Abstract
Background: Much research and practice in the field of physical activity and physical education for girls has been trapped in a reproductive cycle of telling the ‘same old story’ as if it is news over and over again, since at least the 1980s. A thread running through this narrative is that despite all of this research and related interventions, we have yet to find the ‘solution’ to the ‘problem’ of girls and physical education. As a result, little progress appears to have been made in terms of changing things for the better for the majority of girls.
Purpose: We offer an activist approach to work with girls in physical education as one possible means of breaking the reproductive cycle of research and media reporting that we suggest has worked against improving the situation for girls. We take a pragmatist stance to ask ‘can we make the situation for girls better than it is currently?’ and ‘how might we go about this task?’ We propose an activist approach not as ‘the solution’ to the ‘problem’ of girls in physical education, but as one worthy of testing in practice.
Process: We begin by outlining the broad features of an activist approach to working with girls in physical education. We then overview the findings of a growing body of activist studies in physical education and identify four critical elements that we believe need to be present in order to assist girls to identify, name and negotiate barriers to their engagements with physical education and their participation in physically active lifestyles. We highlight one example of an activist study that shows how the four critical elements interact in their work with girls.
Discussion: We argue for the need for a consensus around improving the current situation of girls in physical education, for a scaling up of this activist work as it is tested in practice, and for the coincidental development of a pedagogical model for working with girls in physical education.
Notes
1. This differs from action research that centres on studying one's own practice with the intent of becoming a better practitioner.
2. Throughout the section highlighting the four critical elements we are drawing on the collective body of activist scholars' lines of inquiry. Enright and O'Sullivan Citation2010a, Citation2010b, Citation2012a, Citation2012b, in press; Fisette Citation2011a, Citation2011b; Fisette and Walton Citation2014; Hamzeh Citation2012; Hamzeh and Oliver Citation2012; Oliver Citation1999, Citation2001, Citation2010, Citation2013; Oliver and Lalik Citation2000, Citation2001, Citation2004a; Oliver and Hamzeh Citation2010; Oliver and Oesterreich Citation2013; Oliver et al. Citation2013. We will only cite examples throughout the remainder of the paper as to not burden the reader with extensive and repeated citation.
Enright, E., and M. O'Sullivan. 2010a. “‘Can I Do It in My Pyjamas?’ Negotiating a Physical Education Curriculum with Teenage Girls.” European Physical Education Review 16 (3): 203–222. doi: 10.1177/1356336X10382967 Enright, E., and M. O'Sullivan. 2010b. “‘Carving a New Order of Experience’ with Young People in Physical Education: Participatory Action Research as a Pedagogy of Possibility.” In Young People's Voices in Physical Education and Youth Sport, edited by M. O'Sullivan and A. MacPhail, 163–185. London: Routledge. Enright, E., and M. O'Sullivan. 2012a. “Physical Education ‘In All Sorts of Corners’: Student Activists Transgressing Formal Physical Education Curricular Boundaries.” Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport 83 (2): 255–267. Enright, E., and M. O'Sullivan. 2012b. “Producing Different Knowledge and Producing Knowledge Differently’: Rethinking Physical Education Research and Practice through Participatory Visual Methods.” Sport, Education and Society 17 (1): 35–55. doi: 10.1080/13573322.2011.607911 Fisette, J. L. 2011a. “Exploring How Girls Navigate Their Embodied Identities in Physical Education.” Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy 16 (2): 179–196. doi: 10.1080/17408989.2010.535199 Fisette, J. L. 2011b. “Negotiating Power within High School Girls’ Exploratory Projects in Physical Education.” Women in Sport and Physical Activity Journal 20 (1): 73–90. Fisette, J. L., and T. A. Walton. 2014. “‘If You Really Knew Me’ … I Am Empowered Through Action.” Sport, Education and Society 19 (2): 131–152. doi:10.1080/13573322.2011.643297 Hamzeh, M. 2012. Pedagogies of Deveiling: Muslim Girls & the Hijab Discourse. Charlotte, NC: Information Age. Hamzeh, M., and K. L. Oliver. 2012. “‘Because I am Muslim, I Cannot Wear a Swimsuit’: Muslim Girls Negotiate Participation Opportunities for Physical Activity.” Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport 83 (2): 330–339. Oliver, K. L. 1999. “Adolescent Girls’ Body-Narratives: Learning to Desire and Create a ‘Fashionable’ Image.” Teachers College Record 101 (2): 220–246. doi: 10.1111/0161-4681.00039 Oliver, K. L. 2001. “Images of the Body from Popular Culture: Engaging Adolescent Girls in Critical Inquiry.” Sport, Education & Society 6 (2): 143–164. Oliver, K. L. 2010. “The Body, Physical Activity and Inequity: Learning to Listen With Girls through Action.” In Young People's Voices in Physical Education and Youth Sport, edited by M. O'Sullivan and A. MacPhail, 31–48. London: Routledge. Oliver, K. L. 2013. “Beyond Words: The Visual as a Form of Student-centered Inquiry of the Body and Physical Activity.” In Physical Culture, Pedagogies and Visual Methods, edited by L. Azzarito and D. Kirk, 15–29. New York: Routledge. Oliver, K. L., and R. Lalik. 2000. Bodily Knowledge: Learning About Equity and Justice with Adolescent Girls. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, Inc. Oliver, K. L., and R. Lalik. 2001. “The Body as Curriculum: Learning with Adolescent Girls.” The Journal of Curriculum Studies 33 (3): 303–333. doi: 10.1080/00220270010006046 Oliver, K. L., and R. Lalik. 2004a. “Critical Inquiry on the Body in Girls’ Physical Education Classes: A Critical Poststructural Analysis.” Journal of Teaching in Physical Education 23 (2): 162–195. Oliver, K. L., and M. Hamzeh. 2010. “‘The Boys Won't Let Us Play’: 5th Grade Mestizas Publicly Challenge Physical Activity Discourse at School.” Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport 81 (1): 39–51. Oliver, K. L., and H. A. Oesterreich. 2013. “Student-Centred Inquiry as Curriculum as a Model for Field-Based Teacher Education.” Journal of Curriculum Studies 43 (3): 394–417. doi: 10.1080/00220272.2012.719550 Oliver, K. L., H. A. Oesterreich, R. Aranda, J. Archuleta, C. Blazer, K. De La Cruz, D. Martinez, et al. 2013. “‘The Sweetness of Struggle’: Innovation in PETE through Student-Centred Inquiry as Curriculum in a Physical Education Methods Course.” Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy. doi: 10.1080/17408989.2013.803527
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