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Abstract
Although middle school is a critical time in adolescents’ development, little is known about how that development is affected by public single-sex classes even though recent federal policy decisions have led more schools to provide these offerings. This case study used ethnographic methods to explore ways teachers, students, and courses in one such environment affected students’ construction of self and affected the identities that were developed for boys and girls. Using a queer theoretical lens, I noted that the boys in this setting were viewed as deficient in multiple areas relative to girls, illustrating how single-sex offerings can endorse differences between the sexes that hierarchically position them relative to each other and could affect social and academic outcomes.
Keywords gender, middle school, public schooling, queer theory, single-sex education
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