Dissertation
Critically examining men, masculinities, and culture: Boys in crisis and male teachers as role models
Washington State University
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Washington State University
05/2009
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7273/000006151
Abstract
This study is a Foucauldian analysis of the discourse of masculinity with a particular focus on education and schooling. Specifically, the author addresses a recent phenomenon in education known as the "boy crisis" and the related call for the recruitment of more male teachers to serve as "role models" for boys and young men. Utilizing Foucauldian archaeological methodologies, the author first critically examines several discursive fields from different historical periods and academic disciplines. In doing so, he reveals numerous historical ruptures and discontinuities and demonstrates how concepts such as masculinity, boyhood, and "male role models" are perpetually constructed and reconstructed to sustain existing power apparatuses. Next, the popular written news media discourse about the "boy crisis" and "male role models" from the United States from 1997 to 2007 is scrutinized utilizing Foucauldian genealogical methodologies. In this examination, the author identifies several dominant themes within the discourse that are highly influenced by and uncritically assume certain "commonsense beliefs" about masculinity, boyhood, and male role models. He also locates a number of alternatives discourses that reveal a wider range of possibilities and the means of resistance for male teachers and students like. Finally, the author concludes by proposing that educators, regardless of gender, consider adopting a "mythopoetic model of transgression"--a profeminist, socially-just theoretical model based on cross-cultural myths and mythological archetypes.
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Details
- Title
- Critically examining men, masculinities, and culture
- Creators
- Brandon M. Sternod
- Contributors
- Pamela Bettis (Chair)Dawn M. Shinew (Committee Member)Michael T Hayes (Committee Member)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- College of Education
- Theses and Dissertations
- Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Washington State University
- Publisher
- Washington State University
- Number of pages
- 230
- Identifiers
- 99901055024501842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Dissertation