The Resources and Strategies Boys Use to Establish Status in a Junior School without Competitive Sport

Bibliographic Data

ID2938369
AuthorsJon Swain (0000-0002-1105-6654, corresponding author)
Year2002
Volume23
Issue1
Pages91-107
Publication date2002-04-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueDiscourse Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0159-6306 • E-ISSN: 1469-3739
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/01596300220123060
OpenAlexW2001681686
LanguageEN
Citations received20
References cited27

The data in this paper comes from an ethnographically based study of Year 6 (10-11-year-old) boys in an English junior school. It investigates the resources and strategies used and created by the boys to classify themselves, and to construct and perform their masculinity in a tightly regulated school where competitive sport (including playground football) is prohibited for the majority of the school year. The paper considers the relationship between the formal school culture and informal pupil culture, and, in particular, the options open, limited and closed to the boys to construct their masculinities and establish status/prestige within their immediate peer group. One option open was being able to work hard in class without peer reprovement, but despite the limitation of competitive games/sport, the most favoured form of masculine status was still exemplified by embodied forms of athleticism and physicality. The paper also explores another way of gaining status, which was by a form of verbal abuse known as 'cussing': this was a pervasive and prevalent part of school life, and is viewed as another form of competitive, stylised performance

Embodied cognition · Football · Masculinity · Mathematics education · Pedagogy · Political science · Prestige · Sociology · Computer Science · Gender Roles and Identity Studies · Gender Studies · Physical Education and Pedagogy · Psychology · Social Psychology · Sport and Mega-Event Impacts

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