Citation

Connolly P. Child. Soc. 2006; 20(2): 140-152.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2006, National Children's Bureau of the United Kingdom, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/j.1099-0860.2006.00021.x

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This article provides a case study demonstrating the active role that 5- to 6-year-old boys in an English inner-city, multi-ethnic primary school play in the appropriation and reproduction of their masculine identities. It is argued that the emphasis on physicality, violence and racism found among the boys cannot be understood without reference to the immediate contexts of the local community and the school within which they are located. In making this argument the article draws upon and applies the concept of the habitus and develops this with the notion of 'distributed cognition' as proposed in sociocultural theory. Some of the implications of this analysis for working with boys in early years settings are discussed in the conclusion.