Martin Robb

EXPLORING FATHERHOOD: MASCULINITY AND INTERSUBJECTIVITY IN THE RESEARCH PROCESS

Exploring issues of fatherhood with men raises important questions about how identities are produced in the research process, and particularly about the part played by gender when both researcher and ‘researched’ are men. The article draws on the authors recent research with British fathers and makes extensive use of an individual case study, to suggest ways in which defensive and intersubjective processes interact in the production of one mans narrative of fatherhood and in the process of interpretation and analysis. The articles conclusions have implications both for researching masculinity and for working with men.

Understanding research with children and young people

What do children understand about their worlds? Why do young people behave in certain ways? Research is the key to answering these and many other questions you may have in the course of your work or study. As an introduction to research, this book helps you understand how research is designed and carried out, as well as the particular practical and ethical issues involved in researching with children and young people. A key feature of the book is the examples of “real research” which have been selected to show... • Different methods of collecting data in action • Challenges that arise at various stages of the research process • How findings are used to influence policy and practice.

Doing gender locally: The importance of ‘place’ in understanding marginalised masculinities and young men’s transitions to ‘safe’ and successful futures

Observable anxieties have been developing about the position of boys and young men in contemporary society in recent years. This is expressed as a crisis of masculinity, in which place is often implicitly implicated, but is rarely considered for its role in the shaping of young men’s practices, trajectories and aspirations. Drawing on research conducted with young people who accessed a range of social care support services, this article argues that transition means different things for young men in different locales and that local definitions of masculinity are required to better understand young men’s lives and the opportunities available to them. The authors argue that home life, street life, individual neighbourhoods, regions and nations all shaped the young men’s identities and the practices they (and the staff working with them) drew on in order to create successful futures and ‘safe’ forms of masculinity. It is suggested that this place-based approach has the potential to re-shape the ‘crisis’ discourse surrounding masculinity and the anxieties associated with young men.

Access, Distance Education and the Humanities

This chapter addresses the earliest stages of higher education and, in particular, issues surrounding the preparation of adult students from non-traditional backgrounds for undergraduate study in the humanities. It raises questions about the content and methods of humanities teaching, based on the experience of developing an ‘access to the humanities’ course by distance learning at the UK Open University (UKOU). Drawing on examples from this programme, the chapter promotes a ‘discourse model’ of teaching and learning and discusses the practical consequences of applying a theoretical framework in which learning is conceived as a socio-cultural process of making meaning.