Peer culture is particularly powerful in shaping boys' anti-school attitudes and behaviours, in causing disruption, harassment, hostility and aggression. Peer networks are said to comprise a means through which boys can explore, negotiate and practice a range of social and sexual identities. There is little agreement on how best to address issues of gender, in particular masculinity, within the school environment. Through examining some of the key issues in this area, this paper identifies how specific interventions and recommendations within the sphere of boys' education might either enable or constrain the improvement of academic and social outcomes. Following a discussion on interventions for working with boys which might be seen as limited, this paper draws on the integrative social justice focus of Productive Pedagogies, to explore particular strategies for working with boys' peer cultures to facilitate boys' disruption and reworking of essentialist understandings of masculinities.