Research project Taking Boys Seriously

TBS has found that meaningful relationships between boys and educators are crucial in facilitating engagement and holistic development in educational settings, particularly for boys and young men experiencing compounded educational disadvantage.

The 10 TBS principles of relational education provide a framework for embedding relational work with boys.

This concept celebrates the unique gift that individuals and institutions across the whole pipeline of education from early years onwards can bring enabling boys to thrive.

TBS promotes the collective capacities of communities and educational settings in advancing more equitable opportunities and outcomes for boys and young men experiencing compounded educational disadvantage.

The concept of compounded educational disadvantage was coined through the research in 2018 helping shape the research methodology and advance critical thinking about the causes and responses to persistent low levels of educational attainment and progression for some groups of adolescent boys.

It captures both systemic and contextual issues which in Northern Ireland include relative poverty, a selective education system, and normative masculinities constructed with reference to conflict legacies of segregation, polarisation, and residual violence. Each time a young man encounters one of these systemic issues it is as though another brick is added to their backpack making their journey through the education system more difficult.