Scraton [(1992). "Shaping up to womanhood: Gender and girls' physical education." Buckingham: Open University Press)] asserts in her conclusion to 'Shaping up to Womanhood' that feminist analysis of PE (and sport and leisure more broadly) needs to engage more directly with masculinity as a means to understanding the 'dynamics of gender'.…

This research aims to address the paucity of research exploring the impact of formative experiences shaping the trajectory of young people entering higher education outdoor education programmes. Ten participants (n=10) were recruited from a college outdoor education programme this consisted of 6 male (n=6) age range 18-26 and 4 Females (n=4) age…

The aim of this paper is to discuss the negotiation and performance of researcher identities while conducting fieldwork. It draws on a larger study of masculinities, health and physical education, and sport in an elite boys' school to analyse the researcher's role as a female ethnographer in the world of health and physical education in boys'…

The focus of this study was to understand undergraduate students' experiences of gymnastics and dance education within the scrutiny of modular learning in Higher Education. A phenomenological position was adopted in order to understand the wholeness of students' experiences whereby identities are constituted through their lived lives. This allowed…

The research presented explores the negotiation of hegemonic masculinity through football in a group of school children between three and five years of age in a school in Spain. The article shows that in the construction of masculinity within the school, football plays an important role. In this sense, it shows how the playing of football created…

Social media are influential sociocultural forces that construct and transmit information about gender, health and bodies to young people in the digital age. In health and physical activity, Chinese people are often represented and positioned differently to other (minority) ethnic groups. For example, Black young people are often understood as…

Sport is often described as a field containing competitive and hierarchy shaping activities. However, in Sweden and elsewhere, this field is also permeated by democratic principles where, for example, everybody has the right to participate in children's and youth sports regardless of gender, ethnicity or physical ability. In Sweden, there are…

Participation in sport and Physical Education (PE) has historically been heavily gendered, and the glorification of masculinity and sporting prowess is viewed as a potentially negative influence on participation for both males and females. This paper explores male and female experiences of sport and PE to grasp how the field of physical culture…

A growing body of research has suggested that teachers who give their students the opportunity to voice their opinions by purposefully negotiating the curriculum can improve engagement and realize a number of important affective goals. In this paper, we describe the study of one teacher, Jennifer, as she attempted to purposefully negotiate the…

Pre-service teachers of physical education (PE) bring understandings about gender and bodies to their university studies. These understandings are partially informed by biographies and experiences and bear potential to mediate learning and processes of becoming teachers. In this paper we explore technologies of power/knowledge and technologies of…

This research examines how adolescent males (ages 16-17 years) construct and experience their masculine identities within the context of physical education (PE). A class of 23 boys and 3 girls from a state secondary school in Scotland were observed over a period of 3 months. During the third month, five of the observed pupils volunteered to take…

Despite clear messages from current physical education (PE) curricula about the importance of adopting socially critical perspectives, dominant discourses of gender relating to physical activity, bodies and health are being reproduced within this school subject. By drawing on interview data from a larger ethnographic account of boys' PE, this…

Kirk warns that physical education (PE) exists in a precarious situation as the dominance of the multi-activity sport-techniques model, and its associated problems, threatens the long-term educational survival of PE. Yet he also notes that although the model is problematic it is highly resistant to change. In this paper, we draw on the results of…

Despite research over the past three decades that has examined links between masculinity, sport and Physical Education (PE), exclusionary practices and cultures that privilege some boys and masculinities at the expense of marginalised others are still commonly reported. With an historical legacy as a masculinity-making device, attempts to disrupt…

Physical education (PE) and sport have traditionally been identified by scholars as a key mechanism for the production and reproduction of a culturally esteemed ideal of masculinity, premised upon being stoic, strong, competitive, sexist and homophobic. Yet, more recent research reflects a change in valued masculinity as a response to declining…