ABSTRACT
Physical education, or HPE, is arguably a very queer space not only in the daily practices between students and teachers in schools but also in the broader field. This paper explores theoretical interactions with the HPE field in terms of the development and employment of queer theory, and links between associated sexualities and pedagogy research in HPE. I begin by (not) defining queer theory, its emergence and development. In short, I argue that the absence of queerness in HPE is very queer indeed! I address some of the significant fields of (non)influence dominating or marginalized in HPE research before identifying potential shifts to imagine what a queer pedagogy of movement or physical culture might look like in HPE as a point for further debate.
Acknowledgements
Thanks to elke emerald for support and editing advice to complete this work, to the journal staff (in particular Gayatri Ravi), and anonymous reviewers for valuable guidance in editing and proofing.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1 For the purposes of this paper I have played with the (re)presentation HPE to acknowledge that physical education has a very contentious and varied past, name, nature, purpose, and positioning in schooling internationally. An example of this contentious past is in relation to Health Education and Health more broadly, represented here as hypertext.
2 GLBT, LGBT, LGBTI etc are acronyms built to identify non heterosexual normativities including L = lesbian, G = gay, B = bisexual, I = intersex, T = transgender, Q = queer, Q = questioning, A = asexual, and the list remains open hence the … I’ve used LGBTIQQI … to playfully and simply (re)present the hierarchy, power, and (non)sense of identity and language that many before me already have.