Abstract:
This paper disrupts the 'exclusionary normativities' of research on elite boys' schools by combining insights from queer theory and post-qualitative inquiry. Drawing on a study that explores what alumni learned through their educational experiences at these institutions, we develop a collaborative and reflexive research practice that incorporates their diverse queer lives, identities, and histories, forging new directions in researching elite masculinities. We interrogate how our own queer bodies are entangled with research on elite boys' schools.
Traditional approaches in the sociology of elite schooling often deploy conventional qualitative methods to produce knowledge about elites and their education. In contrast, our collaborative research practice asks: what does researching elite boys' schooling do? Through an iterative, collaborative inquiry, we produced affective mappings of our researcher bodies, presented as short segments of narrative writing. These mappings navigate the complexities of researching queer identities and lives, tracing our ambivalence toward heterosexual masculinities.
In our narratives, we explore our capacities for fear, anger, and love. We argue that our collaborative research practice enables new knowledge about both queer lives/bodies and their entanglement with educational research, provoking new directions for understanding how elite boys' schooling operates as a cultural site for the (re)production of heteronormativities and other social inequalities. By challenging exclusionary normativities, our work highlights the need for more inclusive and reflexive research practices in the study of elite masculinities.
Traditional approaches in the sociology of elite schooling often deploy conventional qualitative methods to produce knowledge about elites and their education. In contrast, our collaborative research practice asks: what does researching elite boys' schooling do? Through an iterative, collaborative inquiry, we produced affective mappings of our researcher bodies, presented as short segments of narrative writing. These mappings navigate the complexities of researching queer identities and lives, tracing our ambivalence toward heterosexual masculinities.
In our narratives, we explore our capacities for fear, anger, and love. We argue that our collaborative research practice enables new knowledge about both queer lives/bodies and their entanglement with educational research, provoking new directions for understanding how elite boys' schooling operates as a cultural site for the (re)production of heteronormativities and other social inequalities. By challenging exclusionary normativities, our work highlights the need for more inclusive and reflexive research practices in the study of elite masculinities.