Christopher Hickey

‘I don’t know anyone that has two drinks a day’: Young People, Alcohol and the Government of Pleasure

Problematic alcohol consumption is a major public health, health education and health promotion issue in Australia and internationally. In an effort to better understand young peoples drinking patterns and motivations we investigated the cultural drivers of drinking in 14–24 year-old Australians. We interviewed 60 young people in the state of Victoria aged 20–24 about their drinking biographies. At the time of interviewing, the draft guidelines on low-risk drinking were released by the National Health and Medical Research Council, Australia, and we asked our participants what they knew about them and if they thought they would affect their drinking patterns. Their responses indicate that pleasure and sociability are central to young peoples drinking cultures which is supported by a range of research. However, O’Malley and Valverde claim that pleasure is silenced and/or deployed strategically in neo-liberal governance discourses about drugs and alcohol such as these guidelines which raises questions about the limits of such discourses to affect changes in drinking patterns.

Physical education, sport and hyper-masculinity in schools

Among widening social anxieties about practices and performances of contemporary masculinity are questions about the place of hyper-masculine (contact) sports, such as games of football. Foremost are concerns about some of the values and attitudes that appear to circulate within such contexts. With their historical leaning towards character attributes aligned to hardness, solidarity and stoicism, there is growing pressure on coaches and teachers to manage and mediate the participation of young males in this arena. Against this backdrop, this paper explores some of the tensions that emerge in schools when the codes and mores frequently associated with a hyper-masculine sporting identity are seen to flourish. Foremost here is the emergence of cultures of entitlement, abuse and exclusion. Following the illumination of such cultures across three research narratives, this paper discusses the sorts of reforms that are needed to promote more educative and responsible engagement with hyper-masculine sports in, and beyond, schools.

A knowledge‐based economy landscape: Implications for tertiary education and research training in Australia

This paper discusses the higher education sectors role in a knowledge‐based economy though research training, that is, doctoral education. It also examines how a Faculty of Education supports its doctoral candidates in their endeavours to become ‘knowledge producers’. Two themes are explored: one is Australias limited investment in education by international standards; and the other is the research training needs and circumstances of doctoral candidates who are located in professional and workplace contexts. The paper discusses the role of online support and a Doctoral Studies in Education (DSE) online seminar program to support primarily off‐campus, part‐time mid‐career professionals. These are typical of many of Australias doctoral candidates. E‐learning is examined as part of a comprehensive support and research training strategy for doctoral candidates studying at a distance. We discuss the sorts of opportunities and experiences our candidates receive and the extent to which they are readied to work effectively in a knowledge‐based economy.

Real Footballers Don't Eat Quiche Old Narratives in New Times

In this article, the authors examine the way that sport acts as a contradictory and complex medium for masculinity making. The analysis illustrates the way that many discourses now unite in a cybernetic mix that offers both new opportunities and presents complex challenges for educators, coaches, and administrators. The method used combines a number of strategies and narratives pitched at the local, national, and international levels. The analysis is grounded in the game of football, although it is argued that the issues raised translate to other settings. At the same time, the authors demonstrate that large-scale, macro level analyses miss an important force working within the dynamics of masculinity making and sport, namely, peer group power. The analysis concludes with insights from a junior coach who has consciously “worked” the peer group dynamics to foster a strong sense of personal and group responsibility.

Using Discourse Analysis to Change Physical Education

Recent critiques of the discourse or beliefs and practices of physical education have focused on the restrictive ideological assumptions of the subject. However, these critiques in turn have been criticized for rehearsing once more the gap between theory and practice. Drawing on theoretical models external to physical education, a form of discourse analysis is proposed to link critical perspectives and practical concerns in an account of effective teaching and learning in physical education.

Preparing to not be a footballer: higher education and professional sport

In the commercialised and professionalised world of elite sport, issues associated with career pathways and post sporting career options have a particular resonance. In various football codes, an unexpected knock, twist, bend or break can profoundly impact a players career. In this high risk and high consequence environment, a number of sports entertainment industries have instituted player development and education programmes to educate and prepare elite level performers for life after football. Drawing on Foucaults later work on governmentality and the care of the self, this paper will discuss findings from a research project funded by the Australian Football League (AFL). The paper presents data that suggests that, elite performers are so focused on establishing and prolonging a career as an elite performer, that other aspects of identity are seen as something to be complied with as a consequence of industry expectations. An industry emphasis on higher education raises issues for the sports industries that promote player enrolment in higher education and for the higher education institutions that must manage this lack of engagement.

Producing knowledge about physical education pedagogy: Problematizing the activities of expertise

In the process of problematizing what intellectual work looks like, poststructuralist discourses have opened up new spaces through which to examine the processes of knowledge production. Our purpose is to engage with these processes of knowledge production as they attempt to tell particular truths about good pedagogy in Physical Education (PE). Indeed, there has been a long running debate between various forms of expertise claiming to tell the truth about what constitutes good pedagogy in PE. In this paper, we revisit this debate via a mobilization of Halls (1985) theorization of articulation, and the reflexive modernization thesis of Beck, Giddens and Lash (1994). These lenses lead us to argue that a more reflexive modernity profoundly problematizes all forms of truth telling in Education.

Peer Groups, Power and Pedagogy: The Limits of an Educational Paradigm of Separation.

In contrast to the plethora of literature that suggests that the increasing gulf between teachers and young people is due to the shifting interests and expectations of young people, the focus of this paper is on the roles teachers play in this relationship. Provoking our interest is a concern that some of the assumptions that underpin ‘mainstream’ pedagogic theory and practice might actually contribute, albeit unwittingly, to hardening rather than softening the communication divide. Drawing on an incident that took place between a group of 7–8 year old males in a primary school setting, we reveal the limits of a teaching paradigm that encourages teachers to adopt authoritative positions from which to separate and individualise student behaviour. In theoretical terms, we argue that the application of this paradigm asserts an exaggerated notion of agency to individuals in the construction of identity. In practical terms it promotes processes that individualise behaviour as a way of dealing with miscreance. Together these manifest themselves as a ‘pedagogy of separation’. The process of building more productive pedagogic relationships, we conclude, needs to begin with teachers better recognising and engaging with the collective investments of young people.

Professional identity in the global sports entertainment industry Regulating the body, mind and soul of Australian Football League footballers

In this article we discuss the ways in which the professional identity of Australian Football League (AFL) footballers — in a physical, high body contact sport — is shaped by concerns to develop different aspects of the body, mind and soul of the young men who want to become AFL footballers. Drawing on Michel Foucault’s later work on the care of the self we argue that narratives of identity necessarily involve a struggle for the body, mind and soul of these young men. Foucault’s work enables us to identify and analyse how relations of power, forms of regulation and arts of governing interact in ongoing attempts to develop the professional footballer. The article explores these issues via an analysis of the rationalities and techniques that inform talent identification and player management practices; and risk management in relation to these practices and processes in the AFL.

Curriculum reform in 3D: a panel of experts discuss the new HPE curriculum in Australia

This paper was developed at the request of the Organising Committee for the 27th Australian Council for Health, Physical Education and Recreation International Conference, in Melbourne, 2013. Its genesis was as a feature forum, wherein a panel of curriculum experts were bought together to discuss the emergence of the Australian Health and Physical Education (HPE) curriculum. The title of the paper emerged as an alliteration of three panellists first names beginning with the letter ‘D’. As well as this, the respective and collective expertise that Doune, David and Dawn brought to the forum covered the necessary depth, width and breadth to warrant the use of this multidimensional metaphor. While their collective experience with major curriculum reform is truly diverse and international, they had each worked together at various points of their esteemed careers. The presentation of this, somewhat unique, paper provides some rich insights into the opportunities and challenges that await the roll-out of the HPE curriculum across Australia.