The emotional labor of doing ‘boy work’: Considering affective economies of boyhood in schooling

Abstract

Internationally, the research on the education of boys has sought to understand how social practices, behaviours and rituals contribute to identity construction. We are interested in approaches to the emotional labor of doing ‘boy work’. As educators grapple with the gendered performances and subjectivities of young men, there is an imperative to engage with the affective dimensions of boyhood. We explore what theories of affect can add to our understandings of masculinities and masculine identity practices in rapidly changing affective economies of gender and, specifically, what this may mean for relationships formed between educators and students. To illustrate how theories of affect can open up new analytical spaces, we present two vignettes from a program in the United States designed to support young men and boys to gain critical awareness of restrictive ‘gender norms’. Drawing primarily upon Ahmed’s work on affective economies, we theorize how attention to affective economies of boyhood can positively influence the work of educators today.

Keywords:

• Boyhood
• masculinities
• schooling
• affect
• economies of feeling

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 Affect theory and/or theories of affect generally seeks to capture individual’s subjectively experienced feelings though it is defined in different ways depending on the discipline.

Additional information

Funding

Fulbright Commission – American-Australian – Senior Scholarship

Notes on contributors

Garth Stahl

Garth Stahl, Ph.D. is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Education at the University of South Australia and Research Fellow, Australian Research Council (DECRA). His research interests lie on the nexus of neoliberalism and socio-cultural studies of education, identity, equity/inequality, and social change. Currently, his research projects and publications encompass theoretical and empirical studies of learner identities, gender and youth, sociology of schooling in a neoliberal age, gendered subjectivities, equity and difference, and educational reform.

Amanda Keddie

Amanda Keddie, Ph.D. is a Professor of Education within the Research for Educational Impact (REDI) Strategic Research Centre at Deakin University. Her published work examines the broad gamut of schooling processes, practices and conditions that can impact on the pursuit of social justice in schools including student identities, teacher identities, pedagogy, curriculum, leadership, school structures, policy agendas and socio-political trends.