Abstract
Current debates about the role of sports in boys’ education are part of a larger discussion of men, boys and masculinities. In this paper I reflect on this debate and the research it has led to. I highlight questions of embodiment, of relations between different forms of masculinity, and questions of reproduction and change, in all of which the schools’ physical education curriculum is important. I suggest how we might use the new knowledge about gender construction to understand issues about practice-oriented subjects and undertake curriculum reform.
Acknowledgements
The first version of this paper was a contribution to the 2004 forum on boys’ education in practice-oriented subjects at the University of Sydney; my thanks to Richard Light, its convenor. Another version appeared in Zeitschrift für internationale Bildungsforschung und Entwicklungspädagogik; my thanks to the editors. This version incorporates further thinking, influenced as always by the creative and committed work of Michael CitationMessner.