Despite research linking dominant masculinities to the disengagement of some boys from schooling, men teachers appear to be either unaware of the related literature, or reluctant to engage in behaviours that have increased their vulnerability to accusations of sexual abuse or homosexuality. A small study of men teachers in England, Sweden and New…

This article examines different forms of voluntary risk-taking behaviour amongst young people living and learning in a risk society. It draws on research conducted with a Scottish dance-education company and a synthesis of Elisian, Bakhtinian and Bourdieusian theories. It argues that risk-taking may be particularly alluring in "societies of…

The analytical focus in this article is on how social categories intersect in daily school life and how intersections intertwine with other empirically relevant categories such as normality, pupilness and (in)appropriatedness. The point of empirical departure is a daily ritual where teams for football are selected. The article opens up for a…

Little is known about adolescent boys' motives for dating, although stereotypical portrayals highlight a desire for sexual behavior. This issue was examined from a normative perspective that connected dating motives to intercourse motives, masculinity, and dating and sexual behaviors. Data from 105 racially and economically diverse 10th-grade boys…

The notion that teachers' classroom behaviour and interaction with pupils may be predicted on the basis of their gender underpins recent controversial campaigns to recruit more male teachers in the UK. Teachers' performances of gender are explored in this article, which draws on three cases from a larger study to analyse the ways in which teachers…

Much research has been conducted on young men attending college and instruments have been developed based on quantitative data from this population. There is little information, however, about young non-collegiate men. Nearly half of the 1.5 million men completing high school in the U.S. in 2007 elected not to pursue college upon completion of…

This article reports findings from an ethnographic study of the literacy practices of a group of 11-14 year-old Black males who defined themselves as "the cool kids." The study is framed using theories that view literacy as a social and cultural practice involving multiple sign and symbol systems. Two research questions guided the study: How did…

This study explored the nature and performance of masculinity portrayed in popular young adult novels featuring female protagonists. Although all had their limitations, the novels offered more complex renderings of gendered identity in the lives of female and male adolescent characters, addressed the effects of enforced traditional masculinity,…

Internationally, both in popular and scientific media, debates occasionally emerge concerning the possible (negative) consequences of feminisation tendencies in the teaching staff. In these discussions, various assumptions about the "nature" of male and female teachers and masculinity and femininity are expressed. Male and female teachers are…

This article examines a series of historical examples drawn from antiquity in order to describe some basic organisational parameters which have continued to inform modern concepts of teaching and learning. The author adopts an analytic method modelled on the work of the philosopher Luce Irigaray, in an effort to demonstrate how sexual difference…

This article explores the complex struggles associated with intersections of class, rurality and masculinity, and the ways in which such intersections work to preserve a gendered status quo within and beyond school communities in Australia. Drawing on the stories of Monica and Phoebe, two teachers who understand schooling as a site of…

This paper examines the impact of gender on white middle-class parents' anxiety about choosing inner-city comprehensives and their children's subsequent experiences within school, particularly in relation to social mixing. Drawing on interview data from an ESRC funded study of white middle-class parents whose children attend inner-city…

Human handedness, a marker for language lateralization in the brain, continues to attract great research interest. A widely reported but not universal finding is a greater male tendency toward left-handedness. Here the authors present a meta-analysis of k = 144 studies, totaling N = 1,787,629 participants, the results of which demonstrate that the…

Whilst there is a growing body of literature considering the different settings in which young children spend their time, less explored is how children travel to and from the different everyday spaces of childhood. Although research on gendered carescapes has identified the central role of mothers in caring for and escorting children, as well as…

This article examines recent claims by Jeffrey Smith that: (1) "hegemonic masculinity" is an expression of working class counter-school culture; (2) some teachers are "cultural accomplices" in constructing "hegemonic masculinities" of anti-school working class boys, thereby contributing to their underachievement; and (3) these "cultural…