(Re)conceptualizing Sex and Gender in Physical Education Through Social Role Theory

ABSTRACT

The line between gender and sex has become increasingly muddled in literature. Tensions surrounding this topic are ever-increasing and definitions of the two are rarely consistent. For improving conceptual clarity, we adopted the Social Role Theory to explore how these two terms differ and relate by laying out a cyclical framework of biological, sociological, and psychological components. Herein, we discuss the origins of the binary sex construct, anatomical brain/cognition differences, and sex/gender role implications for education and physical education. We confront the topic in a content area that continues to be masculine-oriented with the purpose to conceptualize sex/gender in physical education research through clarifying the evolutionary biosocial spectrum. Offering a reconceptualization of gender as a multidimensional construct could inspire further curricular reform for the content to be more inclusive of all participants, learnable by all students regardless of sex and gender, and beneficial both mentally and physically to all learners.

KEYWORDS:

• Gender
• sex
• physical education
• curriculum
• social roles

Disclosure statement

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

Notes

1. MRIs produce neuroimaging data in the form of voxel which is a segment of graphical representation of a three-dimensional object. MRIs produce one voxel per test. A plethora of voxels of neuroimaging data are produced in a set of skill tests. In analysis, researchers employ the statistical False Discovery Rate to control and correct error rates. The outcome is Q value that represents the criterion measure, similar to the p value, to indicate the significance observed in the data difference with the proportion of false positives controlled from declared-active voxels (Genovese et al., 2002).

Additional information

Funding

The writing of this article was supported in part by Grant R25GM129805 from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health.