ABSTRACT
Black boys are loved and loathed at school. They are heroes and standard bearers of hip-hop culture and athleticism in schools, while simultaneously experiencing disproportionate levels of punishment and academic marginality. This positionality, as Tony Sewell (1997) suggests, between being ‘the darling of popular youth subculture’ and ‘the sinner in the classroom’ has lead to a range of behaviors, strategies, and constructions within and beyond school that frames the overall educational experience of Black boys. How do these boys respond to a context that defines them as both ‘sexy and as sexually threatening’ and purchase a space in schools that is self-maintained and reproductive? Because schools are important sites for gendered learning and development, they are also useful contexts to explore how students adapt to and make sense of their masculine position within these academic settings (Gilbert and Gilbert 1998).
