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Being ‘nuff’ and ‘scudding class’: exploring girls’ and boys’ perceptions of popularity, gender and achievement in Antiguan secondary schools
Author(s) -
Cobbett Mary
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
british educational research journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.171
H-Index - 89
eISSN - 1469-3518
pISSN - 0141-1926
DOI - 10.1002/berj.3027
Subject(s) - popularity , conformity , psychology , negotiation , perception , academic achievement , peer acceptance , class (philosophy) , focus group , secondary education , peer group , government (linguistics) , social psychology , developmental psychology , mathematics education , sociology , social science , linguistics , philosophy , computer science , anthropology , neuroscience , artificial intelligence
This paper will report on the findings from classroom observations and focus group discussions conducted on the topic of popularity and fitting in at school with girls and boys from four government secondary schools in Antigua. The findings show that whilst boys did experience difficulties negotiating academic success and acceptable masculinities, the consensus was that popularity was associated with low achievement for both girls and boys. However, there was evidence that some girls were able to work hard and maintain better peer relations than other high achieving students, but that this ‘balancing’ required conformity to hetero‐feminine norms as well as the espousal of rigid views about what girls can and can't do. This suggests that real equality is far from being reached.