ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses on research from the post-structuralist feminist perspective. This approach draws on the concept of 'othering' to expose the exclusionary normative gender regimes as they operate in society and within the classroom. Inequalities that operate through social structures and institutions remain significant, but the post-structuralist perspective focuses particularly on the importance of discourse and the way in which gender subjectivities are constantly being made. The gay liberation movement undermined the notions of sex roles and gender stereotypes and, along with concerns about ethnicity, challenged the idea that patriarchy and traditional masculine roles could fully explain what was happening in the classroom. Research about masculinities in schools has increasingly moved to questioning the divisions between hegemonic and other masculinities, seeing these as less distinct than assumed in earlier work. There is a new emerging 'inclusive masculinity' and emerging forms of femininity and masculinity influenced by developments that affect young people and adults within and beyond the school walls.
