‘We don’t need no education’? Exploring the educational experiences of young footballers

Abstract

Drawing upon data generated by 303 young male footballers employed in 21 professional clubs in England and Wales, this article explores some key aspects of players’ masculinities, identities and engagement with education. Although many players described their educational experiences in largely negative terms, some aspired towards averageness, or middling, which is often central to working-class identifications with education. Other players found education ‘easy’, engaged in effortless achievement and had begun to internalize elements of the neoliberal achievement ideology. The propensity for players to engage in copying and pasting from the work of others, and to regard their courses as being almost impossible to fail, was consistent with neoliberal ideologies of credentialism and performativity. The findings suggest that a more nuanced understanding of young footballers’ education is warranted, and their aspirations and experiences can at least be partly understood as responses to the prevailing neoliberal learning environments which they inhabit.

Keywords:

• Football
• neoliberal
• masculinity
• performativity
• young males

Notes

1. At the time of the research, Academies and Centres of Excellence were the terms used to differentiate clubs who were perceived to have better facilities, provisions and operations (Academies) and those who were more inferior in these areas (Centres of Excellence). Both recruited players on a professional scholarship from age 16 and a decision was made on whether a player was offered a full-time professional contract by age 18.