Girls and reading: Uncovering 'masculine' girls in classroom contexts

This study moves beyond broad generalizations about boys and girls to consider complexities inherent in the social processes that influence students' engagement in reading. Specifically, this exploration included 297 surveys and 36 interviews with primary aged students from a range of socioeconomic backgrounds. Students were clustered into six groups of participants who presented in a similar manner. While there was an overall tendency for more girls than boys to indicate higher reading achievement, higher reading frequency and higher levels of reading enjoyment these differences were not as significant as expected. While the study aimed to develop understandings about the ways notions of masculinity are constructed among different groups of boys and the influence of these differences on educational experiences such as reading, masculine descriptions of some girls' behaviour, or ‘masculine girls', was an unexpected finding. Also considered is the unexpected finding that for some boys AND girls there were tensions associated with anti-reading peer group cultures.