ABSTRACT
Research on pupils’ responses to schooling has been greatly influenced by work on resistance (Willis, 1977; Giroux, 1983), feminist research on female adolescents (McRobbie, 1978; Anyon, 1983; Davies, 1984) and the theorizing of ‘race’ and schooling (Wright, 1987a,b, 1992; Mac an Ghaill, 1988; Gillborn, 1990). Work has begun to detail the production of early masculinities through the exploration of male pupils’ responses to school (Connell, 1989; Mac an Ghaill, 1995). School masculinities have also been linked with constructs of ‘race’ (Sewell, 1997). Thus, there now exists a plethora of research on both gendered and racialized processes of teacher/school stereotyping and pupils resistance and contestation in schools. These various pieces of research have provided important theoretical and empirical insights into the experiences of African-Caribbean and Asian pupils in school. However, in neglecting specific aspects of the interrelation of ‘race’ and gender in Black pupil identities, some theorists have only offered a partial view of racialized pupils’ responses. The focus on ‘race’ and schooling, as with other research on Black subcultural forms, has too often concentrated on the experiences of black males, thus equating black identities and forms of resistance with masculinity (Mama, 1995; Weekes, 1996). Similarly, the current educational climate has highlighted the increasing exclusion of African-Caribbean males from school, and focused on the anti-school attitudes of black male pupils. This entirely negates the important work that has shown black pupils’ pro-, as well as anti-, school responses within education (Fuller, 1982; Furlong, 1984; Sewell, 1997). . . .
