ABSTRACT
This chapter presents our reasons for embarking on this book and our aims in bringing it to publication. It goes on to explain how some of the terms which recur throughout the book are defined by us and, finally, to outline the book’s structure. The book arises from our discomfort about, and disagreement with, discourses surrounding what is regarded as male ‘underachievement’ and ‘under-representation’ in some forms of education. Briefly, these discourses rest on claims that there is currently a ‘crisis of masculinity’ or at the very least increasing confusion regarding the character of masculinity and men’s position in relation to the family, the economy, the state and civil society. These concerns have been expressed by writers in countries including Australia (Biddulph 1995, 1997), Aotearoa New Zealand (Lashlie 2005), the United States of America (Faludi 1999; Tiger 1999; Mansfield 2006; Sax 2009, 2010); and the United Kingdom (McGivney 1999, 2004; Sutherland and Marks 2001). Issues of boys’ educational achievement and men’s participation in education are also a topic of debate among practitioners and policy makers. It has been argued by some that boys and men are increasingly educationally disadvantaged relative to girls and women. Whilst this discourse has been effectively challenged in relation to schooling (Epstein et al.1998; Francis and Skelton 2005; Skelton et al.2006; Archer and Francis 2007), it persists in and pervades the field of lifelong learning and adult and community education (ACE).
