Gender and Physical Education: Contemporary Issues and Future Directions

243 Pages·2002·0.78 MB·English

by  Dawn Penney

Gender and Physical Education

Gender and Physical Education offers a critical and comprehensive
commentary on issues relating to gender in the context of physical education
in schools and in teacher training. The book challenges our understandings
of gender, equity and identity in physical education, establishing a conceptual
and historical foundation for the issue, as well as presenting a wealth of
original research material.
The book delivers a critical analysis of the progress and shortcomings of
contemporary policies and practice in physical education as they relate to
gender, and reflects on the similarities and differences between developments
in the UK, US and Australia. It also offers new frameworks for research,
policy and practice with a view to advancing gender equity, and addresses
the roles that teachers, educators and policy-makers can play in challenging
existing inequalities.
Gender and Physical Education is an important text for students and
lecturers in education, teacher educators and providers of continuing
professional development in physical education, and anybody concerned with
gender issues in education, physical education or sport.
Dawn Penney is Senior Research Fellow at the Department of Physical
Education, Sports Science and Recreation Management at the University of
Loughborough. She is co-author of Politics, Policy and Practice in Physical
Education (also published by Routledge).

Gender and Physical
Education
Contemporary issues and
future directions
Edited by Dawn Penney

London and New York
First published 2002 by Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 3EE
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2003.
© 2002 Dawn Penney for selection and editorial matter; individual
contributors for their contribution
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or
other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval
system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Gender and physical education: contemporary issues and future
directions/edited by Dawn Penney.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Physical education and training—Social aspects. 2. Sexism in
education. 3. Gender identity in education. I. Penney, Dawn, 1966–
GV342.27 .G46 2002
613.7'071–dc21 2001048673
ISBN 0-203-46888-0 Master e-book ISBN

ISBN 0-203-77712-3 (Adobe eReader Format)
ISBN 0-415-23576-6 (pbk)
ISBN 0-415-23575-8 (hbk)
Contents

List of contributors vii
Preface xi
PART I
Setting the agenda 1
1 Introduction 3
JOHN EVANS AND DAWN PENNEY
2 Talking gender 13
DAWN PENNEY AND JOHN EVANS
3 Physical education: a gendered history 24
DAVID KIRK
PART II
Gender agendas 39
4 Difference matters: sexuality and physical education 41
GILL CLARKE
5 Muslim women in teacher training: issues of gender,
‘race’ and religion 57
TANSIN BENN
6 Gender positioning as pedagogical practice in teaching
physical education 80
DAVID BROWN AND EMMA RICH
v
vi Contents
PART III
Gender and physical education: policies and practice 101
7 Gendered policies 103
DAWN PENNEY
8 Gender, health and physical education 123
JO HARRIS AND DAWN PENNEY
9 Understanding girls’ experience of physical education:
relational analysis and situated learning 146
ANNE WILLIAMS AND JULIE BEDWARD
PART IV
Extending gender agendas in physical education 161
10 Gender equity and physical education: a USA perspective
163
MARY O’SULLIVAN, KIM BUSH AND MARGARET GEHRING
11 Physical education teacher education: sites of progress or
resistance 190
JAN WRIGHT
12 Extending agendas: physical culture research for the
twenty-first century 208
DOUNE MACDONALD
Index 223
Contributors

Julie Bedward is a qualitative researcher who has conducted several major
studies as a Research Fellow at the University of Birmingham since 1987.
She is currently working on a number of projects in the School of
Education, including a study of gender differences in learning.
Tansin Benn is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Birmingham. She is
head of the Physical Education, Sports Studies and Dance Department.
Her teaching and research interests cross arts, sport and teaching
boundaries.
David Brown was formerly a teacher of physical education and French. David
then became a lecturer in physical education with the Department of
Physical Education, Sports Science and Recreation Management of
Loughborough University. He is currently a lecturer in the School of
Postgraduate Medicine and Health Sciences in the Department of Exercise
and Sports Sciences at Exeter University.
Kim Bush is a doctoral candidate in sport pedagogy at Ohio State University.
She is a former collegiate field hockey player and coach. Her research
interests relate to feminist approaches to understanding urban adolescent
girls and empowering them in relation to issues surrounding physical
activity, sport and their bodies.
Gill Clarke is a Senior Lecturer in physical education and autobiographical
studies in the Research and Graduate School of Education at the University
of Southampton. Gill is also deputy director of the Centre for Biography
and Education at the University of Southampton. Gill has published widely
on issues around sexuality, physical education and sport.
John Evans is Professor of Physical Education in the Department of Physical
Education, Sports Science and Recreation Management at Loughborough
University. He is author of Teaching in Transition: the Challenge of Mixed
Ability Grouping and editor of PE, Sport and Schooling: Studies in the
Sociology of PE; Teachers, Teaching and Control; and Equality, Education
and Physical Education (all by Falmer Press). John is editor of the
vii
viii Contributors
international journal, Sport Education and Society. His research interests
centre on the study of policy, teaching and equity issues in the secondary
school curriculum.
Margaret Gehring is a faculty member at Ohio Weslyean College and a
doctoral candidate in sport pedagogy at Ohio State University. She is a
former collegiate cross country runner and coach. Her research interests
are in using feminist perspectives to study female coaches in American
collegiate ranks.
Jo Harris is currently Director of the Physical Education teacher education
programmes at Loughborough University, where she also contributes to
masters degree programmes in physical education. Jo taught for twelve
years in state secondary schools and has twelve years’ experience of teacher
education. Jo gained her PhD in 1997 and has published articles in
academic and professional journals, produced numerous teaching
resources and directed many in-service training courses for both primary
and secondary school teachers. Jo has a particular interest in physical
education’s contribution to health and associated issues relating to
personal and social education, citizenship, inclusion and lifelong learning.
David Kirk joined Loughborough University in November 1998. He is
currently Professor of Physical Education and Sport. His research interests
include young people in sport, curriculum change in physical education,
the body, schooling and culture, and situated learning in physical
education and sport. His most recent book is Schooling Bodies, published
in 1998 by Leicester University Press.
Doune Macdonald is a Reader in the School of Human Movement Studies,
the University of Queensland. She coordinates the health and physical
education teacher education programme and her current research interests
include HPE curriculum construction and change, teachers’ work, and
young people and physical activity.
Mary O’Sullivan is an Associate Dean in the College of Education at Ohio
State University. Her research interests are in teaching and teacher
education reform. She teaches graduate classes in supervision, educational
reform, curriculum and instruction in secondary physical education and
an undergraduate class in social issues in physical education and sport.
She is a former collegiate field hockey player and likes to travel, read and
play golf.
Dawn Penney is a Senior Research Fellow at the Department of Physical
Education, Sports Science and Recreation Management at Loughborough
University. Dawn has previously held research positions at the University
of Southampton, the University of Queensland and De Montfort
University, and is the reviews editor for Sport, Education and Society.
Contributors ix
Since 1990 Dawn has been researching contemporary policy and
curriculum developments in physical education and has published widely
in academic and professional journals. She is co-author with John Evans
of Politics, Policy and Practice in Physical Education (1999, E&FN Spon,
an imprint of Routledge).
Emma Rich graduated from the Department of Physical Education, Sports
Science and Recreation Management at Loughborough University with
a first class Honours in Recreation Management in 1998. She was
awarded a research scholarship at Loughborough where she is
investigating the social (re)construction of gender in teaching physical
education. Emma is also a member of Women in Sport Regional Advisory
committee for the Sports Council. Emma is now a lecturer in Gender,
Identity, Health and Physical Education in the Department of Physical
Education, Sports Science and Recreation Management, Loughborough
University.
Anne Williams is Professor and Head of the School of Education at King
Alfred’s College Winchester and Honorary Senior Lecturer at the
University of Birmingham. Her research interests include teacher
education and physical education. She has published widely on primary
school physical education, gender issues in physical education and on
teacher education.
Jan Wright is an Associate Professor and Research Director of the Graduate
School of Education, University of Wollongong. She has taught in the
areas of curriculum and pedagogy and socio-cultural perspectives of
physical education to undergraduates for the last twenty years. She played
a key role in the development of the new NSW Senior Syllabus in Personal
Development, Health and Physical Education (PDHPE) and has been
employed by the NSW Dept of Education and Training to provide
professional development on the socio-cultural perspective that underpins
this syllabus. Jan has published widely on gender and physical education
and is co-author of Becoming a Physical Education Teacher (Addison-
Wesley, 2000) with Richard Tinning, Doune Macdonald and Chris Hickey.