Abstract:
Since the establishment of primary and secondary education in New Zealand, schools that cater only for boys have existed. Due to their inherent focus on gender, these schools are often perceived to cultivate specific cultures centred around traditional discourses of masculinity. This has drawn both critique and praise in wider society and media. However in New Zealand, there is surprisingly little academic literature focussing on the impact of these institutional discourses of masculinity. Indeed, there are almost no studies that examine the general, everyday experiences of boys within single-sex boys’ schools as overall contexts in New Zealand. This study focuses on the experiences of a group of Year 9 students (13-14 years old) at a single-sex boys’ school in Auckland. The data focuses on qualitative interviews, using the Go-Along method, carried out with this group of students over their first year at the school. The data is analysed using Foucault’s concept of Technologies of Self. This lens provides a framework to explore the students’ perceptions of the discourses of masculinity within the school, and how they constitute their own subjectivities through these available discourses to achieve a desired state of being. Four key themes have been constructed from the data to explore ways of being the “ideal” boy at this boys’ school: the bantering boy; the hardworking, intelligent boy who cares about their learning; the respectful, disciplined boy; and the boy who identifies himself with the school. The study seeks to understand the cost for boys in working to become the “ideal” boy and the consequences for not; operations of power often made invisible through being framed as “common sense”. The study draws attention to the critical importance of schools understanding the impact that the institutional context has on students’ everyday experiences and their identity formation.