Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Success, Class, and Masculinities

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Working-Class Boys and Educational Success

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Gender and Education ((GED))

  • 658 Accesses

Abstract

This chapter is divided into two strands: the first focuses on social class and educational success (specifically for young men), and the second focuses on masculinity and educational success. It begins by reflecting on the classic studies of working-class boys’ resistance to education, from Willis’ (1977) oft-cited text Learning to Labour: How Working-Class Kids Get Working-Class Jobs to Brown’s (1987) Schooling Ordinary Kids. In doing this it prefaces key debates on resistance to schooling that emerged from studies of working-class boys in the 1970s and 1980s, before moving on to discuss taking a sensitive approach to researching class and masculinity. The chapter then turns to a discussion of ways of constructing and framing masculinity.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 99.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 129.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Abraham, J. (2008). Back to the future on gender and anti-school boys: A response to Jeffrey Smith. Gender and Education, 20(1), 89–94.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Archer, L., & Yamashita, H. (2003a). ‘Knowing their limits’? Identities, inequalities and inner-city school leavers’ post-16 aspirations. Journal of Education Policy, 18, 53–69.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Archer, L., & Yamashita, H. (2003b). Theorising inner-city masculinities: ‘Race’, class, gender and education. Gender and Education, 15(2), 115–132.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Archer, L., Hollingworth, S., & Halsall, A. (2007). ‘University’s not for me – I’m a Nike person’: Urban, working-class young people’s negotiations of ‘style’, identity and educational engagement. Sociology, 41, 219–237.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Arnot, M. (2004). Working class masculinities, schooling and social justice: Reconsidering the sociological significance of Paul Willis’ learning to labour. In G. Dimitriades & N. Dolby (Eds.), Learning to labour in new times. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bourdieu, P. (2001). Masculine Domination. Stanford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bourdieu, P. (2004). Science of science and reflexivity. Cambridge: Polity.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bourdieu, P., & Passeron, J. (1990). Reproduction in education, society and culture (2nd ed.). London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bourdieu, P., & Wacquant, L. (1992). An invitation to reflexive sociology. Cambridge: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bowles, S., & Gintis, H. (1976). Schooling in capitalist America: Educational reform and the contradictions of economic life. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

    Google Scholar 

  • Braddock, K. (2010, November 12). From lad to 4D man: The ever-changing face of modern masculinity. G2 section of the Guardian, p. 10.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brown, P. (1987). Schooling ordinary kids. New York: Tavistock.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carrigan, T., Connell, B., & Lee, J. (1985). Towards a new sociology of masculinity. Theory and Society, 14(5), 551–604.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Connell, R. W. (1989). Cool guys, swots and wimps: The interplay of masculinity and education. Oxford Review of Education, 15(3), 291–303.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Connell, R. W. (1995). Masculinities. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Connell, R. (2000). The men and the boys. Cambridge: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Connell, R. W., & Messerschmidt, J. W. (2005). Hegemonic masculinity: Rethinking the concept. Gender & Society, 19(6), 829–859.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Connolly, P. (2004). Boys and schooling and the early years. Abingdon: Routledge Falmer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Connolly, P., & Healy, J. (2004). Symbolic violence, locality and social class: The educational and career aspirations of 10–11-year-old boys in Belfast. Pedagogy, Culture and Society, 12, 15–33.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Connolly, P., & Neill, J. (2001). Constructions of locality and gender and their impact on the educational aspirations of working class children. International Studies in Sociology of Education, 11, 107–129.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Corrigan, P. (1979). Schooling the smash street kids. London: Macmillan.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Delamont, S. (2000). The anomalous beasts: Hooligans and the sociology of education. Sociology, 34(1), 95–111.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Donaldson, M. (1993). What is hegemonic masculinity? Theory and Society, 22, 643–657.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Epstein, D. (1997). Boyz’ own stories: Masculinities and sexualities in schools. Gender and Education, 9(1), 105–116.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Francis, B. (1999). Lads, lasses and (new) labour: 14–16 year-old students’ responses to the ‘laddish behavior and boys’ underachievement’ debate. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 20, 355–371.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gough, B., Hall, M., & Seymour-Smith, S. (2014). Straight guys do wear make-up: Contemporary masculinities and investment in appearance. In S. Roberts (Ed.), Debating modern masculinities: Change, continuity, crisis? (pp. 106–124). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Griffin, C. (2005). Whatever happened to the (likely) lads? ‘Learning to Labour’ 25 years on. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 6(2), 291–297.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hargreaves, D. H. (1967). Social relations in a secondary school. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Ingram, N. (2009). Working-class boys, educational success and the misrecognition of working-class culture. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 30(4), 431–434.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ingram, N. (2011). Within school and beyond the gate: The difficulties of being educationally successful and working-class. Sociology, 45(7), 287–302.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ingram, N. (2017). “I’m not just one type of person”. Aspirational working-class Belfast boys and complex embodied performances of educationally successful masculinities. In G. Stahl & D. Wallace (Eds.), Masculinity and aspiration in an era of neoliberal education. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ingram, N., & Waller, R. (2014). Degrees of masculinity. In S. Roberts (Ed.), Debating modern masculinities: Change, continuity, crisis? (pp. 35–51). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jackson, C. (2002). Laddishness as a self-worth protection strategy. Gender and Education, 14(1), 37–50.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jackson, C. (2003). Motives for laddishness at school: Fear of failure and fear of the ‘feminine’. British Journal of Sociology of Education, I29(4), 583–598.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jackson, C. (2010). ‘I’ve been sort of laddish with them … one of the gang’: Teachers’ perceptions of ‘Laddish’ boys and how to deal with them. Gender and Education, 22(5), 501–509.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jackson, B., & Marsden, D. (1962). Education and the working class. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jenkins, R. (1983). Lads, citizens and ordinary kids: Working-class youth life-styles in Belfast. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jones, O. (2011). Chavs: The demonization of the working-class. London: Verso.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lacey, C. (1970). Hightown grammar. Manchester: Manchester University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mac an Ghaill, M. (1988). Young, gifted and black: Student-teacher relations in the schooling of black youth. Milton Keynes: Open University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mac an Ghaill, M. (1994). The making of men: Masculinities, sexualities and schooling. Philadelphia: Open University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • MacLeod, J. (1987). Ain’t no makin’ it: Leveled aspirations in a low-income neighbourhood. London: Tavistock.

    Google Scholar 

  • Martino, W. (1995). Deconstructing masculinity in the English classroom: A site for reconstituting gendered subjectivity. Gender and Education, 7(2), 205–220.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Martino, W. (1999). ‘Cool boys’, ‘party animals’, ‘squids’ and ‘poofters’: Interrogating the dynamics and politics of adolescent masculinities in school. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 20(2), 239–263.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Martino, W., & Frank, B. (2006). The tyranny of surveillance: Male teachers and the policing of masculinities in a single sex school. Gender and Education, 18, 17–33.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McCormack, M., & Anderson, A. (2010). ‘It’s just not acceptable any more’: The erosion of homophobia and the softening of masculinity at an English sixth form. Sociology, 44(5), 843–859.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McDowell, L. (1993). Redundant masculinities?: Employment change and white working-class youth. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

    Google Scholar 

  • McNay, L. (1999). Gender, habitus and the field: Pierre Bourdieu and the limits of reflexivity. Theory, Culture and Society, 16(1), 95–117.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Plunkett, J. (2011, August 18). Men’s health begins to run out of puff. The Guardian.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reay, D. (2000). Children’s urban landscapes: Configurations of class and space. In S. Munt (Ed.), Cultural studies and the working class (pp. 151–164). New York: Cassell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reay, D. (2002). Shaun’s story: Troubling discourses of white working-class masculinities. Gender and Education, 14(3), 221–234.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Reay, D. (2004). Mostly roughs and toughs’: Social class, race and representation in inner city schooling. Sociology, 38(5), 1005–1023.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Reay, D., & Lucey, H. (2000). “I don’t really like it here but I don’t want to be anywhere else”: Children and inner city council estates. Antipode, 32, 410–428.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Renold, E. (2001). Learning the ‘hard’ way: Boys, hegemonic masculinities and the negotiation of learner identities in the primary school. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 22(3), 369–385.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Roberts, S. (2012). ‘Just getting on with it’: The educational experiences of ordinary, yet overlooked boys. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 33(2), 203–221.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Simpson, P. (2014). Oppression, acceptance or civil indifference? Middle-aged gay men’s accounts of ‘Heterospaces. In S. Roberts (Ed.), Debating modern masculinities: Change, continuity, crisis? (pp. 70–87). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Skelton, C. (2001). Schooling the boys. Buckingham: Open University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Skelton, C. (2010). Feminism and research into masculinities and schooling. Gender and Education, 10(2), 217–227.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smith, J. (2007). ‘Ye’ve got to ’ave balls to play this game sir!’ boys, peers and fears: The negative influence of school-based ‘cultural accomplices’ in constructing hegemonic masculinities. Gender and Education, 19(2), 179–198.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Steedman, C. (1986). Landscape for a good woman. London: Virago.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tucker, I. (2011, January 9). Why grooming is the fashionable way of making a real man of you. The Observer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Walker, J. C. (1985). Rebels with our applause? A critique of resistance theory in Paul Willis’s ethnography of schooling. Journal of Education, 177(2), 63–83.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ward, M. R. M. (2014). ‘I’m a geek I am’: Academic achievement and the performance of a studious working-class masculinity. Gender and Education., 26(7), 709–725.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ward, M. R. M. (2015). The chameleonisation of masculinity: Jimmy’s multiple performances of a working-class self. Masculinities and Social Change, 4(3), 215–240.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Warin, J., & Dempster, S. (2007). The salience of gender during the transition to higher education: Male students’ accounts of performed and authentic identities. British Educational Research Journal, 33(6), 887–903.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Willis, P. E. (1977). Learning to labour: How working class kids get working class jobs. Farnborough: Saxon House.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Educational Research, Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK

    Nicola Ingram

Authors
  1. Nicola Ingram
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Copyright information

© 2018 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Ingram, N. (2018). Success, Class, and Masculinities. In: Working-Class Boys and Educational Success. Palgrave Studies in Gender and Education. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-40159-5_2

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-40159-5_2

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-137-40158-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-137-40159-5

  • eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation