The study is concerned with the ways early adolescent males understand and experience bullying within a hetero-normative school context. The research focuses on the ways in which bullying occurs, and how it relates to identity development amongst young boys. Key theoretical constructs include multiple masculinities, social dominance theory, and social constructionism. The researcher adopted an ethnographic approach. Constructs were explored through the use of four focus groups and one individual interview with 20 Grade 8 learners at a co-educational high school. Three dominant themes emerged from the discussions. The Embodied Self explores the expression and development of gender identity through the construction of the physical and performative male body. Displaced Masculinities explores the gradual shift in power that young men have experienced in terms of current representations of gender, race and technology. The third theme, Recovering Power, identifies subtle subversion strategies that young males reproduce to recover social power. Bullying is normalised within the school context and is understood as a physical and psychological process that differentiates desirable and undesirable masculinities. Masculinities are actively policed by peers, forcing boys to position themselves against the ideal hegemonic masculinity underpinning feelings of uncertainty and instability. Recommendations include continued opportunities for discussion of gender issues at a formative school level, focused policy development addressing the abuse of communication technologies, and translation of gender research into policy and legislation to recognise the role and responsibilities of men, with the major aim of reducing inequality. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2009.

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This thesis has investigated and statistically analyzed the responses of delinquent and non-delinquent adolescent male subjects to Julian B. Rotter's Internal-external Locus of Control Scale. An individual with an "internal locus of control" is characterized by believing that what happens to him is a direct result of his own actions. A person with an "external locus of control" is more likely to feel that forces beyond his control such as fate or luck, determine what will happen to him.Delinquent subjects were obtained through a juvenile court. Non-delinquent subjects were obtained through school systems and youth groups. Selection of subjects was controlled for race, age, socio-economic level, and number of parents living at home. No significant difference was found for locus of control between delinquent and non-delinquent groups or between races.

In my thesis I explore way in which adolescent male students negotiate and interrogate discursive ideologies relating to hegemonic masculinities and to the normality of "whiteness", specifically within one English classroom in an Australian private single sex boys’ school in Perth, Western Australia. A feminist poststructuralist theoretical framework is employed to explore how gendered and racialized positions available to adolescent males contribute to the shaping of their subjectivities, and how the social constructions of masculinities and femininities contribute to the ways in which adolescent males represent themselves. A quantitative approach, which included individual classroom observations, questionnaires and interviews, provided me with tools essential for examining the complexities of the effects of social constructs such as gender, sexuality and ethnicity on masculinist positionings at school. The study reveals the complexities surrounding discourses of hegemonic heterosexual masculinities and privileges of whiteness on the situationally specific formation and negotiation of subjectivities in adolescent males’ lives in one school. Central findings of the study show that adolescent males in this single sex boys’ school easily maintained socially constructed ideas surrounding the feminisation of females and masculinization of males, with notions of homophobia embedded in discourses of hegemonic masculinities. A resistance to alternative masculine discourses shows the impact and maintenance of hegemonic heterosexual masculinities for adolescent males. However, through the use of particular texts, female teachers in the all boys’ classroom were able to open up spaces for male students to interrogate hegemonic forms of masculinities, to interrogate power relationships, and to access alternative masculinities. Ina similar vein, my findings show how easy it is for students to ignore social injustices in relation to racism and stereotyping of Indigenous Australians, and to retain notions that reinforce these injustices. A major conclusion of the study is that social injustices are easily maintained through educational institutions as active agents of reinforcing ideas and ideologies, particularly when changes mean disruption of privileges, such as privileges associated with hegemonic masculinity or with whiteness. Although this study was conducted within a middle class milieu, and thus the students were from an advantaged position in life, this does not justify their ignorance of issues of social justice. Indeed, the findings highlight the importance of this kind of critical approach with middle class boys in single sex schools. Important implications of this study are that findings contribute to the discovery of ways of changing deeply ingrained ideologies such as perceived gender dichotomies, the masculinization of males and the feminisation of females. My findings also contribute to ways in which privileges, such as whiteness, can be deconstructed and interrogated by those in privileged positions. My findings have potential significant implications for pedagogical practices. Education provides a means by which tools can be utilized to deconstruct and interrogate notices which maintain privileges, and in the study particularly white male privileges. Within the educational systems, an understanding relating to how subjectivities are shaped within a classroom setting will also lead to greater educational insights into how specific texts and classroom interactions affect students’ self representation and understanding. Thus a gender equity and social justice curriculum committed to interrogating the ways in which male students subscribe, invest and negotiate hegemonic masculinities in advocated and has particular relevance to those males already in privileged class positions in terms of working towards a more socially just society.

Thesis PlanB (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Stout, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ed.D.)--Teachers College, Columbia University, 1972. / Typescript; issued also on microfilm. Includes tables. Sponsor: Samuel Ball. Dissertation Committee: Joseph Zubin, David Wilder, . Includes bibliographical references (leaves 81-83).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2004. / Supervisors: Ben A. Harris and Nolan Estes. Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (D.M.A.)--Rutgers University, 2010. / "Graduate Program in Music Education." Includes bibliographical references (p. 70-76).

Thesis (M.S.)--Marshall University, 2002. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains vii, 46 p. Includes bibliographical references (p. 43-46).