Good boys are problems too!

Abstract

The ‘problem’ of boys' achievement in the United Kingdom has emerged as part of a policy response to a crisis in the post-war social settlement. Post-Fordism has become the dominant meta-policy of education reform in the United Kingdom, constituting both policy problems and solutions as gender-neutral. However, the economic and political transformations these policy approaches attempt to deal with are deeply gendered and require an appropriate gender politics. This article demonstrates that even in classrooms where boys engage positively with the curriculum, a gender order based on difference and hierarchy are instituted. This article argues that the gender-blind approach of the United Kingdom government lends itself to a cultural politics of gender restoration.