Conclusion: Beyond Recuperative Masculinity Politics

Abstract

The issue of boys and schooling has acquired significant exposure in a range of nations across the globe. Responses to this issue have taken a number of forms in these various locations. However, common in many of the most strident calls to action in terms of boys’ educa­tion has been the claim that contemporary schooling has failed boys. In this book we have reiterated the need to temper the rhetoric sur­rounding the dominant approaches to addressing boys’ education in schools. In particular, we have challenged the structural focus of such reforms and their failure to understand and confront issues to do with the social construction of dominant practices of masculinity. Through detailing a research-based approach to examining the implementation of gender reform initiatives designed to address the educational needs of boys, we have tried to expose the limitations of embracing the so called ‘boy-friendly’ approaches, which for the most part, continue to be hijacked by a recuperative masculinity politics. Such a politics has failed to address how broader social and structural inequalities and systemic forces intersect with gender for specific groups of boys and girls to impact significantly on their capacity to engage and participate fully in schooling.