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To be a boy and a high-achieving pupil: masculinities and school achievement

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Author(s):
Cinthia Torres Toledo
Total Authors: 1
Document type: Master's Dissertation
Press: São Paulo.
Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Educação (FE/SBD)
Defense date:
Examining board members:
Marilia Pinto de Carvalho; Lea Pinheiro Paixão; Denise Trento Rebello de Souza
Advisor: Marilia Pinto de Carvalho
Abstract

Several Brazilian educational indicators show that boys tend to establish a shorter and more troubled school life. Considering these indicators, academical research has been done in order to understand boy\'s underachievement through a discussion about gender and masculinities. Taking these educational indicators as a starting point, I conducted a qualitative research about high-achieving boys as a way to think about the multiplicity of masculinities practices among boys and to nuance the discussion about the topic. Based on Raewyn Connell\'s sociological theory about masculinities and her ideias about the agency of children as an aspect of the schools gender regime, I analyzed how high-achieving boys articulate a good school performance and their interactions among peers. The qualitative research was done in a public primary school in São Paulo (Brazil) that is attended by working-class pupils. During a semestre in 2014 and a semestre in 2015, I did a participant observation in the daily school life of a group in the 4th and 5th grades of elementary school. In addition to the participant observation, I interviewed the children, a male and a female teacher. Socioeconomic questionnaires were also answered by family members. Contrary to what I expected from the literature about masculinities and achievement, to be a \"high-achieving pupil\" was not contradictory or difficult for the boys, instead, engagement and academic achievement was valued and recognized as a positive aspect among boys students. Nevertheless, not all the boys were \"hich-achieving pupils\" and those tended to distance themselves from the \"underachieving pupils\". Involved in hierarquical relations among peers, in order to be a high-achieving pupil boys have to be able to play on the power relations, constructing and reconstructing social and school hierarchies among their peer group. (AU)

FAPESP's process: 14/11899-7 - High-achievement boys: relationship to school and negotiations between peers
Grantee:Cinthia Torres Toledo
Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master