‘I sat back on my computer … with a bottle of whisky next to me’: constructing ‘cool’ masculinity through ‘effortless’ achievement in secondary and higher education

Abstract

Recently Hodgetts has argued that: ‘To be a boy is to “succeed without trying”’. Relatedly, other researchers have proposed that academic hard work is generally incompatible with ‘cool’ masculinities in many schools. In this article we draw upon theories about the construction of masculinities and UK data from two education contexts (secondary schools and higher education) to explore further the discourses that conflate effortless achievement with masculinity, and position study as ‘uncool’. Locating our analyses principally within the framework of hegemonic masculinity, we explore the benefits and costs of the discourses – focusing especially upon the ‘effortless achievement’ discourse – to boys, men, girls and women.

We argue that although the ‘uncool to work’ discourse was more dominant in schools than in higher education there was evidence of it in higher education. The effortless achievement discourse was dominant in both contexts and the associations with masculinity were very explicit in the higher education interview data. We explore why, when in the current educational climate there is so much emphasis on results rather than process, the valorisation of effortless achievement, and its association with masculinity, remain strong.

Keywords:

• masculinities
• effortless achievement
• uncool to study
• education

Notes

1. Researchers have demonstrated and discussed the ways that pupils can undertake academic work and still be popular. These are flagged later in this article, but for more detailed discussions see Martino (1999), Jackson (2006, 2010) and Francis et al. (2009).

2. It is worth noting that the two discourses that are central to this article – the uncool to work and effortless achievement discourses – were articulated, and drawn upon, by middle and working-class students (although the HE sample comprised mainly middle-class men). However, social class may be important in shaping how successfully students navigate the discourses (see Jackson [2006, 2010] for more discussion).

3. SATs are national tests for pupils in England. They were introduced for pupils aged 7 in 1991 and for pupils aged 11 in 1995; these are ongoing. SATs were introduced for pupils aged 14 in 1993, but in October 2008 School Secretary Ed Balls announced that he was ending the requirement for schools to run national tests for 14-year-olds with immediate effect. See: http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/pns/DisplayPN.cgi?pn_id = 2008_0229.

4. Overall, in secondary schools the uncool to work discourse was dominant amongst middle-class and working-class boys and was not confined to particular ‘race’ or ethnic groups, although there is some evidence that it is more influential amongst some groups than others (Francis and Archer 2005).

5. This applied to girls too. A discussion of girls is beyond the scope of this piece but see Jackson (2006, 2010).

6. Engage in ineffectual activity.