"The Stony Silence Thing": Contextual Subversion of Ideologies About Gender and Literacy in English Classes

• In Event: 75.042 - MTCC Roundtable Session 34
  In Roundtable Session: 75.042-10 - Hanging Onto Truths: Why Language Must Remain Key to the Study of Social Learning Processes

Abstract

Scholarly responses to the “boy turn” (Weaver Hightower, 2003; Weaver-Hightower, 2009) in educational research grapple differently with young men’s putative literacy deficits (NCES, 2011; OECD, 2014; NCES, 2015). Difference-driven (e.g. Smith & Wilhelm, 2002; Brozo, 2010) and (pro)feminist (Martino & Kehler, 2007; Lingard & Douglas, 1999) responses both orient themselves around ideologies about gender difference in English class, but (pro)feminists disrupt these ideologies while difference-driven scholars rely upon them in their approaches and interventions. Surprisingly little research, however, investigates students’ own perceptions and management of local ideas about gender and literacy.

To include and understand students’ stories, I propose a theoretical construct called ‘ideologies about gender and literacy,’ defined as highly naturalized belief systems about how given gender performances do or do not work in relation to literacy practices. The definition links to Street’s (1995) ideological model of literacy, Butler’s (2007) theory of gender performativity and resistance, and Connell’s (2005) definition of hegemonic masculinities. These theorists argue that gender and literacy are ideologically freighted and created locally and relationally, and this definition prizes both the relevance of ideologies about gender difference and students’ moves to subvert the ideologies.

To surface ideologies and subversions, I conducted voluntary, semi-structured interviews (Seidman, 2006) with all sixteen students in Stan and Greta’s high school English class. The interviews focused on students’ interpretations of the role (if any) of gender and gender stereotypes in English classes. Data collection included six weeks of classroom observation and notes (Emerson, Fretz, & Shaw 1995). I coded interviews with an inductive / interpretive model of analysis (Hatch, 2002), identifying broad categories of ideologies emerging from students’ responses.

Interviews and class observations reveal that Stan and Wanda were perceived, both by themselves and their classmates, as subverting locally-defined ideologies about gender and literacy circulating in their classroom. Stan confronted a localized version of the young men’s literacy deficit narrative in which English class was perceived as a site of female passion and success. He draws on the language of the ideology only to reject it: “I used to do the manly stony silence thing in class discussion, but that's just stupid cause I have things to contribute.” Greta subverted a different ideology, that female students should be engaged, but also “respectful,” when issues of gender-based social justice arose in the class curriculum (e.g. Hero’s mistreatment in Much Ado about Nothing). She, like Stan, uses the language of the ideology to subvert it: “I probably won't be as respectful cause I'll probably be really like aggressive about it.” Wanda and Stan subvert pernicious ideologies about gender and literacy not by eliding them but rather by crystalizing ideologies for subversion.

These findings suggest that locally circulating ideologies about gender and literacy in English class can be productive performative resources for students. Stan and Greta rely heavily on these ideologies—in order to define themselves and their work in class against them. One implication, then, is a pedagogical and scholarly approach that seeks to manage the contextual salience of such ideologies.

Author

• Christopher Parsons, Keene State College