‘I just got on with it’: the educational experiences of ordinary, yet overlooked, boys

Abstract

In the 1980s, researchers established the need to document and analyse the educational attitudes, behaviours and outcomes of ‘ordinary kids' as a means of developing a holistic account of school experience. Yet, while significant attention is given to extremes in educational attitudes and behaviours, ‘ordinariness' tends to remain overlooked in contemporary research and policy discourses. This article contributes to this void by presenting data from a qualitative study of young men's school-to-work transitions. Their educational experiences at both compulsory and post-compulsory levels illustrate a distinctive middle-ground, defying typically conceived dualisms of resistance or engagement. Alongside research interest in the extremes of ‘success' and ‘failure', such ordinary experiences can enable us to reinvigorate and refine our conceptual repertoire.

Keywords:

• ordinary kids
• masculinity
• working class
• instrumentalism
• disengagement

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Alison Fuller and Rachel Brooks for their helpful comments on an earlier draft, and to the two anonymous reviewers for their interesting insights.

Notes

1. Here low achievement was measured at four levels: no passes at all in GCSE/GNVQ examinations; nothing better than a ‘D’ in any examination; no pass in at least one of English or mathematics; and having not achieved at least five passes at any grade, including English and mathematics.

2. Mac an Ghaill does, however, go beyond a dualistic account to offer a more nuanced assessment of masculinity. This is detailed later in the paper.