Mary Jane Kehily

Playing it straight: Masculinities, homophobias and schooling

Abstract The paper looks at the ways homophobias are expressed by young men in school. We focus on the verbal and physical manifestation of these displays to question the relation this has to the formation of hetrosexual masculinities. Our analysis suggests male identities are being worked out at a performative level where homophobic practices are fused with the struggle for a particular masculinity. Such investments illustrate why homophobia is so difficult to challenge within male peer groups. Throughout the research several questions arose: Why is homophobia rife within the cultures of young men? How are these views expressed in school? What functions does homophobia serve for pupil cultures and schooling? To begin to interpret some of these questions we adopt an ethnographic approach that reveals the internal dimensions of homophobic performances. Our work focuses on the complex inter relationships of masculinity, homophobia and schooling.

‘The Christmas Kiss’: sexuality, story‐telling and schooling

ABSTRACT The article arises out of a research project concerned with sexuality and schooling. By exploring the various constructions of a pupil narrative we aim to develop an analysis of the complex meanings sexuality has in schools. The focus is on sexualised exchanges between teachers and pupils to explore the various ways sexuality is employed in schools. We draw out the complex dimensions of power in these exchanges that run through teacher/pupil relations and have a bearing on classroom practices.

Charver Kids and Pram-face Girls: Working-Class Youth, Representation and Embodied Performance

The invocation of the ‘chav’ in these examples from the Urban Dictionary conjures up well-worn responses to a substratum of working-class youth, laden with disgust and condemnation. As shorthand for the unrespectable poor, Little Britain’s pram-pushing character Vicky Pollard serves as a recognizable representation of the modern-day ‘chav’. With her scrunched-back hair, day-glo tracksuit, hooped ear rings and predilection for smoking, drinking and swearing, Vicky Pollard’s chav identity is written on the body. Transnational depictions of ‘trailer park trash’ in the United States, ‘bogans’ in Australia, ‘neds’ in Scotland, ‘pikies’, ‘scallies’, ‘hoodies’ and ‘chavs’ in England are all ways in which those who are young, poor and white are brought into being in the contemporary global era. While a number of authors have critically discussed these representations, producing rich insight into the reworking of social class delineations in late-modernity (e.g., Adams and Raisborough, 2011; Hayward and Yar, 2006; Jones, 2011; Lawler, 2005; Tyler, 2008), surprisingly few have sought to engage with the voices of dispossessed youth themselves. Little is known about how young people speak back to these representations, transfigure or dissent from them.

Fragments from a fading career: Personal narratives and emotional investments

Abstract In this paper I aim to document the personal journey by which I became interested in researching issues of sexuality and schooling. Something which has now become an academic quest did not start out as such. Through the use of memory‐work to generate personal narratives, I draw upon incidents from my early career as a teacher as the basis for the recollection and analysis of this personal journey. The article illustrates the ways in which my present research interest is inextricably linked to my biography as a teacher and my political and emotional investments in certain forms of pedagogic practice. Finally, the article suggests that the use of memory‐work can be a productive approach as a method for research and as a mode of analysis.