Bourdieu and the social space of the PE class: reproduction of Doxa through practice

Abstract

This paper considers the social space of one physical education (PE) class in the middle years of schooling. I endeavour to tease out the dialectic between the discursive spaces available to the students positioned within this space and the construction and negotiation of student subjectivities. Using the conceptual tools of field, habitus, practice, capital, illusio, and doxa provided by Pierre Bourdieu and of embodied subjectivities from post‐structural feminism, three particular spaces are explored, namely: ‘the good student’, ‘hetero/sexism’ and ‘the body’. I argue for a (re)turn to conversations around PE as a learning area and learning as embodied as a way to meet the needs of more young people through PE. Like others, I also question PE's existence as it is currently configured in the school curriculum.

Notes

A discursive space is one where particular meanings are made according to the discourses shaping that space. For example, an economic discourse might operate in business, whereas a medical discourse might operate in the emergency section of a hospital. The discursive space of an HPE class might include discourses around sport, health, fitness and gender.

Although the classes referred to in this paper were actually health and physical education classes, they were often named as and operated as physical education classes.

Indicates data source reference of speaker or field notes.

A Qsort test was employed (ordering 40 value orientations towards physical education). Figure 1 illustrates the results of the test that shows the value orientations of the teachers and students to physical education. By focusing on Function 1 (Eigenvalue of 73.2%) it is possible to recognize two groups of people within the class (Group A and B). Function 1 separated the class on their values towards physical education as a chance to talk with friends, have fun, and get good grades without too much effort or having to think about, or take into account, others. A further separation using Function 2 was valid between clusters 2 and 3 within Group A (although with a much lower Eigenvalue of 26.8%). This discriminated between those who highly valued being with friends, agreeableness towards the teacher, and not having to work too hard (the pleasers) and those who were very motivated towards working hard through skill acquisition, for good skill outcomes and therefore grades (the serious students).

‘Spits the dummy’ is a colloquialism for having a temper tantrum.

Gender is used to denote the socially constructed dichotomized categories of masculinity and femininity into which boys and girls are contained. Although these categories are assumed by the naturalizing discourse of biology to be based upon sex, there is argument to suggest that sex is also a socially constructed category taken for granted within the doxa of biological determinism.

A lemon is a disparaging term used to describe as a lesbian.

Primary sex characteristics are the actual reproductive systems such as ovaries and testes whereas the secondary sex characteristics are bodily characteristics of adult males and females produces from hormones. These would include pubic hair, change of voice, breast development and sexual desires.

Togs are bathing costumes or swimwear.