Research and public attention into boys education has increased in recent times among
an emerging concern about the performance and retention of boys in schools. This
concern, in many ways, constitutes a moral panic (Foster, Kimmel & Skelton, 2001,
p.1) sometimes producing generalised and alarming statements such as all boys are
underachieving in school and are therefore becoming the new disadvantaged (Foster,
et, al., 2001, p.7). Alongside these populist concerns about boys in schools generally, is
an emerging body of contemporary academic studies into early school leaving, (Trent &
Slade, 2001; Smyth, Hattam, Cannon, Edwards, Wilson & Wurst,. 2000; Smyth &
Hattam, 2004) boys experiences of schooling, (Martino & Pallotta-Chiarolli, 2003), as
well as some broader statistical evidence indicating a general decline in school retention
rates in Australia since the early 1990s (Lamb, 1998). Performance in schools
generally, and declining retention rates specifically, has been described as an
unacknowledged national crisis (Smyth & Hattam, 2002, p.375).
This study investigates boys education generally and early school leaving specifically,
by focusing on boys who leave school before completing year 10. The study explores
the stories, meanings and constructed experiences of a small sample (5) of young boys
aged 14 16 years, who have left secondary school just prior to being interviewed.
This is a qualitative critical ethnographic (L. Harvey, 1990) study located within a
constructivist epistemology (Crotty, 1998). It aims to investigate early school leaving
through narrative (Cortazzi, 1993; Way, 1997) and ethnographic inspired analysis
(Robson, 2002) of transcribed interview data. Such analyses are referenced against a
macro socio-political, economic, and cultural context characterised by changing global
socio-economic and political circumstances, especially in regard to how these impact on
schools and future possibilities for young people (Spierings, 2002). It seeks further
understanding by drawing from a framework of concepts that invoke discussion of
school culture, identity practices and how these are inferred (Smyth & Hattam, 2004),
produced, understood and enacted within schools and social contexts.
This study reveals that schools (as cultural and institutional practices) co-construct the
often painful, lengthy and contradictory processes and experiences of early school
leaving. Early school leaving therefore needs to be seen as an institutional and not
merely personal or individual phenomenon. Appreciating the way schools assist in the
process of early school leaving is important to understand, as it is within this domain
that alternative educational practices can be located, constructed and enacted. It is
hoped that this study will contribute to the current public policy debates on boys in
schools, and as such be seen as an important contribution to public discourses and
policy processes that help shape responses to boys in schools in general, and early
school leaving in particular.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/221765 |
| Date | January 2006 |
| Creators | D.Hodgson@ecu.edu.au, David Rodney Hodgson |
| Publisher | Murdoch University |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | http://www.murdoch.edu.au/goto/CopyrightNotice, Copyright David Rodney Hodgson |
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