Annette Stride

Stories about Physical Education from Young People with Disabilities

This article focuses on young people with disabilities and mainstream physical education in England. Within this context there have been unprecedented levels of funding and resources directed towards physical education in order to support more inclusive physical education experiences for all young people, including those with disabilities. Physical education holds a unique place within the school curriculum; it is a subject area where the physicality of students is publicly exposed to others (including teachers, classmates, and support staff). There are likely to be some tensions around physical education and its relationship with students with disabilities. In particular, it is claimed that physical education was conceived of, and continues to be practiced, in a normative way. By drawing on interview data from three young people with disabilities, non-fictional narratives are used to re-present their identities at the intersections of schooling, physical education and disability. These narratives offer insights about how physical education impacts on various aspects of social life including home, family, friends and other school subjects.

Girls with learning disabilities and ‘football on the brain’

In this article, we explore the footballing experiences of girls with learning disabilities. We situate our article within an after‐school football initiative that sought to forge a partnership between Bryant Park Special School and Liberty High Specialist Sports College, both based in different suburbs within one city in the north of England. We ask the following question: How are after‐school football initiatives, designed to enhance football opportunities and links between special and mainstream schools, being experienced by a range of stakeholders? In seeking to explore this question, we offer a series of critical non‐fiction narratives that capture the different ways in which a number of girls with learning disabilities, a male football coach and the male head teacher of a special school experience the realities of the football initiative. These tales illustrate not only the practical challenges of attempting to enhance football opportunities but also the theoretical challenges of exploring intersectional discourses concerned with girls, learning disability and girlhood.

Girls, Physical Education and Feminist Praxis

This chapter argues for the continuing importance of feminist praxis in PE. It draws on recent research that responds to calls for more middle-ground theorizing in PE to explore difference and inequality, and for the use of creative methods in research practice with young people. The first example explores black and minority ethnic student teachers’ experiences of their PE teacher education, going beyond earlier, “single-issue” approaches that focus on gender and PETE to address how gender is interwoven with race and ethnicity (and other relations of power). The second example focuses on using innovative methods to understand the diverse PE experiences of South Asian, Muslim girls. In so doing, it challenges dominant conceptions of “femininity” as homogeneous and problematizes simplistic views of Muslim girls’ (dis)engagement. The chapter concludes by pointing to areas where future feminist praxis in PE would be valuable.

‘I don’t want my parents’ respect going down the drain’: South Asian, Muslim young women negotiating family and physical activity

ABSTRACT Young women’s relationship with physical activity has been explored extensively, yet the focus is often upon young women who are White. This paper considers South Asian, Muslim young women’s experiences of physical activity and how these are influenced by family. A ‘middle ground’ feminist approach is used, drawing upon the work of Hill Collins [(2000). Black feminist thought: Knowledge, consciousness, and the politics of empowerment. London: Routledge] and Hamzeh [(2012). Pedagogies of deveiling: Muslim girls and the hijab discourse (critical construction). Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing]. Data were generated with 13 young women using participatory approaches in focus group settings, and individual interviews. This research highlights how the young women’s families can both enable and challenge opportunities and involvement in physical activity. The paper discusses how gender and religion intersect with family and wider community to influence experiences in multiple, diverse and fluid ways. The young women’s narratives suggest that experiences are not determined solely by these influences; rather, they emerge as active agents negotiating different contextual challenges in their quest to be physically active.

‘Last goal wins’: re/engaging women of a ‘forgotten’ age through football?

ABSTRACT This paper explores the physical activity experiences of a group of women based in England, and who are over the age of 30. This particular age group represent a ‘forgotten’ age, that is, they are largely ignored in academic scholarship, policy and physical activity provision. The paper explores how this group of women ‘re/engaged’ in physical activity after a sustained period of inactivity. The study is situated in a weekly football initiative (Monday Night Footy) based in the north of England, managed and organised by a group of women for women to train and play five-a-side football. Data were generated through semi-structured interviews and the use of photo-biographical boards with 11 women, all of whom are regular participants to the football sessions. We use a middle ground feminist lens and Archers notion of ‘fr/agility’ to help make sense of the womens experiences. From these womens stories three key findings emerge: (a) Biographies of (in)activity – the ways in which relationships with physical activity can be characterised by fractures and fissures despite seemingly positive early physical activity experiences; (b) Pathways of re/engagement – the motives and enablers to these women once again participating in physical activity after a sustained absence; and (c) Monday Night Footy as a space for re/engagement – the ways in which this context contributes to these womens continued involvement in football and broader physical activity. The paper concludes by offering policy makers and physical activity providers with some recommendations alongside considerations for future research.

Gender, physical education and active lifestyles: contemporary challenges and new directions

ABSTRACT The idea for this Special Issue, ‘Gender, Physical Education and Active Lifestyles: Contemporary Challenges and New Directions’ developed from the interest generated by a one day conference held at Leeds Beckett University in September 2017. The conference marked 25 years since the publication of Sheila Scraton’s ground breaking, feminist analysis of Physical Education. As a pivotal text that has contributed to the growth of gender research within the UK and more broadly, it seemed fitting to mark this occasion. The reach of Sheila’s work was perhaps realised through the delegate body. Early career researchers mingled with established scholars from America, Australia, New Zealand, Europe and the UK. Building on this conference and a wider call for papers, we are delighted to offer two Special Issues of Sport, Education and Society. The first issue engages explicitly with the challenge of theorising and understanding gendered subjectivities and embodiment across a range of contexts. These papers reflect the diversity of theoretical approaches being employed with some drawing on feminist perspectives, and others using Bourdieu, intersectionality, critical whiteness studies, and masculinity studies. The collection of papers in the second issue seek to examine the different ways in which gender becomes implicated in pedagogical relations and practice. These range from accounts of teachers’ struggles to use critical pedagogies to address gender inequities in PE classes, to analyses of the wider pedagogical ‘work’ of the media in constructing understandings about gender, with several papers exploring these two aspects in combination. We hope you enjoy reading the papers across these two Special Issues as much as we have enjoyed the journey as the editorial team. Collectively the papers raise alternative questions and provide new insights into gender and active lifestyles, and importantly, all seek to make a difference in moving towards more equitable physical activity experiences.

Representations of the Sporting Female: Queering Paralympic Barbie

This chapter takes as a central focus Barbie Becky Paralympic Champion (1999). Becky is one of the many Barbie dolls produced by the toy manufacturer Mattel and is a wheelchair user. For many young people these dolls can hold significant currency that contributes towards defining the ways in which they embody femininity (and/or masculinity). We draw on critical disability studies and queer theory to better understand how Becky disrupts and reproduces unified representations of the sporting female. The existence of Becky could be interpreted as a forward-thinking attempt by Mattel to diversify the range of identities available to young people. A more critical engagement with Becky demonstrates that she is nonetheless a product of a neo-liberal industry that reproduces patterns of inequality.

‘Homing in’: South Asian, Muslim young women and their physical activity in and around the home

ABSTRACT Research that focuses on the home as a physical activity setting appears preoccupied with measuring activity. What is less researched is how the home is experienced as a physical activity context. This paper explores the physical activity experiences in and around the home of 13 South Asian, Muslim young women. Data were generated using participatory approaches in focus groups and individual interviews. The research highlights the home and vicinity, as a physical, social and cultural space, significant to these young women’s physical activity involvement. However, the home also emerges as an important site in the reproduction of gendered power relations. These young women recount the ways in which expectations on them to undertake traditional gender roles within the home can leave them with less time and energy to be physically active. Despite this, the young women suggest that positions other than ‘wife’ and ‘mother’ are envisaged for their future, not least in the ways in which they prioritise their education and schooling. The young women emerge as active agents who navigate diverse expectations and priorities to be physically active on their terms.