The ‘Renaissance Child’: high achievement and gender in late modernity

Abstract

This paper draws on the concept of the ‘Renaissance Child’ to illustrate the ways in which gender influences the opportunities and possibilities of high-achieving pupils. Using data from a study of 12–13-year high-achieving boys and girls based in schools in England, the paper considers the ways in which a group of popular boys was able to show an interest and success in literacy and English without posing threats to their masculine subjectivities. In contrast, a group of high-achieving girls experienced greater constraints in their attempts to balance an interest and success in physical education and sports whilst also performing acceptable constructions of femininity. The paper concludes that the concept of ‘Renaissance Child’ is fruitful for research in education that is concerned with the production of neoliberal subjectivities. However, whilst boys can access and perform ‘Renaissance Masculinity’, constructions of femininity impede even the highest-achieving girls from equivalent subject positions.

Keywords:

• gender
• subjectivities
• achievement
• neoliberalism

Notes

The gendered subjectivities of high-achieving pupils were funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) (RES062230462).

The term ‘late modernity’ draws on the understandings of theorists, such as Beck (1992), Bauman (2000) and Giddens (1998). It is used here to indicate a view that contemporary western, globalised, societies are not revisioned as distinct from and opposed to traditional concepts of society but rather turns back and reflects on itself. For example, Beck's identification of social class barriers, changes in the position of women and family structures are all routed in tradition which in contemporary society are disembedded. However, these have not disappeared but are transformed or acquire a plurality of (different) values.

South Asian, Chinese, mixed-race, North African, South American, Turkish, and three African-Caribbean.

The under-representation of minority ethnic pupils in the sample is partly due to the particular demographic areas in which two of the three London schools were based (less ethnically mixed than in many areas of London), and partly due to high rates of non-consent from minority ethnic pupils selected for study, but remains nevertheless unexpected given the high rates of educational achievement amongst some minority ethnic groups, and may also indicate teacher perceptions in identifying ‘high achieving’ pupils (see Archer and Francis 2007; Brah and Minhas 1985; Fordham 1996; Gillborn 2008).

We are fully cognisant of the difficulties of attempting to locate social class through parental occupation. The occupations of both parents were taken into account and where there was a difference in categorisation of the occupation of parents/guardians, the pupil was allocated to the highest of the class categories.

In keeping with the current emphasis in UK educational policy on credentialism, we define ‘high achievement’ in pupils as those who achieved highly across a range of subjects, with evidence to support identification provided via details of pupils' Key Stage 2 SATs results and their recent grades across subject areas. In a number of cases, pupils in our sample had been identified as gifted and talented at particular subject areas expressed by educational credentials (even though the research team did not subscribe to the view that achievement should be conceived so narrowly).

‘Popularity’ is clearly a complex and slippery concept, both in its actual meaning (those most popular are not necessarily those most liked, as the concept incorporates aspects such as influence and admiration), and in perspective (those most popular with some groups may not be popular with others). We were interested in pupil popularity amongst peers, rather than with teachers, as it is gendered peer-group power and status relations which are argued in the literature to impact on gender and achievement (Jackson 2006; Myhill 2002). Hence, all pupils in identified top stream classes were asked to complete a short survey on popularity in their class and which asked three questions: Which student do you most like in your class? Which student would other people say is most popular? Which student would you most like to be like?