Session Information
27 SES 08 A, Gender and Didactics: From Curricula to Classroom Practices
Symposium
Contribution
In physical education (PE) as in many other school subjects an increasing volume of studies over recent years have recognised that pedagogical practices participate in the social construction of gendered bodies and minds through the curriculum. It has been shown that girls and boys do not benefit from equal opportunities to participate in physical activities (Flintoff & Scraton, 2006). The purpose of this presentation is to focus, within a didactique research approach, on how teacher and students interactions participate in the production of gendered content; in other word to capture in detail the curriculum in motion in classroom settings to understand how gender order is enacted in PE (Amade-Escot et al., 2015; Larsson et al., 2009; Verscheure & Amade-Escot, 2007). Looking at classroom practices as being organically cooperative actions between participants, the didactical framework supports the idea that student learning occurs within the unavoidable tension between active agents and the learning contexts that are more or less monitored by the teacher. During classroom practices, the teacher gives the students directions that expose what counts as knowledge and appropriate ways of practicing in a specific social practice. But teachers and students may not have the same goals or same agendas. That is why negotiations and transactions occur, some of them related to the gendered facets of each particular piece of content at stake. In particular in PE, where “since the demands of every sport involve a particular balance between force and skill, it can be suggested that the more it is force that is decisive, the more a physically dominating hegemonic masculinity can be publicly celebrated” (Whitson, 1994, p. 363). The paper, built on the findings of several studies related to different types of PE subjects (dance, badminton, football, gymnastics and volley-ball), discusses the concept of ‘gender positioning’ as a mean to describe the dynamics of the differential didactic contract which is “… not implicitly negotiated with all classroom students but with some groups of students which have diverse standings in the classroom” (Schubauer-Leoni, 1996, p. 160). Relying on observational methods, the findings portray the dynamics of the gendered learning trajectories between and among students. They bring to light that gender order in the gym implies norms of excellence and embodiment valued by teachers, which are linked to the heritage of sport culture.
References
Amade-Escot, C., Elandoulsi, S., Verscheure, I. (2015). Physical Education in Tunisia: Teachers' Practical Epistemology, Students’ Positioning and Gender Issues. Sport, Education and Society, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13573322.2014.997694 Flintoff, A. & Scraton, S. (2006). Girls and physical education. In D. Kirk, M. O'Sullivan, & D. Macdonald (Eds.), Handbook of Research in Physical Education (pp. 767-783). London: SAGE Publications. Larsson, H., Fagrell, B. & Redelius, K. (2009). Queering physical education. Between benevolence towards girls and a tribute to masculinity. Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy, 14(1), 1-17. Schubauer-Leoni, M.L. (1996). Etude du contrat didactique pour des élèves en difficulté en mathématiques. Problématique didactique et/ou psychosociale. In C. Raisky & M. Caillot (Eds.), Au-delà des didactiques le didactique: débats autour de concepts fédérateurs (pp.159-189). Bruxelles: De Boeck, Perspectives en éducation. Verscheure, I. & Amade-Escot, C. (2007). The gendered construction of physical education content as the result of the differentiated didactic contract. Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy, 12(3), 245-272. Whitson, D. (1994). The embodiment of gender: discipline, domination and empowerment, In S. Birrell & S. Cole (Eds.), Women, Sport and Culture (pp. 353-371). Champaign, Il: Human Kinetics.
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