Discourses of resistance: pre-service teachers’ reflections on the challenges of inclusion in physical education

Figures & data

Table 1. Overview of articles.

Participants	Research article	Purpose	Theoretical perspective	Main findings
Kai, Nickie, Billie, Alex and Ellis	Engebretsen et al. (2020), Walseth et al. (2018)^a	The overall study from which these two articles arose investigated how a group of students respond to the implementation of the activist approach. Engebretsen et al. focused exclusively on girls’ experiences, whereas Walseth et al. included the experiences of boys in determining whether the approach can be used in co-educational PE.	The activist approach developed by Oliver and Kirk (2015)	Engebretsen et al. found that the activist approach provides positive experiences that increase girls’ well-being and learning outcomes. These positive experiences stem from working with learning partners, being given opportunities for co-determination and the organisation of PE in ways that decrease visibility. Walseth et al. showed that working with the activist approach creates a safer class environment and broadens students’ perspectives about what is possible for them in PE. The activist approach seems to engender the greatest improvement for students who previously disliked PE.
Jo	Lagestad (2017)	The author investigated whether boys’ domination in PE influences high school grades in the subject in favour of this gender.	General ideas about gender equality and equivalence	This quantitative study revealed that boys’ average grades in PE are significantly better than those of girls. Twice as many boys as girls receive top marks.
Cameron	Moen and Rugseth (2018)	The study identified what perspectives regarding the body are present in policy documents and PE curricula.	Views of the body as object and the body as subject	Policy documents and the overall introduction to PE curricula enable a broad and holistic understanding of the body. Human bodies create, sense and experience. However, curriculum goals tend to convey instrumentalist understandings of the body as an object to maintain and develop through physical exercise.
Layne and Jules	Elvebakk et al. (2018)	The study investigated the relationship among body, body pressure and social media (SoMe) among young people. The project was carried out in secondary school and had an interdisciplinary scope that included PE and the Norwegian language.	Theory related to the concept of critical literacy	Both boys and girls express stereotypic body ideals (girls = slim or slim and fit/with certain shapes, boys = muscular). Young people admit being more strongly influenced by peers than SoMe and, at the same time, seem to be caught up in dominant discourses of femininity and masculinity. The study highlighted the complexity of media texts and the difficulty that young people experience in executing critical literary reading.
Max	Engelsrud (2021)	The study was mainly theoretical and presented ideas about how societal and political aspects/conditions affect what gender is and will be. The aim of the study was to challenge current thinking regarding gender and how it is understood in PE.	Insights into the difference between sex and gender; several gender theories, including gender as something we become (de Beauvoir), gender as something we do (Butler) and intersectional perspectives	Teachers or teacher-students are challenged to ascertain their preconceptions regarding gender, to be open to gender diversity and to use gender theory as a bases for dialogue with their students.
Jesse	Larsson et al. (2014)	The study outlined how prevailing gender structures can be challenged in PE by exploring queer potential in an educational incident involving traditional dance.	Foucault and the concept of heterotopia, which can be understood as a counter-site for resistance to authority and challenging the production of normalcy; the concept of ‘teaching paradoxically’ to grasp teaching in a queer fashion	Video recordings of a single PE lesson comprehensively showed how students challenged current practices of learning a traditional Folk dance. The girls interrupted the lesson by indicating that they could not dance with boys because they were lesbian. The teacher listened to the girls’ concerns, acknowledging their efforts in bringing the discussion to the class and admitting that he had been haunted by his heterosexual norms. The article concludes with an outline of conditions that need to be considered to teach paradoxically.

^a Engebretsen et al. (2020) and Walseth et al. (2018) are developed from the same study and have some similarities. The articles were therefore presented together in the table.

Table 2. Discourses.

Discourses of inclusion	Discourses of resistance
More gender inclusive PE is needed: Boys and girls experience PE differently. PE should be for everybody, but girls are currently marginalised, and PE is dominated by boys.	Resistance to PE transformation: Gender differences are natural and inevitable. Boys need PE because girls do better in other subjects.
PE practices must embrace diversity: Society should embrace (gender and sexual) diversity, but PE is stuck in traditional gender structures.	Resistance to gender diversity in PE: Receptiveness to gender diversity in PE might confuse (vulnerable) young people. Inclusion should and could happen within the gender binary. / There is no need for gender diversity if we open up our understanding of what it means to be a boy or a girl.

Engebretsen, B., Walseth, K., & Elvebakk, L. (2020). Jenter og kroppsøving. Hvordan kan en aktivistisk tilnærming bedre jenters erfaring med kroppsøvingsfaget? [Girls and physical education. How can an activist approach improve girls’ experience of physical education?]. Norsk Pedagogisk Tidsskrift, 104(4), 361–375. https://doi.org/10.18261/issn.1504-2987/2020-04-04

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Walseth, K., Engebretsen, B., & Elvebakk, L. (2018). Meaningful experiences in PE for all students: An activist research approach. Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy, 23(3), 235–249. https://doi.org/10.1080/17408989.2018.1429590

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Oliver, K., & Kirk, D. (2015). Girls, gender and physical education: An activist approach. Routledge.

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Lagestad, P. (2017). Er gutter bedre enn jenter i kroppsøving? [Are boys better than girls in physical education?]. Acta Didactica Norge, 11(1,5), 1–21. https://doi.org/10.5617/adno.2609

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Moen, K. M., & Rugseth, G. (2018). Perspektiver på kropp i kroppsøvingsfaget i skolen og i faglærerutdanningen i kroppsøving [Perspectives on the body in school physical education and physical education teacher education]. Journal for Research in Arts and Sports Education, 2, 154–168. https://doi.org/10.23865/jased.v2.1052

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Elvebakk, L., Engebretsen, B., & Walseth, K. (2018). Kroppen på Instagram - Ungdoms refleksjoner rundt kroppsideal og kroppspress [The body on Instagram – Youth’s reflections on body ideal and body pressure]. In E. Sundsdal, M. Øksnes, & C. Haugen (Eds.), Ungdom, danning og fellesskap - Samfunns - og kulturpedagogiske perspektiv [Young people, education and community] (pp. 81–106). Cappelen Damm Akademisk.

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Engelsrud, G. (2021). Kjønn og inkludering [Gender and inclusion]. In F. Ø. Standal, & G. Rugseth (Eds.), Inkluderende kroppsøving [Inclusive physical education] (pp. 27–49). Cappelen Damm Akademisk.

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Larsson, H., Quennerstedt, M., & Öhman, M. (2014). Heterotopias in physical education: Towards a queer pedagogy? Gender and Education, 26(2), 135–150. https://doi.org/10.1080/09540253.2014.888403

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