Needing to be 'in the know': strategies of subordination used by 10-11-year-old schoolboys.

It is important for educators to understand the tactics used in subordination between young people if they are going to take effective measures to counter them in their pedagogical practice. The paper explores strategies used by schoolboys aged 10-11 years to subordinate and position boys at the bottom of the pupil hierarchy. The findings are based on data gathered from a year-long empirical study (between 1998 and 1999) set in three UK junior schools which were differentiated by the social characteristics of their intake. The research emphasizes the role of the body in the construction of masculinity. The hegemonic, or most idealized, form of masculinity at each school was constructed around activity and, in particular, various forms of embodied physicality/athleticism (exemplified through skill, strength, fitness and speed), and boys who did not wish to, or who were unable to, use these resources generally found themselves marginalized and/or subordinated. Many of the subordinated forms were symbolically assimilated to femininity, and the paper proposes that the main strategies of subordination can be summarized under the generic heading of 'difference'. The final section discusses the pervasive use of homophobia and concludes that it should be conceptualized in terms of gender as well as sex. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]