Petersfield also promoted high academic achievement (as measured by the SAT results)
and also had firm control and regulation, although there was a deliberate policy of non-
competitiveness. Westmoor Abbey was very different: although all schools would like to
be able to state that their primary objective is the promotion of academic excellence,
Westmoor Abbey’s main concern seemed to consist of being able to cope with, and
contain, pupil (mis)behaviour as best they could. This was more of a survivalist school
(Hargreaves 1995) where the ethos was more insecure, and social relations were
generally poorer.
During my fieldwork I followed a rolling programme spending about a month each term
in each school. In the two LEA (state) schools I concentrated on one Year 6 class (10-11
year olds), although at Highwoods I spent time with two classes as the pupils were
organised by academic attainment and I wanted to investigate the widest possible range
of masculinities. Highwoods also differed from the other two schools in that pupils were
taught by individual subject teachers. My descriptions and interpretations below are
based on two major sources of data: firstly, my semi-participant observations of the boys
and girls during lessons, and around the school site such as in the assembly hall, dining
room, playground environs etc; and secondly, on a series of 104 loosely-structured
interviews (62 involving only boys; 39 involving only girls; and 3 mixed) based on
nominated friendship groups of between 2-3 pupils. Many pupils were interviewed more
than once, and class teachers and head teachers were also interviewed. During the
interviews my role was chiefly one of facilitator, with the pupils being encouraged to
express their views freely, and share their experiences, on a wide range of topics.
However, I also used direct questioning to test out emerging theories, clarify issues, and
as a means to cross-check data from other interviewees.
Ethics
During my fieldwork I had to make a number of decisions over whether or not I should
intervene in a variety of situations. Although I tried to take a non-interventionist and