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This article focuses on the continuing impact of recuperative masculinity politics in the schooling of economically advantaged boys (elite and middle class); yet, it also indicates resistance to this politics. An understanding that the gender order is unstable and that variants of hegemonic masculinity continue to morph in the context of globalisation is also exemplified. Two case studies are analysed, both focused on remaking masculinities: Balfour, an elite all boys' school in Scotland and Springtown Religious School, a middle-class, coeducational Australian school. The cases show that the remaking of masculinities is shaped by social class politics and confirm the diversities within the categories of ‘boys’. At Balfour, the remaking of elite masculinities was framed by the perceived needs of the globalised labour market (especially in finance) and the changing practices of professional, elite femininities. At Springtown, a school known for rejecting competitive sport and for their commitment to gender equity, girls and some staff resisted changes to the outdoor education programme framed by recuperative mythopoetic discourses. The article illustrates the production and reproduction of privilege and advantage and the remaking of elite and middle-class masculinities within an ever-changing gender order, an important insight for those working towards socially just gender policy and praxis.
Notes
This project was directed by Bob Lingard and Gaby Weiner and the research team consisted of them along with Joan Forbes, Kevin Stelfox, Shereen Benjamin, John Horne and Adela Baird. See Forbes and Weiner (2008) and Horne et al. (2010, in review).
SISP was framed by the overarching question ‘How do social and other capitals work in and through independent schooling in Scotland?’ and was theoretically informed by the work of Bourdieu (1986) on multiple capitals and their role in the production and reproduction of inequality. The research also utilised developments out of Bourdieu, for example, taking account of gender and capitals (Adkins and Skeggs 2004; Reay 2004) and of national capital (Hage 1998; McCrone 2005). The study was also located against the literature on the education of elites and the socially productive and reproductive work of elite schools (van Zanten 2010). It was also constructed as the ‘other’ of a number of Schools and Social Capital Network projects on disadvantaged young people and their schooling and how this might be overcome. There were three case study schools in SISP.
This research was supported by a US Fulbright Fellowship and a Vilas travel grant from the University of Wisconsin.