School spaces, school places: Shifting masculinities during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

Traditional school spaces have been significant cultural sites in constructing and developing gendered self-identity in young people. However, the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted school spaces displacing the links between schooling, social geographies, and gender in significant ways. Drawing on data from semi-structured interviews with adolescent boys and their parents, this paper provides insight into the performativity and reflexivity of adolescent masculinities pre/during/post-COVID-19 pandemic in the context of shifting educational space(s) and place(s). The findings point to the challenges and possibilities of displacement including the transformation of home and school relations, freedom from surveillance, and the lack of accountability. These findings provoke questions about the socialization of boys in educational spaces and how the challenges and possibilities made clear by the COVID pandemic might extend beyond times of crisis such as the COVID pandemic.