The Basketball Boys: young men from refugee backgrounds and the symbolic value of swagger in an Australian state high school

ABSTRACT

Schools are critical spaces for young men from refugee backgrounds. They play an integral role in literacy development, educational attainment, and providing a sense of belonging. Inclusive education practices for this group are largely absent in Australian schools. Research shows focusing on these young men from a non-deficit position assists with inclusivity. There is a lack of research exploring the agentic practices of young men from refugee backgrounds within schools. This paper explores the symbolic value of swagger for a group of young men from refugee backgrounds at a high school in Australia. A Bourdieusian theoretical framework guided critical awareness of power in schools. This research shows how a group of young men found a meaningful way to acquire social and cultural capital. Despite the school’s constraints, this group developed a group identity reflected in their clothing and embodied dispositions referred to here as swagger. Our findings demonstrate the complex power relations at work, including the opportunity for the young men to resist and be included. In the spirit of Bourdieu’s concern for reflexivity our findings point to the need for schools, teachers, and education policy makers to consider the workings of power in schools in more considered ways.

KEYWORDS:

• Australia
• Bourdieu
• positioning
• refugee
• schools
• sport
• swagger
• symbolism
• young men

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the school staff and students for their involvement in this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Georgie Harwood

Dr Georgie Harwood is a Research and Evaluation Officer with the Queensland Program of Assistance to Survivors of Torture and Trauma (QPASTT). She is also a Momentum Visiting Fellow in the School of Public Health and Social Work, Faculty of Health, Queensland University of Technology. Georgie has extensive experience as an educator and holds postgraduate qualifications in Public Health, where she undertook extensive qualitative research training. Her research interests involve improving health and educational outcomes for communities from refugee backgrounds.

Kristiann C. Heesch

Dr Kristiann Heesch is a Senior Lecturer in Health Promotion in the School of Public Health and Social Work, Faculty of Health, Queensland University of Technology. Dr Heesch's research focuses on physical activity and health for the prevention of chronic conditions in mid-age to older adults. In the last 10 years, she has focused on correlations and health effects of bicycle use, both for recreation and for transport, to inform policy and improve cycling promotion.

Marguerite C. Sendall

Dr Marguerite Sendall is a senior lecturer in the School of Public Health and Social Work at Queensland Institute of Technology. She is an expert in settings-based health promotion and action research. Her work exceeds the boundaries of the academy and has real-world impact on hard-to-reach groups in health promotion, such as blue-collar workers.

Mark Brough

Professor Mark Brough is a critical social scientist who specialises in health inequality. His work is informed by a concern for the socio-political structures which surround health. He applies this lens in a range of cross-cultural circumstances as well as a range of health problems. He has worked extensively with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities as well as communities with a refugee background. He has particular expertise in the social determinants of health and wellbeing and in the role of human service and health professionals in addressing those determinants.