Indigenous scholars constantly contend with deficit tendencies associated with the value and place of their cultural knowledge and practices within higher education. When gender is imbued through a racialised view of indigeneity or the indigenous scholar, the proposition of 'other' and 'othering' becomes a struggle of power relations which…

There is a problematic but widespread perception that we do mathematics with our minds, and sport and Physical Education (PE) with our bodies. Strong identification with sport and PE could therefore pose a barrier to mathematics learning. I explore this troubling possibility using data from a mixed-methods study of 450 Year Nine students (age…

Educationalists lament the resilience of the so-called 'boy crisis', despite research that demonstrates only some boys are in crisis, as well as some girls. The boy crisis in New Zealand shows no sign of abating, partly due to popular rhetorical literature in the form of parenting advice books. In particular, authors Celia Lashlie and Nigel Latta…

This article explores the schooling experiences of 12 fa'afafine and fakaleiti who attended an all-boys faith-based secondary school in Aotearoa-New Zealand. Fa'afafine are Samoan, and fakaleiti Tongans who are assigned male at birth, but enact varying degrees and types of behaviour deemed as feminine. There are currently no in-depth qualitative…

Background: Pleasure is often a key feature of school physical education (PE) and, indeed, a lot of students find pleasure in and through PE while others do not. However, pleasure is rarely considered to be of educational value in the subject [Pringle, R. (2010). "Finding Pleasure in Physical Education: A Critical Examination of the Educative…

In this article, I argue that women in senior leadership positions in universities continue to face a number of tensions and ambiguities in their everyday working lives. Drawing on the metaphors of 'looking good' and 'being good', I highlight the gendered assumptions that senior women encounter. As senior leaders, women are simultaneously required…

This article discusses how the friendship circles of 38 schoolboys in New Zealand influence what they consider acceptable language and behaviour. Six focus group sessions were held with heterosexual and self-identified queer students aged between thirteen and eighteen to explore their interpretations, meanings and usage of homosexually themed…

This article discusses how early curriculum resources available to all school children in New Zealand attempted to shape children's attitudes to the First World War. The study reviewed issues of the "New Zealand School Journal" between the years 1907 and 1925. It found evidence of overt and covert attempts to influence children's…

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…

This specially themed ""Getting of Wisdom," Learning in Later Life" Edition of the "Australian Journal of Adult Learning" ("AJAL") is not so much concerned with the issue of ageing itself, but more about quality of life regardless of age. It is about taking, but also giving back as best as possible at any…

In taking heed of the so-called "spatial turn" in social theory this paper explores how the spatial intersects with boys' performances of gender and (dis)pleasures in school physical education (PE). In particular, the paper aims to contribute to our understanding of how the organisation and implementation of physical and social spaces in…

Gard [(2008). "When a Boy's Gotta Dance: New Masculinities, Old Pleasures." "Sport, Education and Society," 13(2), 181-193], Booth [(2009). "Politics and Pleasure: The Philosophy of Physical Education Revisited." "Quest," 61(2), 133-153] and Pringle [(2010). "Finding Pleasure in Physical Education: A…

This article, based on narrative inquiry, explores how academics with/out formal leadership positions experience and understand themselves as leaders in their everyday working contexts. A single case of a fixed-term academic was chosen to illustrate how different analytical lenses -- "plot analysis" and "discourse analysis" --…