Shaping students for inclusion: a gift and a project. Dutch preservice teachers and the complexity of inclusive teaching practices in physical education

ABSTRACT

This paper aims to uncover assumptions about inclusion held by preservice teachers in physical education. The focus is on how they construct ideas about inclusion and how these constructions inform their attempts to reduce inequities and enhance inclusion in their teaching practices. A critical approach to the reflections of 41 Dutch preservice teachers, revealed how they struggled with inclusion and perceived it both as a gift and a project. Their positive affection for students whose bodies and attitudes resembled the ideal of the preservice teacher, opened the window for exclusionary practices in which all students became responsible for their own inclusion. The preservice teachers tended to apply discourses of transformation to those who underperformed or whose attitudes were perceived as inappropriate. The paper concludes with reflections on how teaching stances that are shaped by cruel optimism can inform inclusion and exclusion.

KEYWORDS:

• Ability
• potential
• precarity
• citizenship
• preservice
• physical education

Disclosure statement

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

Notes

1 In the Netherlands white Dutchness refers to a Eurocentric discourse in which white cultural norms of order, time, cleanliness and Western and Christian superiority dominate (Weiner 2015).

2 PE in secondary schools in the Netherlands is a compulsory subject for all students. It is scheduled for 2 h a week. Students receive instruction in a broad spectrum of activities consisting of games and athletics (60% of the time) and judo, gymnastics and dance (30% of the time). Another 10% is devoted to contemporary popular movement-activities. (e.g. circus, cycling or longboarding). Activities tend to be group oriented and are usually non-competitive. More information: https://www.slo.nl/thema/vakspecifieke-thema/bewegingsonderwijs/kerndoelen/).

3 Since 1993 all PE classes in the Netherlands are co-educational/gender mixed.

4 Critical scholars (Stam 2020; Van Doodewaard and Knoppers 2018; Weiner; 2015) found that the phrase ‘regular Dutch’ tends to refer to white citizens born in the Netherlands.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Corina van Doodewaard

Corina van Doodewaard is a senior researcher and dean of the faculty of Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy of Windesheim University of Applied Sciences, Zwolle, the Netherlands where she works with preparing preservice teachers for inclusive teaching.

Annelies Knoppers

Annelies Knoppers is a semi-retired professor in the Utrecht School of Governance, Utrecht University, the Netherlands. Her research focuses on diversity and inclusion in sport organisations.