Canada: Globe and Mail - Failing Boys

The Globe and Mail is running a week-long series titled "Is 'failing boys' too simplistic a notion?". Friday, Oct 22 at 12 noon (EDT) is a live discussion with Dr. Wayne Martino of UWO (Canada).

Knowing the ideological nature of UWO academics, I did a bit of further research on Dr. Martino.

His course curriculum in the UWO education department include discussion topics such as white male power and feminist, queer and critical pedagogies.

Quoting from Dr. Martino's paper "What About the Boys, Issues of Masculinity in Schools"

"In this sense feminist educators and theories also inform the perspectives on boys and schooling elaborated in this book. Such perspectives have contributed significantly to producing valuable insights into the links between gender and power"

"In line with the positions taken up in that report, we believe that policy formulation and curriculum development in schools must avoid the popularist tendency to assert a binary oppositional and ‘competing victims’ perspective on the factors impacting on the social and educational experiences of boys and girls"

"the issue that needs to be addressed is the investment that many boys, men and schools have in promoting a particular version of masculinity which is to their detriment in the sense that it limits them from developing a wider repertoire of behaviours and ways of relating. Until a commitment is made, particularly by men and boys themselves, to addressing the role that sexuality, homophobia and misogyny continue to play in how many of them define and negotiate their masculinities, we believe that very little will change."

Reading: http://www.mcgraw-hill.co.uk/openup/chapters/0335206239.pdf