What do they get out of pop music and football?

Abstract

So far I have looked at the boys’ reactions to school. For the most part they may have appeared valid; yet their ideas and values have been entirely viewed as a response. As such it may well occur to readers that there is nothing positive in the culture that the boys are trying to protect. If this were indeed the case their struggle to protect themselves at school would be very difficult. However, in the next two chapters I will try to outline the positive aspects of their lives in their own terms. When I started the research I had wanted to centre as much as possible upon their school experiences. It is once more an example of the necessarily messy approach to research that I had to depart from this focus. 14-year-old boys did not live their lives in one institution; they listened to pop music; went to football matches; hung about on street corners.