Researchers
Wayne Martino
“The focus is not on just on the individual but on the social systems and practices through which individuals make sense of their own motivations and behaviours….”
Background Information
Wayne Martino was formerly a Senior Lecturer in Education at Murdoch University. He is currently an Associate Professor in Diversity and Social Justice Education at the University of Western Ontario, Canada. His research focuses on schooling and masculinity with a particular focus on homophobia, boys and critical literacy. His books include So What's a boy? Addressing Issues of Masculinity and Schooling, published in 2003 with Open University Press (co-authored with Maria Pallotta-Chiarolli); Gendered Outcasts and Sexual Outlaws, published in 2005 with Haworth press (co-edited with Chris Kendall) and 'What about the boys?' Issues of Masculinity and Schooling, published in 2001 with Open University Press (co-edited with Bob Meyenn).
Wayne, can you tell us about your work on bullying?
I have spent the last decade interviewing and talking with boys about their lives. More recently, Maria Pallotta-Chiarolli (Deakin University, Melbourne) and I have been surveying adolescent boys and girls across a range of different schools in Australia. What has emerged is the very significant ways in which issues of being ‘normal’ and being ‘cool’ are linked to the social contexts in which bullying occurs.
What issues do you think are underlying causes for bullying, harassment and violent behaviour?
I have found that homophobia affects how boys learn to enforce their masculinities. For girls, body image and being cool are the main issues. Compulsory heterosexuality – the requirement to display oneself as heterosexual - is also at the heart of much harassment and teasing in schools.
What kind of effects do you think young people and our communities suffer as a result?
The pressure to “measure up” has damaging effects emotionally and psychologically and constrains young people’s choices and friendships. It leads them to hide and can have devastating consequences in terms of low self-esteem and feelings of isolation and alienation.
You have promoted the idea of “professional learning communities” . Can you tell us about this approach and how it can assist school communities to find ways to address bullying and harassment?
Teachers need to know what students really think and feel about life at school and to provide opportunities for them to have their say. Valuing and documenting their perspectives will inform professional development in the school. Such an approach is at the heart of creating communities of pastoral care and commitment to building democratic school communities.
What fascinates you now? What do you think are the next research/challenges to work on?
I think a deeper knowledge of teachers’ understanding of bullying and what motivates or drives it is important. This sort of knowledge informs how they respond to and deal with bullying in schools. Failure to attend to the social dimensions of bullying and to address the role that homophobia plays in many boys’ lives, for instance, is to deny the reality of certain forms of power and how they operate in the everyday world. I think more attention to the legal ramifications of schools’ failure to address homophobia and bullying is also needed.
Where can schools find out more about your approach?
Martino, W. & Pallotta-Chiarolli, M. (2005). Being Normal is the Only Way to Be: Adolescent perspectives on gender and school. UNSW PRESS, Sydney.
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