The gendered subjectivities of high-achieving pupils

<p>Abstract copyright data collection owner.</p>The project explores high-achieving pupils' constructions and performances of gender and learning. A large body of work has established how educational achievement is bound up with gender, and with popularity/peer-group status. Educational achievement can have an adverse affect for pupils' ability to perform gender positions that are acceptable to their peers; and consequently an adverse affect on popularity and status among classmates. Hence the project will also address the issue of status/popularity. High achievement does not necessarily equate with being labelled a 'swot' or 'boffin': some pupils achieve high levels of educational attainment and simultaneously remain popular with classmates and retain social status. The specific constructions of gender and learning adopted by such pupils potentially hold important implications for the debates around social identity and achievement. The project will involve interviews and classroom observation with 60 high achieving pupils (30 girls, 30 boys) from Year 8. At least a third of the sample will comprise pupils who are identified as generally popular and esteemed by classmates, as well as being high achieving. Our findings and analysis will develop theory in the area of gender and achievement, as well as informing wider policy and research debates around social identity and educational achievement