Warren, Simon Adrian (1999) 'Is that an action man in there?' : masculinity as an imaginative act of self-making in an English primary school classroom. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

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Abstract

This thesis argues that masculinity does not exist as the empirical property of
biological males. Instead, masculinity is viewed as being produced in its
objective sense through a social imaginary that invokes masculinity as already
ontologically present; as having ontological continuity; as being necessarily
coherent; and as being embodied in real boys/men. l\lasculinity is therefore
seen as an iterative exercise, or a narrative of self, whereby the boys in this
study are seen as being involved in producing themselves as coherent males in
each classroom interaction. The masculine social imaginary is made real
through these subjective moments of self-making.
This research focuses on the strategies engaged in by boys, in an English
primary school classroom, in their accomplishment of masculine identities~
how they are secured in relation to both girls and other boys~ and how
particular masculine forms achieve and maintain hegemony. The research
looks at the relationship between objective and subjective senses of identity;
the cultural resources available to boys in their identity work; the ways
different cultural resources (capital) accrue value in the context of the school;
how these differently valued resources contribute to the production of
masculine hierarchies; and pedagogic structures and practices interact with
the boys' identity work to construct different relationships with the official
curriculum.
Working through a concept of reflexive relativity, this thesis regards the data
collected through observation and elicitation exercises, as narrative
productions. The research text itself is a narrative production - a rendering of
a theory of masculine behaviour; and as constituting a series of dialogues
between the research and different research subjectivities.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology L Education > LB Theory and practice of education > LB1501 Primary Education
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Masculinity, Schoolboys -- Great Britain -- Case studies, Identity (Psychology) in children
Official Date:	November 1999
Dates:	Date Event November 1999 Submitted
Institution:	University of Warwick
Theses Department:	Institute of Education
Thesis Type:	PhD
Publication Status:	Unpublished
Supervisor(s)/Advisor:	Sikes, Patricia J.
Extent:	[xi], 360 p.
Language:	eng

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