2007 Fellowship Program fellows

The Lack of Adult Male Role Models in Armenia’s Secondary Schools and its Impact on Armenian Male Teenagers’ Conceptualizations of Masculinities

Mariam Martirosyan will explore the impact of the lack of adult male role models or senior male mentorship in Armenian schools on male teenagers’ perceptions of masculinity ideals. She will conduct a literature review, interviews with experts in the field, analysis of student essays, as well as focus groups among male students (mostly between the 5th and 10th grades) sampled from two types of schools: one that has participated in the ZANG Legal Socialization Program – which creates a framework fo collaboration among educators, law enforcement officials and youth to further positive change in the areas of public safety, crime prevention, and civil society development – and one school that has not participated in the ZANG program.. This controlled case study will help Martirosyan to determine Armenian male teenagers’ perceptions of masculinities, the ways that those perceptions develop, the male role models that they follow, and the personal conflicts or challenges Armenian male youth face in their manifestation of gender. At the end of the research the fellow will elaborate recommendations to alleviate problems related to the conceptualizations of masculinity in Armenian schools. In addition to submitting a corresponding article to an internationally recognized peer reviewed journal(s), the fellow will also present her research findings during workshops and meetings with NGOs, school principals and teacher-training institutes organized by the Ministry of Education and Science of Armenia. In addition, the research outline and the main findings will be submitted to the National Institute of Education, and the online version of it will be shared with organizations in Armenia and the Diaspora and disseminated through the CRRC network.

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