Paper short abstract:

This paper explores the role of schooling in the shaping of masculinities in an elite school in Ghana. It explores the competing expectations boys face as well as the role of contemporary and historical factors in shaping their aspirations.

Paper long abstract:

Boys at Brilliant Academy are being trained to become Christian Gentlemen. This comes with high expectations and places great demands upon students academically, corporally and morally. These demands include behaving in accordance with Christian values, the academically rigorous school environment, high expectations regarding what it means to be a successful man in Ghana, coupled with parental hopes and ambitions. This presentation explores the impact of the boarding school environment upon students’ aspirations and masculinities and contextualizes this within the wider school objective of training Christian Gentlemen. How do students cope under such expectations? To what extent do they accept this model of manhood? How far do they deviate from it? The journey to manhood is fraught with numerous pressures and competing ideas of what it means to be a successful man, and young boys must navigate this murky terrain whilst keeping their grades up. Based on participant observation in a boys’ boarding school in Ghana this paper argues that the impact of boarding school regimes on the formation of students’ masculinities must be situated within a wider historical, social and cultural context to understand the competing expectations that young men face as they navigate their futures and form their aspirations.