The Problem with Boys' Education: Beyond the Backlash

This book offers an illuminating analysis of the theories, politics, and realities of boys’ education around the world -- an insightful and often disturbing account of various educational systems’ successes and failings in fostering intellectual and social growth in male students. Examining original research on the impact of implementing boys’ education programs in schools, the book also discusses the role of male teachers in educating boys, strategies for aiding marginalized boys in the classroom, and the possibilities for gender reform in schools that begins at the level of pedagogy.

Complete with case studies of various classrooms, school districts, and governmental policy programs, the detailed essays collected provide a look into education’s role in the development of masculinities, paying special attention to the ways in which these masculinities intersect with race, class, and sexuality to complicate the experience of boys within and outside of a classroom setting.

Wayne Martino is Professor of Education in the Faculty of Education at The University of Western Ontario, Canada. His research interests are in the field of gender equity, masculinities and anti-oppressive education. His books include: What about the boys? (with Bob Meyenn), Boys' Stuff: Boys talking about what matters (with Pallotta-Chiarolli, Allen & Unwin), So what’s a boy? Addressing issues of masculinity and schooling (with Maria Pallotta-Chiarolli, Open University Press), ‘Being normal is the only way to be’: Boys' and girls’ perspectives on gender and school (with Maria Pallotta-Chiarolli) and Gendered Outcasts and Sexual Outlaws: Sexual oppression and gender hierarchies in queer men's lives (with Christopher Kendall). He is currently working on a SSHRC (Social Science Humanities Research Council of Canada) funded project with Goli Rezai-Rashti entitled, The influence of male teachers in elementary schools.

Michael Kehler is an Associate Professor currently teaching in the preservice and graduate education program at the University of Western Ontario. His research interests include the counter-hegemonic practices of high school young men, literacies, masculinities and the ongoing negotiations involved for young men resisting heteronormativity. His research has been published in a range of journals including Journal of Curriculum Theorizing, McGill Journal of Education, Educational Review, Taboo, Education and Society, and The International Journal of Inclusive Education. He has contributed chapters in two upcoming books, Masculinities and Schooling: International Practices and Perspectives and Boys, Girls and the Myths of Literacies and Learning.

Marcus B. Weaver-Hightower is an Assistant Professor of Educational Foundations and Research at the University of North Dakota (USA), where he teaches graduate courses in gender and education, action research, the sociology of education, and ethnographic research. He is a former Fulbright scholar to Australia, where he conducted a year-long study of the development and implementation of the first federal-level policy on the education of boys. Previously, he taught high school English and coached girls’ soccer in Goose Creek, South Carolina, USA. His research interests include the politics of boys’ education concerns, masculinity studies, literacy, qualitative and action research, and cultural studies.