of more than 9,000 10/11-year-old pupils and 170 interviews (with 92 children and 78 parents)…

In this article, I explore men's educational experiences and aspirations in the context of UK policy discourses of widening participation and migration. Critiquing discourses that oversimplify gendered access to higher education, I develop an analysis of the impact of masculine subjectivities on processes of subjective construction in relation to…

I explore the question of men's participation in higher education (HE) in relation to shifting, discursive and intersecting masculine subjectivities by drawing on qualitative interviews with men participating in HE. The paper contributes to a sociological understanding of the impact of masculine subjectivities on higher educational participation…

Raising aspirations has been identified as a key strategy for widening educational participation in lifelong learning policy. This article deconstructs the hegemonic discourse of raising aspirations through Economic and Social Research Council-funded research on men, masculinities and higher educational access and participation.The article…

Examined the commonly expressed ambition of African Canadian male youth to win athletic scholarships to U.S. universities, noting why they believed it was possible to realize these aspirations. Data from conversations with African Canadian male high school basketball players indicated that students used strategies, such as attending the right…

In recent years there has been an international backlash against the status of girls as learners, with many people asserting that boys are suffering from new forms of educational disadvantage as girls achieve academically. This paper develops the notion of the space-between, a heuristic device to analyze and explain girls' experiences of…