The literature review points to a change in the idea of a ‘traditional’ construction of masculinity; one which relies on the advantage of physical strength to take up the patriarchal role of the breadwinner. Instead, contemporary boys must be prepared for a workplace which requires more emphasis on the skills of literacy – both written and communicative. This shift appears to be evident in the connection made by the boys between school and future employment. One important recurring pattern in both the focus groups and individual interviews was the
connection between SATs/academic success and the future. There was clearly a message being reinforced that doing well in school, even at the primary stage, was essential for a ‘good’ job later in life. This message had been so successfully conveyed that many of the boys gave this as the reason to perform well in SATs, even as early as Year 4. The connection with jobs and future income was directly related to a SATs grade in the minds of boys such as Sam, so that there was already some element of boys accepting a future status based on performance at Primary School. Indeed, future employment was spoken of as an important part in constructing their future status as men:
J: Would you prefer it if there were no SATs?
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J: Why is it important to you to do well?
Moses: I want to do well because this is like what primary school has been leading me up to, and I also want to do well because then I sort of do good in lots of things in the future, so yes. J: So you mean like a job and things like that?
Moses: Yes
J: What kind of job would you like to do? Moses: Something of engineer type thing.
(Year 4, group discussion)
J: Is it important to be good at schoolwork to you?
Rob: Yes, because you can get good jobs by it. If you don’t like schoolwork and you’re a bit lazy with it, I think you’re just not going to get very far in life
J: What kind of job do you think you might get?
Rob: I want to be an engineer when I’m older, like making quite famous stuff....I’m going to be an aeronautical engineer so I’m going to make planes.
J: ....And you need a good education for that?
Rob: Yes
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J: Ok, is it important to you to get a good result [in your SATS]
Sam: Yes
J: Why?
Sam : Because if you get a good result, then you know what you can do, and then you know what sort of job you can get.
(Year 5, interview)
J: Why do you think it’s important to do well at school? Isaac: So when you’re older you can get a good job
(Year 5, interview)
This sentiment was echoed by all of the boys in Year 4 and it is this connection between grades and future employment which gives the testing its value and purpose. This notion was somewhat ingrained as at the first attempt to try and lead the boys away from the idea of ‘success’ as solely relating to grades there was a move to make a connection to the process of achieving academically rather than on other ways of being ‘successful’:
J: Is it important to be good at your schoolwork?
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Isaac T: I would say most of the time Jay: After I want to get a good job
J: So it’s important to you to get a good job? Are there any other reasons why you want to be successful?
Nick: Maybe just like to get better grades, to get a really good job Callum: So you can be clever
J: So it’s important to be clever?
All: Yes
J: So, what other ways can you be successful at school Nick: Getting things right
Toby: Better concentrating
(Year 4, group discussion)
As the interviews move through to older groups in Year 5, it is apparent that the concern with future employment prospects has become more entrenched so that there is even a questioning of content of study and how it is connected to ‘real’ life situations and the world of work. Literature such as the Boys Commission Report (Literacy Trust, 2012), outlines how boys’ education should be delivered in
practical and active ways which relate to real life situations, advice which is also echoed in reports on good practice such as that of Warrington and Younger (2005). It is therefore unclear whether the focus on employment which has been
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instilled into the boys is driven by pedagogic recommendations adopted by teachers or simply a reflection of adult concerns for their future:
Moses: I’ve drawn a real house before which could actually be possible. I watched like this...my dad sometimes builds buildings and things for people and he had a bag of cement and I found out how much per brick, how much for that, and I measured out how much everything would be, how many glass panes I would need and everything. So I think that would definitely help if I wanted to be an engineer.
(Year 5, interview)
The competitive environment of school had been transposed onto the future so that even in discussion there is an underlying implication that jobs will indicate status. This is alluded to in the ‘one-up- man-ship’ of George’s ‘good job’ versus Nick’s ‘decent, good job’. Year 5 also sees the beginning of some agency in terms of critiquing the teacher, not simply in terms of personality, but in doing a
satisfactory job in teaching. There is a perceptible shift in the balance of power as the pupils grasp that they are ‘customers’ and the teacher is the ‘service provider’ which is perhaps driven by the modern consumer society culture:
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Nick: I think she’s pushing us too hard on the literacy, not the maths. Isaac: Yes
Matthew: Maths is getting a bit too easy.
Nick: I mean, we’re doing stuff that might not even help us. Like we’re doing stuff from work during the winter
Lewis: Which doesn’t really get you through life. Nick: Yes, it doesn’t really help you through life.
J: Are you bothered about school and how it gets you though life? Isaac: Yes, I am.
Nick: Because I want to get a job. George: I want to get a good job.
Nick : I want to get a decent, good job
J: Right then, so if I ask you then what is it, what does it mean to you to be successful at school. What would you need to have achieved to be successful?
Nick: Get, like, good levels Adam: Good grades
(Year 5, group discussion)
The projection of the future was often quite detailed in the individual interviews and suggested that this had been thought about by the boys as plans were already in place for the direction their lives would take. This included quite mature
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projections even amongst boys in Year 5, as exemplified by Adam. Certainly there was a firm grasp on the idea that the income provided by a job could impact upon quality of life so that the consumer society was very much in evidence:
J: You said it’s important to do well in your subjects. Why is it important? Adam: So that you can get a good job in life
J: ...is it important to have money?
Adam: Yes, because if you don’t have any money, where are you going to get your clothes, your house, buy your kids anything?
(Year 5, interview)
J: So you just said to me that, you know, it’s a dream because you make a lot of money. Do you think it’s important to make a lot of money? Isaac: Oh it depends if you want a lot of money or you don’t, but I would have
a lot of money because you’d be able to go on lots of holidays, get a nice house
J: Do you think you’d be happier if you had a lot of money and a decent job?
Isaac: Yes
J: Yes? Do you think most people would agree with you on that one? Isaac: Yes
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The importance of good jobs was expressed by all of the boys and for those in the final year, boyhood dreams were tempered with some mature and realistic
consideration of what was possible to the extent that for Jon, there was already a ‘plan B’ in place should his dreams of the premiership not be achieved. This implied a certain level of fear that not achieving academically would leave the participants vulnerable in the future; whatever the field, the future appeared to be an environment where everything must be competed for and the boys felt the need to prepare themselves for this:
J: Are you in...what [football] academy are you in? Stonetown?...if you’re really, really good and you’re in the Academy then, do people look up to you because of that? Do people think, wow, that’s cool to be in the academy?
Jon: Yes, but you’ve got to work hard at school as well Seb: Oh, Jon, you don’t really
Jon: You’ve got to...even if you’re great, you’ve got to make plans if you.. Peter: Because not everybody will get into the top premiership team so
you’ve still got to work hard..
J: Do you think about the future, Peter and getting a good job? Peter: Yes
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J: Do you think it’s important to work hard at school to get a good job? Peter: Yes
Seb: Yes
(Year 6, group discussion)