With the rise of the manosphere and social media influencers such as Andrew Tate, the outcomes of working-class boys in education – and their behaviour in wider society – has become a regular subject of debate.
We’ve known about working-class men’s educational ‘failure’ for nearly half a century. But still today only 40 per cent of young men who were eligible for free school meals achieved grades from 9 to 4 in GCSE English and maths, data shows.
For FE colleges, that means a big proportion of the 280,000 students undertaking Level 2 English and Maths resits each year will be working-class young men.
In my book Lost Boys: How Education is Failing Young Working Class Men, I engage with why this is happening, and what can be done.
Social codes
The reasons are complex. They’re linked to preconceptions held by educators, and the messages transmitted to young men through our societal structures: a strict code of expectations surrounding what being a man ‘should’ mean, especially if you are from a working-class background. For decades this complexity has been overlooked.
Rather than being discussed as young men with a broad array of likes, interests and hopes for the future, they have been positioned as anti-authoritarian, morally lacking, aggressive and lacking aspiration.
Political speeches and newspaper headlines communicate messages which are slowly moulded into a collective understanding.
In short, we’ve done an incredible job of convincing ourselves that they are the problem. That their educational ‘failure’ is a conscious, independent choice.
In the caricature we have created, there is no room to see, let alone understand, the link between the young men and the inequalities they experience.
Working class boys’ masculinity is eroded by pernicious social actors
For years we have shied away from work and projects which directly target resources toward working-class boys because of fears over perpetuating gender-based inequalities further.
However, in the gap left by our collective inaction, we now find education of another form. Taught through mobile phones and three-minute videos, young men learn their traditional role as breadwinners is under threat. That their masculinity and power is being eroded by pernicious social actors who wish to emasculate them.
All the while, our collective inaction plays right into their hands. The emergence of Tate and his cronies demonstrate that, rather than targeted work with young men being optional, the rise in misogynistic social media content has made it a necessity.
The first step has to be recognition that until now, we’ve been getting the conversation badly wrong. As an educational community we need to understand that the patriarchal structures of the world around us are a sword that cuts both ways.
They harm young men and women alike in ways which are distinct, but wickedly complementary.
For men, the injuries relate to mental ill health and suicide, entry into the criminal justice system and homelessness. For women they rear their ugly head in gender pay gaps, sexual harassment and violence against women and children.
It is a set of societal conditions which benefits very few. It is imperative that we create opportunities for young men to connect in spaces where their voice is valued and valuable. Not by focusing on perceived deficiencies, nor by focusing on what they can be in the future. But by focusing on who they can be in the future. By working to cultivate the conditions where a happy, healthy future isn’t an abstract hope or ambition, but rather an expectation.
Boys’ impact
For the last 10 years I’ve been reflecting on the need for equitable change in the educational ecosystems surrounding young men. This led me to become the founder of Boys’ Impact in 2023.
As a network of educators, researchers and practitioners, we create ecosystems in research, policy and practice which enable boys and young men who experience socio-economic inequality to flourish. We’re still very much at the beginning of our journey.
This year we’ve conducted over 25 pilot projects in schools. Next year, we’d love it if FE colleagues would join us.
Lost Boys: How Education is Failing Young Working Class Men is published on July 11 by Policy Press
Preorder here: https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/lost-boys
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