Boys, Masculinities and Reading ─ Gender Identity and Literacy As Social Practice

Boys, Masculinities and Reading explores elementary students’ interpretations of their experiences of reading and the contextual influences that impact those experiences. While research continues to highlight the apparent systematic underperformance of boys in comparison to girls on national and international reading benchmarks, this text moves beyond broad generalizations to consider complexities inherent in notions of masculinity and associated tensions. Applying a socio-cultural perspective, Scholes highlights the voices of boys and girls by focusing on their reading experiences. Examining the perceived, generalized "crisis" of boys’ underperformance in reading and literacy, Scholes identifies the factors that shape perceptions of masculinity among different groups of boys across the globe.

Laura Scholes is an Australian Research Council Research Fellow in the School of Early Childhood and Inclusive Education at Queensland University of Technology, Australia.