Abstract:
Starting school is a significant cultural and social milestone in the lives of children
(Ramey & Ramey, 1994; Renwick, 1984). However, the experiences of boys making
the transition has not been a particular focus for research. My master's thesis,
'Transforming Masculinities: Boys making the transition from early childhood to
school' (Norris, 1999) explored the transition of four boys from early childhood
education centres to schools, in relation to masculinities.
My interest in researching issues for boys stemmed from my experience as a feminist
mother of sons. In educational terms, I was interested to explore whether frequently
cited and perplexing problems with boys in education (e.g., Arnot, 1984; Askew &
Ross, 1988; Campbell & Brooker, 1991; Kelly, 1986; Mahoney, 1985; Spender,
1980) might be related to anecdotal reports of 'rocky' transitions to compulsory
education made by many boys.
Studies pointed to clear patterns of gender disadvantage suffered by girls in relation
to boys' behaviour at school (Bird, 1992; Newton, 1992) and perhaps furthered the
idea that girls were the 'victims' while boys were the 'perpetrators' in educational
research (Arnot, 1991), cited in Mac an Ghaill, 1994, p. 8). However, questions had
also been raised about the adequacy of previous work on the subject of boys, and the
need to develop more sympathetic understandings of masculinities (McLean, 1997;
Yates, 1997). Despite a burgeoning literature, the subject was often cast in relation to
the 'big picture' (Segal, 1997). It seemed worthy and important to focus on real life
experiences.
I was interested to discover how masculine identities were affected by the transition,
as well as how masculine identities operated in the two settings of early childhood
education and school. The essence of the research became the notion of boys as
'transformers', undergoing changes as they made this highly significant cultural
transition or 'status passage' (Glaser & Strauss, 1971).
