‘Mum, Girls can do anything.

What can I do?’ - Boy

Check your responses to the scrum activity? Did you experience:

•Enthusiasm•Caution?•Shyness at physical contact?•Fear of being hurt?•Fear of touch?•Scorn ?•Criticism?•Glee?•Relief at some physical movement ?•Resentment?•Frustration?•Rejection?•Disobedience for any of the reasons above?This may be your response to boys in schools and what they

ask, demand and bring

In 2009 there were 60% more female graduates from tertiary education than male. Stats. NZ

Prof. David Fergusson: Dunedin study. Boys are behind in all subjects, at all levels. 1996

Report 2007 provided no recommendations only named the issues.

This is an international phenomena Other countries are doing better Effort is coming from teachers not the system

•90-95% of RTLB referral are boys•80-95% police youth engagement•Illiteracy 80-90% male•Prison population 80-85% male. Literacy and numeracy are key rehabilitation factors•Unemployment figures show more men becoming unemployed/unemployable than women.•Graduates of tertiary ed. 60% more women each year•Do we have a feminised system ?

Primary 1971 37.8 % male teachers in

primary 2006 14% report (2006)Early childhood ECE 1992 2.1% ECE Now under 1% and rising (Farquhar

1997) Norway (10%).

We celebrate that girls can do anything We shudder at the effect of boys not

being able to achieve to their fullness and the way boys and men handle those effects. As with Maori education this becomes a human rights issue.

Efforts to address inequality for boys have been slow and defensive. Practitioners have tended to see the problem as boy-owned rather than a systemic problem.

The analysis has not been client-centred. It suggests that the system is OK and concludes boys need to improve within the system.

There is little evidence of positive discrimination which might rectify this situation. A learner-centred approach that examines differences, needs and solutions is required.

Teachers are making the difference not policy

Boys have differences from girls that are both social constructions and genetic.(nature and nurture)

How much of either is not the issue.When they arrive in our care they are different.

If we are teaching and caring in a child-centred manner then we will respect those differences.

Rugby provides us with an appropriate metaphorical structure!Crouch, Touch, Pause Engage and

Score

  Crouch: to embrace active mission-based learning

within order and security

Touch: The body is the learning tool, kinesthetic learning, action

Pause: Consider content that activates boy’s interest  Engage: Involve men in inspirational leadership that

generates, models aspirational intention.

Score: Getting across the line to achieve results, completion, endings, achievement of aspirations

Crouch: Poise, get ready, to embrace active mission-based learning within structure, order and security.

Purposeful mission-based intention: goes somewhere for a reason. Has goal/try line and results/score

Order and security: rules, consequences, boss, fairness

Structure: compartmentalised, linear, clear framework, may be graduated, clear rewards, predictable.

Crouch: to embrace active mission-based learning Aspiration? Order and security orient on the goal and mission, embrace active mission-based learning

Touch: The body is the learning tool, kinesthetic learning, action.

Doing: Active and kinaesthetic is the way to learn, action methods, manipulating an environment, creating 3D (solid) and 2D (visual) fields to work in.

Success/solution is by doing something Touch boys and allow and encourage touch Kinaesthetic relating to boys: Holding arms,

hands/pat on backs Rough and tumble. Boys experience power

physically. Play through touch: wrestling, rugby, holding,

contact sport, martial arts Reassurance of strength, warmth, intention.

Boys are much less auditory. Talk less, give short instructions, one step at a time. Women reduce your vocab to one third.

Outdoor activity, large motor movement Produce things, concrete results of labour Less focus on the emotional and verbal TV and film programming for males express this

difference well Video games know about this world of

kinaesthetic action and achievement When under threat males will go ‘into a cave’ and

sort out a doing solution before talking about it. Doing links to the linear thinking

Pause to consider content and process that activates a boy’s interest

Factual, comparative, measured Cause-effect Goal oriented: treasure discovery, search,

hunt, fix, find out, resolve a problem, achieve, find the unknown.

Good for problem solving, fixing things, inventing things

Action, movement from one point to another, speed, balls, wheels, directional movement

Danger, suspense, terror, uncertainty, adventure

Associated with robustness and aggression

Gives drive, focus, purpose and intention. Sensitive to hierarchy, power and order. Consider Linear Thinking Strong focussing on one thing, purposeful and may

eliminate the peripheral Finds out how things work Begins and follows to a conclusion or solution Sometimes called scientific, rational, logical or

cause/effect Active and moves directionally to an end Tends to be black and white Seeks boundaries and compartments

Involve men in inspirational leadership that generates, aspirational intention.

Boys are hungry for engagement with men Attract and keep and value male teachers Engage fathers and involve them for their own

worth Engage, welcome and involve parents not

living with the child. Share fathers and use mentoring schemes Ask future based questions that lead the child

to connect the present with meaningful activity now

Establish intention in vocation and /or hold vocation for the boy

Provide heroes: super and local Create affirmation and foster male self

esteem Respect masculinity and different ways of

doing things Foster leadership and give responsibility

that involves both achievement and nurture.

Ask who would you be like? Who would you be?

Get across the line to achieve results, completion, endings, achievement of aspirations

Is there a satisfactory completion and ending?

Notice linear learning and solutions, outcomes, results, completions, endings resolutions.

Did you score?

Understand Linear Thinking Promote problem solving, fixing things, inventing

things for a clear goal Give all the time needed for that goal Allow projects to be kept so that they can be finished Focussing on one thing at a time Promote purposeful completion Reward and acknowledge results not just process Finding out how things work is a goal of exploration Begin and follows to a conclusion or solution What was the score/measure, numbers, Value the scientific, rational, logical or cause/effect Allow it to be active and move directionally to an end Allow for black and white responses and answers Notice boundaries and compartments

In a world where differences have not been acknowledged, the use of feminised processes and content has been assumed as normal and generic, when in fact it has discriminated against boys’ achievement.

Boys can do anything! Validation for being boys Generate action, mission and challenge Foster creation, invention, risk-taking Foster Care and nurture Challenge the

‘feminine-sides’ theory. Men and women do the same things but in different ways.

Protection, Fierceness and competition self and others, when it’s over it’s over.

A Male underclass A ‘Cool to fool’ culture Drop out Gangs Achievement by alternative means Poor health and wellbeing

Equality Living fairness Greater appreciation of diversity Increased aspiration Reduced dysfunction in schools Balanced parenting and responsibility More love for kids Better health for males Increased social wellbeing Increased happiness for those giving

and caring

  Crouch: to embrace active mission-based learning

within order and security

Touch: The body is the learning tool, kinesthetic learning, action

Pause: Consider content that activates boy’s interest  Engage: Involve men in inspirational leadership that

generates, models aspirational intention.

Score: Getting across the line to achieve results, completion, endings, achievement of aspirations

Presentation by:

Warwick Pudney AUT University

9219999 ext 7729warwick.pudney@aut.ac.nz