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The article also outlines the Success for Boys program introduced in 2006 to help teachers address complexity and counter populism while improving outcomes for boys and girls.",{"@graph":14,"@context":73},[15,34,56],{"@type":16,"itemListElement":17},"BreadcrumbList",[18,23,27,31],{"item":19,"name":20,"@type":21,"position":22},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",1,{"item":24,"name":25,"@type":21,"position":26},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":28,"name":29,"@type":21,"position":30},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/","Research & Report",3,{"item":32,"name":10,"@type":21,"position":33},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/swimming-against-the-tide-boys-literacies-and-schooling-an-australian-story/597292/",4,{"url":32,"name":10,"@type":35,"image":36,"author":41,"headline":10,"publisher":44,"fileFormat":47,"inLanguage":8,"description":12,"dateModified":48,"datePublished":49,"encodingFormat":47,"isAccessibleForFree":50,"interactionStatistic":51},"DigitalDocument",{"url":37,"@type":38,"width":39,"height":40},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/swimming-against-the-tide-boys-literacies-and-schooling-an-australian-story/597292.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":42,"@type":43},"Blue Pony","Person",{"url":19,"name":45,"@type":46},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-11-03","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":52,"interactionType":53,"userInteractionCount":55},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":54},"ViewAction",8,{"@type":57,"mainEntity":58},"FAQPage",[59,65,69],{"name":60,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":62},"What is the central focus of the article?","Question",{"text":63,"@type":64},"The article focuses on issues involving boys, literacies, and schooling in the Australian context, analyzing how public discourse shapes educational agendas.","Answer",{"name":66,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":67},"Why does the article question claims about boys failing at school?",{"text":68,"@type":64},"It argues that momentum for a boys’ agenda can be wrongheaded because it relies on overly simple data analyses; disaggregating data reveals a more complex picture.",{"name":70,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":71},"What is the Success for Boys program and why is it included?",{"text":72,"@type":64},"Introduced in Australia in 2006, the Success for Boys professional learning program encourages teachers to grapple with the complexity of the issues and counter populist “boys versus girls” simplifications to improve success for boys and girls.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":32,"og:type":75,"og:title":10,"og:site_name":45,"og:description":12},"article",{"robots":77,"canonical":32},"index,follow",{"doc_id":79,"site_id":7},597292,1792188687,{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":83},"success",[84,88,92,96,101,106,111,114,119,122,126],{"id":22,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":85,"show_sort_weight":86,"slug":87},"Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":26,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":89,"show_sort_weight":90,"slug":91},"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":33,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":93,"show_sort_weight":94,"slug":95},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":97,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":98,"show_sort_weight":99,"slug":100},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":102,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":103,"show_sort_weight":104,"slug":105},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":107,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":108,"show_sort_weight":109,"slug":110},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":55,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":29,"show_sort_weight":112,"slug":113},30,"research-report",{"id":115,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":116,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":118},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":117,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":120,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":121},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":123,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":124,"show_sort_weight":123,"slug":125},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":127,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":128,"show_sort_weight":97,"slug":129},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":131},{"doc_id":79,"user_id":132,"nickname":42,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":55,"category_name":29,"doc_title":10,"doc_description":12,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":55,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":22,"is_downloadable":22,"audit_status":22,"page_count":139,"language":140,"language_code":8,"site_id":7,"html_lang":8,"table_of_contents":141,"faqs":142,"seo_title":143,"seo_description":12,"update_tm":144,"read_time":99,"preview_page_count":4},962090760266,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_276721f389ce27ea32af1340a28f341c","SWIMMING AGAINST THE TIDE: BOYS, LITERACIES, AND SCHOOLING – AN AUSTRALIAN STORY  \nNola Alloway James Cook University  \nThis article focuses on issues related to boys, literacies, and schooling as played out in the Australian context. It reflects on the swathe of populist discourse centring on boys, and on literacy, that drives a potentially divisive education agenda. In providing more nuanced analyses of the debates surrounding the disputed territory of boys, literacies, and schooling, the article offers examples of disaggregated literacy test data to demonstrate the importance of adopting a “which boys” and “which girls” approach to the issues. The article also provides brief coverage of the Success for Boys program, introduced in Australia in 2006, that encourages teachers to swim against the tide of populism by embracing the agenda in all of its complexity.  \nKey words: gender, literacy achievement, schooling  \nCet article porte sur des questions reliées aux garçons, aux littératies et à l’école dansun contexte australien. L’auteure étudie les multiples discours populistes sur les garçons et la littératie susceptibles d’entraîner une approche fractionnelle en éducation. Tout en fournissant une analyse nuancée des débats entourant le territoire contesté des garçons, les littératies et l’école, l’article fournit des exemples de données de tests de littératie non regroupées qui démontrent l’importance de distinguer de « quels garçons » et de « quelles filles » il s’agit. En outre, l’article présentebrièvement un programme lancé en 2006, Success for Boys, qui incite les enseignants à nager à contre‐courant du populisme en adoptant un point de vue qui tient compte detoute la complexité de l’éducation.  \nMots clés : genre, rendement en littératie, éducation  \n_______________________  \nCANADIAN JOURNAL OF EDUCATION 30, 2 (2007): 582‐605  \nIn Australia, as in other countries – New Zealand, Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom, for instance – the educational gaze over the past decade has turned towards boys. At a national level, serious concerns have been expressed, and generous federal funds have been invested in improving learning outcomes for boys in Australian schools, a case that has been mirrored nationally elsewhere (Educational Review Office [ERO], 1999; ERO, 2000; Ofice for Standards in Education [Ofsted]/ERO, 1996; Ofsted, 2003a; Ofsted 2003b; Younger & Warrington, 2005). In focusing on the Australian context, this article documents some of the concerns about boys, literacies, and schooling that have plagued the media, worried parents, disturbed the wider community, spurred politicians into action, and generated a wave of research and consultancy activity across the country. On such a tide are we now afloat.  \nThis article begins by exploring the perceived importance of a boys’agenda in Australia as instantiated in disturbing public discourse about boys, and about literacy, and in the political uptake of the issues. In investigating data commonly used to support claims that boys are in trouble, and that boys are failing at school, the article questions the legitimacy of public and political concerns and suggests that some of the momentum for a boys’ agenda has been wrongheaded, first and foremost, because it has been based on too simple data analyses. When data are disaggregated, taking into account the interplay of other critical factors besides gender, the picture is shown to be more complex, more problematic, than one that rolls all boys together and essentialises them as a group. Although the exercise of disaggregating data supports the call for more nuanced responses to the issues, the article challenges the legitimacy of some passionately held, but largely unsubstantiated, explanations as to why some boys under‐achieve at school, and in literacy classes in particular. The article concludes with a recount of one attempt to stem the flow of populist ideas in schools through the introduction of a research‐i","cbCairvl1HAcPa7S","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCairvl1HAcPa7S","pdf",336841,24,"English","# Introduction\n# Disturbing Public Discourse About Boys\n## Media narratives and anti-male practices\n# Data, Disaggregation, and “Which Boys/Which Girls”\n# Success for Boys Program","[{\"question\":\"What is the central focus of the article?\",\"answer\":\"The article focuses on issues involving boys, literacies, and schooling in the Australian context, analyzing how public discourse shapes educational agendas.\"},{\"question\":\"Why does the article question claims about boys failing at school?\",\"answer\":\"It argues that momentum for a boys’ agenda can be wrongheaded because it relies on overly simple data analyses; disaggregating data reveals a more complex picture.\"},{\"question\":\"What is the Success for Boys program and why is it included?\",\"answer\":\"Introduced in Australia in 2006, the Success for Boys professional learning program encourages teachers to grapple with the complexity of the issues and counter populist “boys versus girls” simplifications to improve success for boys and girls.\"}]","SWIMMING AGAINST THE TIDE - BOYS, LITERACIES, AND SCHOOLING - AN AUSTRALIAN STORY | PDF",1792084756]