Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

‘A group of lads, innit?’ Performances of Laddish Masculinity in British Higher Education

  • Chapter
Gender and Spoken Interaction

Abstract

There is a developing body of research dealing with matters of language and gender within the context of higher education. Three notable studies are Deborah Cameron’s (1997) examination of the construction of heterosexual masculinity among a group of male students, Scott Kiesling’s (1997) investigation into power and identity among members of a fraternity and Victoria Bergvall’s (1996) study of gender roles in an engineering classroom. In this chapter, I aim to build on this work by examining the performance of laddish masculinity within the context of a first-year undergraduate academic writing programme, established to support students from widening participation backgrounds, at a university in London. As the research on which this chapter is based (Preece 2006a) is intended to inform educational practice, the discussion draws on language and gender, education (widening participation and academic literacies) and cultural studies (laddishness).

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
eBook
USD 16.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 16.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  • Archer, Louise (2003) Race, Masculinity and Schooling. Maidenhead: Open University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Baxter, Judith (2003) Positioning Gender in Discourse: A Feminist Methodology. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Benwell, Bethan (ed.) (2003) Masculinity and Men’s Lifestyle Magazines. Oxford: Blackwell and The Sociological Review.

    Google Scholar 

  • Benwell, Bethan and Stokoe, Elizabeth (2002) Constructing discussion tasks in university tutorials: shifting dynamics and identities. Discourse Studies 4 (4): 429–53.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Benwell, Bethan and Stokoe, Elizabeth (2006) Discourse and Identity. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bergvall, Victoria (1996) Constructing and enacting gender through discourse: negotiating multiple roles as female engineering students. In Bergvall, V., Bing, J. and Freed, A. (eds.) Rethinking Language and Gender Research: Theory and Practice. London: Longman. 173–201.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bhatti, Ghazala (1999) Asian Children at Home and at School: An Ethnographic Study. London and New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Block, David (2006) Multilingual Identities in a Global City: London Stories. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Butler, Judith (1990) Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. London and New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cameron, Deborah (1996) The language—gender interface: challenging co-optation. In Bergvall, V., Bing, J. and Freed, A. (eds.) Rethinking Language and Gender Research: Theory and Practice. Harlow: Addison Wesley Longman. 31–53.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cameron, Deborah (1997) Performing gender: young men’s talk and the construction of heterosexual masculinity. In Johnson, S. and Meinhof, U. (eds.) Language and Masculinity. Oxford: Blackwell. 47–64.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cameron, Deborah (2001) Working with Spoken Discourse. London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cameron, Deborah, Frazer, Elizabeth, Harvey, Penelope, Rampton, Ben and Richardson, Kay (1992) Researching Language: Issues of Power and Method. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cameron, Deborah and Kulick, Don (2003) Language and Sexuality. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Coates, Jennifer (1996) Women Talk: Conversation between Women Friends. Oxford: Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Coates, Jennifer (1997) Competing discourses of femininity. In Kotthof, H. and Wodak, R. (eds.) Communicating Gender in Context. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 285–314.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Coates, Jennifer (2003) Men Talk. Oxford: Blackwell.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Connell, R.W. (1995) Masculinities. Cambridge: Polity.

    Google Scholar 

  • DeFrancisco, Victoria Leto (1998) The sounds of silence: how men silence women in marital relations. In Coates, J. (ed.) Language and Gender: A Reader. Oxford: Blackwell. 176–84.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eckert, Penelope and McConnell-Ginet, Sally (2003) Language and Gender. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Fairclough, Norman (2003) Analysing Discourse: Textual Analysis for Social Research. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Foucault, Michel (1974) The Archaeology of Knowledge. London: Tavistock.

    Google Scholar 

  • Foucault, Michel (1991) Politics and the study of discourse. In Burchell, G., Gordon, C. and Miller, P. (eds.) The Foucault Effect: Studies in Governmentality. London: Harvester. 53–72.

    Google Scholar 

  • Frosh, Stephen, Phoenix, Ann and Pattman, Rob (2002) Young Masculinities: Understanding Boys in Contemporary Society. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goffman, Erving (1972) Interaction Ritual: Essays on Face-to-Face Behaviour. Harmondsworth: Penguin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harris, Roxy (2006) New Ethnicities and Language Use. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Higher Education Statistics Agency (2005) Performance indicators in higher education in the UK 2003/4: widening participation of under-represented groups. http://www.hesa.ac.uk/pi/0304/participation.htm (accessed 31/05/06).

  • Jackson, Carolyn (2006) Lads and Ladettes in School: Gender and a Fear of Failure. Maidenhead: Open University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kiesling, Scott (1997) Power and the language of men. In Johnson, S. and Meinhof, U. (eds.) Language and Masculinity. Oxford: Blackwell. 65–85.

    Google Scholar 

  • Leung, Constant, Harris, Roxy and Rampton, Ben (1997) The idealised native-speaker, reified ethnicities and classroom realities. TESOL Quarterly 31 (3): 545–60.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mac an Ghaill, M. (1994) The Making of Men: Masculinities, Sexualities and Schooling. Buckingham: Open University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Martin-Jones, Marilyn and Jones, Kathryn (eds.) (2000) Multilingual Literacies: Reading and Writing Different Worlds. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

    Google Scholar 

  • Paechter, Carrie (2006) Reconceptualizing the gendered body: learning and constructing masculinities and femininities in school. Gender and Education 18 (2): 121–35.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pichler, Pia (2008) Gender, ethnicity and religion in spontaneous talk and ethnographic-style interviews: balancing perspectives of researcher and researched. In Sunderland, J. (ed.) Gender and Language: Theoretical and Methodological Approaches. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Power, Sally, Edwards, Tony, Whitty, Geoff and Wigfall, Valerie (2003) Education and the Middle Class. Buckingham: Open University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Preece, Siân (2004) Language and identity issues with home students on EAP writing programmes. In Sheldon, L. (ed.) Directions for the Future. Bern: Peter Lang. 163–76.

    Google Scholar 

  • Preece, Siân (2006a) Talking Posh, Acting Posh? The Construction of Gendered Identities and Identifications in the Talk of Multilingual Undergraduate Students on an Academic Writing Programme. Ph.D., Institute of Education, University of London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Preece, Siân (2006b) British Asian undergraduate students in London. In Block, D., Multilingual Identities in a Global City: London Stories. London: Palgrave Macmillan. 171–99.

    Google Scholar 

  • Preece, Siân (2006c) Masculine identities on an academic writing programme. In White, G. and Omoniyi, T. (eds.) The Sociolinguistics of Identity. London: Continuum. 173–87.

    Google Scholar 

  • Preece, Siân (forthcoming) Language and Identity in Higher Education: Gender, Multilingualism and Widening Participation. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rampton, Ben (2005) Crossing: Language and Ethnicity among Adolescents 2nd edn. Manchester: St Jerome Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rampton, Ben (2006) Language in Late Modernity: Interaction in an Urban School. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Sewell, Tony (1997) Black Masculinities and Schooling: How Black Boys Survive Modern Schooling. Stoke-on-Trent: Trentham Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stanley, Liz (1990) Feminist praxis and the academic mode of production: an editorial introduction. In Stanley, L. (ed.) Feminist Praxis: Research, Theory and Epistemology in Feminist Sociology. London and New York: Routledge. 3–19.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stringer, Ernest (2007) Action Research, 3rd edn. Los Angeles: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sunderland, Jane (2004) Gendered Discourses. Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Tinto, Vincent (1975) Dropout from higher education: a theoretical synthesis of recent research. Review of Educational Research 45: 89–125.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tinto, Vincent (1993) Leaving College: Rethinking the Causes and the Cures of Student Attrition, 2nd edn. Chicago: Chicago University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wallace, Catherine (2002) Local literacies and global literacy. In Block, D. and Cameron, D. (eds.) Globalization and Language Teaching. London and New York: Routledge. 101–14.

    Google Scholar 

  • Weedon, Chris (1997) Feminist Practice and Poststructuralist Theory, 2nd edn. Oxford: Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Whelehan, Imelda (2000) Overloaded: Popular Culture and the Future of Feminism. London: Women’s Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Willis, Paul (1977) Learning to Labour: How Working Class Kids get Working Class Jobs. Farnborough: Saxon House.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yorke, Mantz and Longden, Bernard (2004) Retention and Student Success in Higher Education. Buckingham: The Society for Research into Higher Education and Open University Press.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Authors
  1. Siân Preece
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Goldsmiths, University of London, UK

    Pia Pichler

  2. Roehampton University, UK

    Eva Eppler

Copyright information

© 2009 Siân Preece

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Preece, S. (2009). ‘A group of lads, innit?’ Performances of Laddish Masculinity in British Higher Education. In: Pichler, P., Eppler, E. (eds) Gender and Spoken Interaction. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230280748_6

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation