Situating cultural diversity in movement. A case study on physical education teacher education in Norway

ABSTRACT

There is a growing body of research on cultural diversity, discrimination and racism in physical education teaching and practice. However, although ‘cultural diversity’ is a central concern in research, curriculum and policies of higher education, it is not clear how and in what ways students and teachers should consider cultural diversity. Drawing on qualitative interviews with teachers and students in a Norwegian physical education teacher education (PETE) programme, we investigate how and in what ways students and teachers regard cultural diversity in that context. We suggest that cultural diversity is not sufficiently understood when it is assumed that knowledge about particular positions or identity categories (white, black, minority, majority) is fixed. Our findings indicate that cultural diversity is visible in movement and in bodily resonance between people. These findings present a strong argument for recognition of the relational, embodied and social aspect of cultural diversity in PE.

KEYWORDS:

• Cultural diversity
• inter-corporeality
• inter-affectivity
• embodiment
• bodily resonance
• qualitative interview
• movement
• physical education teacher education

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Anne Leseth http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4432-8190

Notes

1. A key question in the debate on gender equality and cultural diversity in democratic welfare states, is to what extent it is legitimate to force liberal values on groups with non-liberal values (NOU, 2017, p. 174). Feminist writers debate the problem of accepting group rights that permit oppressive practices (Okin, 1999).

2. Our empirical case is taken from a specific PETE institution in Norway. We do not highlight the Norwegian context per se, but rather use it as a case study in developing a theoretical understanding of cultural diversity in movement.

3. Anthropology and phenomenology cover a broad range of approaches (Keesing & Strathern, 1998; Ram & Houston, 2015).

4. Active interviewing differs from in-depth interviewing in the sense that the researcher delimits and guides the conversation towards a specific topic or expectations or to prove or disprove a hypothesis (Andersen, 2006).

5. We have not conducted a systematic review or text analysis of the curriculum in PETE regarding issues of cultural diversity. We refer to literature and concepts that the informants brought up in our interviews.

6. Clifford Geertz (1973) makes a distinction between ‘experience-near’ and ‘experience-distant’ concepts. That is, between informants’ native words and concepts and the analytical and analytical concepts of the researcher.