An investigation into the experience of literacy and the discourses around academic success for white working-class boys in two secondary schools in a midlands city
Creators: name: Shore, Nicki
Publisher: name: University of Lincoln
Year: 2024
Subjects: X330 - Academic studies in secondary education

description: The underperformance of white working-class boys, particularly in English, in England’s schools remains a matter of educational and political concern. There persists a literacy, gender and socioeconomic status gap in academic outcomes which is evident from primary and widens through secondary school. Whilst there is a significant amount of action-based research in the education sector, as well as a degree of moral panic in media discourse, there has been less attention given in academic research to investigating the lived experiences of those who fit the category of concern. This study explores the experience of the 2014 reformed National Curriculum, which places significant emphasis on literacy weighted subjects, for 8 boys from two comprehensive schools serving similar communities in a midlands city. The study took place over three years of secondary schooling, including the period of school closures due to Covid19. It investigates the interplay of the literacy discourses experienced by these so called white working-class boys at home, with their peers and within secondary school. The implications of the lived experience on their attitudes to literacy, their literacy self-efficacy and their academic success are considered in this thesis. Drawing on Bernstein's theories of pedagogic discourse (Bernstein, 1990) and Bandura’s social learning theory (Bandura, 1977), as well as applying a pragmatic methodology of discourse analysis, the study explores data collected from lesson observations, surveys, focus groups and interviews with teachers, parents, and students in the context of current secondary schools?based literacy practice. Collectively, they provide a multi-layered understanding of how a specific group of students are positioned by school literacy practices and adult expectations which offers an original contribution to the knowledge. Attending to the boys’ voiced perception of education in general, and literacy in particular, serves to fill the research gap and understand them beyond being data points. The data indicate that the generalisations made in the educational discourse, along with the emphasis on results and school knowledge lead to behaviours and beliefs which could be said to maintain the perceived “gap” in outcomes for white working-class boys.The study offers nuance to the pervasive discourse of deficit regarding boys’ literacy and “cool masculinities” (Epstein et al., 1998; Francis et al., 2009). The evidence from this data indicates that whilst each of their circumstances differ, few, if any of these boys have acquired a sense of the intrinsic value of literacy learning through the revised curriculum and it supports previous findings that the discourse around educational achievement is at odds with the aspirations of many working-class white boys (Stahl, 2017). Furthermore, evidence is presented that shows these boys perceive English to be a subject at which girls are more predisposed to achieve well and that the study of literature is experienced as impenetrable, and often something simply to be tolerated, due to its compulsory status in the curriculum.