‘Hieroglyphs of the Heterosexual’: Learning about Gender in School

Abstract

This chapter addresses some encounters with and observations of groups of young people during the course of a brief, exploratory fieldwork study in which the authors were looking at boys’ experiences of school. The chapter draws on material from three secondary schools, focusing particularly but not exclusively on the boys. The three schools were in many senses a special sample. They had all the indices of deprivation and poverty: a high percentage of pupils having free school dinners, a high rate of absenteeism and teacher turnover, and a very low rating in the previous year’s Department of Education and Employment ‘league tables’ of examination results. Their catchment areas were rundown housing estates with well above average levels of male unemployment and a high proportion of one-parent families. Altogether we spoke to about 100 young people between the ages of 12 and 15, the majority of them boys.¹