Robyne Garrett

Negotiating a physical identity: girls, bodies and physical education

A physically active lifestyle can be empowering for young women in allowing them to resist many of the dominant and limiting discourses around femininity and gender. In finding pleasure in their physical state a positive sense of self is embodied and long‐term engagement in a physical culture can be fostered. However, research repeatedly cites that girls and women move away from physical activity at various stages in their life and within physical education settings they are often defined as ‘the problem’. Whilst the health implications of inactivity are well documented, the reasons for choosing these behaviours are complex, and related to the social, cultural and gender structure of society. This paper investigates the construction of a physical identity within the context of physical education and physical activity. Specifically, it explores the power of discourses around the body and gender as well as ‘lived’ physical experiences in shaping subjectivities for a group of young Australian women. In taking a feminist poststructuralist methodology, the research is concerned with locating discourses and social practices as well as structural and institutional factors that empower or alienate young women in their engagement within a physical culture. The paper draws conclusions about the ways that young women actively negotiate a physical sense of themselves in a wider culture in which their body, their gender and their physical experiences play powerful roles.

Critical storytelling as a teaching strategy in physical education teacher education

Stories capture the richness and nuances of meaning in everyday existence and give insight into the complexity of our experiences and understandings. They can evoke an emotional response in the reader, which moves them beyond the literary experience to a more ‘lived’ and embodied experience. This article is concerned with autobiographical narrative in the form of story and its influence on the development of a critical pedagogy in physical education (PE). Girls’ stories of physicality were presented to training PE teachers as a strategy to foster critical and inclusive approaches to the teaching of PE. Student teacher responses indicated that much of the power of the strategy lay in the understanding that the stories came from ‘real people’. In promoting both emotional and embodied connections to the storyteller, empathy was enhanced. The stories served to highlight for student teachers the importance of noticing what was happening for girls in their classes, the public display of the body in PE and the need for particular pedagogies that ensure learner safety.

Becoming connected: the lived experience of yoga participation after stroke

Purpose. To investigate the personal experiences and perceived outcomes of a yoga programme for stroke survivors. Method. This article reports on a preliminary study using qualitative methods to investigate the personal experiences and perceived outcomes of a yoga programme. Nine individuals who had experienced stroke were interviewed following a 10-week yoga programme involving movement, breathing and meditation practices. An interpretative phenomenological approach was used to determine meanings attached to yoga participation as well as perceptions of outcomes. Results. Interpretative themes evolving from the data were organised around a bio-psychosocial model of health benefits from yoga. Emergent themes from the analysis included: greater sensation; feeling calmer and becoming connected. These themes respectively revealed perceived physical improvements in terms of strength, range of movement or walking ability, an improved sense of calmness and the possibility for reconnecting and accepting a different body. Conclusion. The study has generated original findings that suggest that from the perspective of people who have had a stroke yoga participation can provide a number of meaningful physical, psychological and social benefits and support the rationale for incorporating yoga and meditation-based practices into rehabilitation programmes.

Identity Work: Stories Told in Learning to Teach Physical Education.

Pre-service teachers bring to their university studies particular world views and understandings of themselves and others around health and physical activity. Their biographies and experiences in school physical education, sport and oyther societal institutions inform these perspectives and understandings. These in turn work to mediate university learning, interactions with the physical education learning area and understandings of teaching and learning processes. The biographies of pre-service teachers can provide valuable insights into how and why particular constructions of self are possible within given historical times, locations and events. In the context of teacher preparation in physical education this research attempts to investigate the construction of a teaching identity and pedagogical practices. Specifically it attempts to reveal how various cultures of physical activity, fitness and sport shape the subjective experiences of pre-service teachers as well as how different theoretical frameworks can be used to provide particular readings and deeper understandings of the stories told. Pre-service teachers were asked to respond to a series of open-ended questions regarding their personal experiences of physical education, sport and teacher preparation as well as the implications of these experiences for notions of themselves as an emerging teacher in the learning area. In the process of analysis attempt was made to identify the meanings students made in these contexts and their influence on the construction of a teaching identity. The findings give evidence of the complex and multiple ways that teaching identities are constructed as well as the processes whereby particular pedagogical practices are adopted.

Being mobile: electric mobility-scooters and their use by older people

ABSTRACT There is increasing use of electric mobility-scooters by older people in South Australia, the fourth largest state in Australia. Although various issues about their use have been raised by users, carers, urban planners and legislators, to date they have received little research attention. The purpose of the study reported in this paper was to explore the factors that influence and impact upon older people who use mobility-scooters, particularly from their own perspectives. Data were collected through a survey of 67 current electric mobility-scooter older users, and through two focus groups with other older South Australian people who were users. The data showed that more than 71 per cent of the participants had owned their scooter for more than two years, most had purchased the scooter as new, and 80 per cent owned a four-wheel scooter. The scooter was used predominantly for getting to and from shops, visiting friends and family, and to go for rides. Most respondents used their scooters three to five times each week and travelled between two and five kilometres from their home. The key findings from the focus groups were categorised into three major themes of ‘obtaining a scooter’, ‘the meaning of mobility’ and ‘issues around sharing spaces’. Each is exemplified. The implications for environmental and building design, for the better training of users, and for public education are discussed.

Connections, pedagogy and alternative possibilities in primary physical education

This research is concerned with how exposure to a diverse range of lived and personal experiences and then guided reflection of teaching episodes can be harnessed to assist student teachers in making meaningful connections with their diverse and complex learners. These strategies were used in a bid to promote critical perspectives and approaches by inviting student teachers to entertain alternative possibilities in teaching primary school health and physical education. The research draws on the past experiences of a group of generalist primary student teachers that revealed considerable diversity in subjectivities made and held around physical education, sport and physical activity. The breadth, contrast and contradiction in personal experiences and subjectivities provided an opportunity to problematise traditional practices and beliefs in the learning area. The cohort were then involved in a series of ‘lab school’ experiences where they were encouraged to reflect on their teaching experiences. The findings indicate that for some student teachers the connections made with real life and ‘lived’ experiences facilitated a more critical reflection and an enhanced desire to ‘do things differently’. However for others, sporting discourses in physical education were firmly entrenched and served to limit their engagement with alternative approaches.

Pleasure and Pain: Experiences of Fitness Testing.

The obesity crisis is a hegemonic discourse that has established common-sense understandings that young people are less active and fit than previous generations. Unquestioning acceptance of links between fitness and obesity in turn leads to unproblematic fitness testing of young people. Argument is made that fitness tests motivate and encourage participation in physical activity. Poststructural perspectives as informed by the work of Michel Foucault invite consideration of alternative possibilities around complex social phenomena such as the obesity crisis and pedagogical practices such as fitness testing. This research was informed by concerns about the unproblematic fitness testing of young people and calls for pedagogies of physical education that work to unsettle dominant discourses. The research investigates the experience of fitness testing from the perspective of university students pursuing health and physical education pathways through their degree programmes. Experiences of fitness testing were explored and the meanings made around participation, performances and results were interrogated.

Guessing Where the Goal Posts Are: Managing Health and Well-Being during the Transition to University Studies.

It is widely acknowledged that social conditions are directly associated with health and well-being. Significantly little is known about the impact of changing social conditions, including the transition to higher education, on young peoples health and well-being. This qualitative research investigated perceptions and factors that influence health and well-being for first year university students. Governmental practices adopted in managing health and well-being during transition to a university context, were also investigated. Empirical data were collected, in 2010, via an online student questionnaire. Participants were completing their first year of study in a School of Health Sciences at an Australian university. They were asked to respond to a series of closed questions to collect demographic data and open-ended questions regarding their perceptions of health and well-being as well as factors that impact on them personally as they transition into university studies. Findings indicate that there are significant factors that impact on student well-being during this transition. These include: geographical relocation, engagement with university learning, sense of community as well as managing time and competing demands. Findings also indicate that whilst young people accept an individualised responsibility managing health and well-being, the social conditions of transition to university render this complex and problematic.

Narrative inquiry in physical education research: the story so far and its future promise

At a recent international education conference, current life history and narrative research within Physical Education Teacher Education (PETE) was criticised for its seeming inability to ‘produce anything new’ and for lacking ‘rigour’. This paper aims to respond to the criticism and to reassert the strengths of narrative inquiry in the current moment. It maps out narrative and life history research (published in English) carried out in PETE, illuminating a spectrum of narrative approaches and a richness of theoretical perspectives. It underscores the need for PETE scholars to acknowledge the broad range of philosophical assumptions about knowledge and how we come to know as this underpins all research, whether carried out within a qualitative or quantitative research tradition, and to develop a climate of mutual respect for these various positions if we are to avoid stagnation, hegemony or blind spots in our research agendas.

PE: it’s just me: physically active and healthy teacher bodies

This paper focuses on the significance of embodied understandings to the emerging subjectivities and pedagogical practices of pre-service teachers undertaking a Physical Education (PE) specialisation through a B.Ed. (primary/middle). Data from a research project conducted at an Australian university with seven pre-service teachers will be presented through three themes: ‘Naturally’ sporty bodies; Healthy bodies; and Embodied pedagogical practices. Our findings suggest that through the configurative function of narrative identity, participants merge lasting dispositions around embodied physicality with acquired dispositions around embodied health, fitness and pedagogical practices. In doing so, they locate themselves in a contemporary narrative of PE which reinforces assumptions that bodies, subjectivities and lives can be shaped so as to protect against risks associated with obesity.