Abstract
This paper examines literacy under-achievement and the limitations of gender-based literacy reforms grounded in essentialist notions of masculinity. It draws on qualitative case-study research conducted in one Ontario secondary school in a working-class community. It focuses on two grade 9 students and their teacher who participated in a larger study which examines how the norms and values associated with school-based literacy practices contribute to under-achievement. The cases highlighted in this paper are employed to raise critical questions about the way in which literacy under-achievement continues to be articulated as a ‘boy problem’. This paper also illustrates how the complex and situated nature of the students’ gendered and classed identities, interwoven with contextual and pedagogical factors, contribute to literacy under-achievement for some boys and some girls. In addition, it argues that the disjuncture between in- and out-of-school literacy practices warrants further study.
Notes
1. Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO) is an independent provincial agency funded by the Government of Ontario, Canada. Its directive is to conduct province-wide tests in reading, writing and mathematics at the primary, intermediate and secondary-school level and report the results to educators, parents and the public (retrieved July 18, 2010, from http://www.eqao.com/AboutEQAO/AboutEQAO.aspx?status=logout&LangE).