Pupils live their lives at school within the particular contexts of their society, and these
structures and pressures influence an individual school’s policies and
organisations, and create a different ‘set of storylines’ and ‘repertoires of action’
(Gilbert & Gilbert, 1998, p.51). While some of these may be similar at each
school, others are distinct to each setting: this means that there are a different set
of resources to draw on, and therefore a different set of options and/or
opportunities within each school to do boy. For instance, while some schools
(like Highwoods) will place a higher emphasis on sporting excellence than
others, these same achievements that are affirmed and celebrated at one school
will go unrecognised, or be marginalised, in others (like Petersfield); and while
the wearing of fashionable clothes can bring high acclaim and status in the pupil
culture at some schools (like Westmoor Abbey), strict uniform policies can
virtually close down this option in others (like Highwoods). So, we can see that
these ways of performing masculinity are not simple personal choices which
come from a range of independent options, for some opportunities are more
open, accessible and easy to achieve than others, some are more limited or
restricted, while others are practically closed and almost impossible to achieve.
Some resources will be already made and established in the formal school
culture (such as the sporting ethos at Highwoods), others will needed to be
created by the pupils themselves (such as the playground games at Petersfield
and Westmoor Abbey), and they may either co-exist, or be in opposition to the
formal school culture.
Correspondence: Dr Jon Swain, Department of Education and Professional Studies,
King's College London, Franklin Wilkins Building, London SE1 9NN.
Key to transcripts
[text ] Background information;
[...] extracts edited out of transcript for sake of clarity;
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