In mathematics education over the last four decades, researchers have attended to gender more than other issues of equity (Lubienski & Bo wen, 2000). However, the troubles of boys have not been a major focus, perhaps because of historic achievement gaps that favor boys. As Leder and Forgasz (2008) point out, although achievement gaps between boys and girls have narrowed or closed in many countries, substantial gaps still exist. They argue that the field is simply not attending to or measuring the right gaps. As a result, public discussion of the problems of boys and academic discussion of mathematics achievement for girls do not seem to have many points of connection. While in other areas of educational research (especially literacy or school discipline) it is commonplace to discuss the troubles of boys, such discussion is sparse in mathematics education research. However, as the boy turn gains ground locally and internationally, mathematics educators will be called upon to respond. In this paper, I use the concept of genderism to consider what that response should be. I will begin, though, by highlighting one specific example of the boy turn in education, one that is close to home for me: the recent comments by Toronto District School Board (TDSB) director Dr. Chris Spence about the need for targeted support for boys in TDSB schools.
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