INVISIBLE CURRICULUM OF MASCULINITY: HOW PEER CULTURE IN CO-EDUCATIONAL SCHOOLS SHAPES BOYS' EMOTIONAL SUPPRESSION

Abstract

Schools are not just places for kids to learn arithmetic or science. They are also locations where children are taught how to behave – what it is to be a 'real boy' or a 'real girl.' Here I look at one of the least talked-about, yet most powerful, factors in school life: the hidden curriculum of masculinity. This is the collection of unwritten rules, which guys in co-educational schools are taught by their peer group – that they must hide their feelings, never cry, be tough, keep the emotions in. The study was carried out in five co-educational schools of Kaithal district of Haryana. Structured questionnaire for 180 boys (Class VIII–X), observation sessions and interviews with 15 teachers were employed in mixed-method design. The data indicate that peer culture in schools actively punishes boys’ emotional expression and praises toughness and hostility. Sometimes teachers, without even realizing it, reproduce these norms in their regular language and actions. The report says emotional repression is not an inherent quality of guys, but a socially taught conduct – and that schools have both the power and the obligation to confront it.