Masculinities under Reconstruction: Classroom pedagogy and cultural change

Abstract

This article describes an action research study, undertaken in an experientially-based educational psychology course, in which resistance to learning associated with a particular working-class masculinity appeared to be overcome. The project involved male tradespeople, employed as technology studies teachers in secondary colleges while undertaking a teacher education programme. In the past, such people had created learning group cultures that promoted anti-academic, sexist and excessively authoritarian attitudes. This had profound implications for the subsequent social environment created in their school classes and especially the educational aspirations of the girls within them. Yet, resistance appeared to develop because many of the activities and content of the teacher education programme were threatening to an occupationally constructed masculine identity. Ways in which such constructions were relinquished and more appropriate identities built form the substance of this article. Implications for feminist pedagogy involving men and boys are discussed.