Talking It Through: Using Youth Voice To Explore Pupils’ Knowledge, Understandings And Conceptions Of Healthy, Active Lifestyles

Author(s):

Oliver Hooper(presenting / submitting)Jo Harris Lorraine Cale

Conference:

ECER 2017

Network:

18. Research in Sports Pedagogy

Format:

Paper

Session Information

18 SES 08, Developing Teachers Professional Identity: The contemporary physical education teacher

Paper Session

Time:

2017-08-24

09:00-10:30

Room:

K3.23

Chair:

Paula Batista

Contribution

Schools, and in particular physical education (PE), have been increasingly recognised for the role that they play in promoting healthy, active lifestyles amongst children and young people in light of the public health agenda (Shephard and Trudeau, 2000; Trost, 2004; Cale and Harris, 2005). Within the context of England and the United Kingdom (UK) more broadly, Cale and Harris (2011) note how various governmental policies, strategies and initiatives have highlighted the role that schools should be playing in health promotion, with PE often overtly mentioned within these. Indeed, the National Curriculum for PE in England makes explicit reference to the role the subject should be playing in promoting health, with ‘[ensuring] that all pupils lead healthy, active lifestyles’ currently being one of the four overarching aims of the subject across all age groups (Department for Education, 2013, p. 1). It must be noted, that whilst the present study focuses on England, it has relevance to countries across Europe and globally, with the school being viewed as a suitable setting for health promotion in many nations (O’Sullivan, 2004).

Although schools have been recognised for the role that they can play in promoting health to children and young people, concerns have been raised by some as to how effectively they might currently be promoting this (Cale et al., 2016). The research reported on in this paper emanates from the growing body of literature expressing concerns over what school-aged children and young people know and understand about leading a healthy, active lifestyle and their conceptions of what it means to be ‘healthy’ (see Harris et al., 2016 for an overview). This research has found that children and young people can have narrow conceptions of ‘health’, as well as gaps/errors in their knowledge and understandings of healthy, active lifestyles (ibid). Evidently, if this is the case, PE and schools more broadly may not be promoting healthy, active lifestyles to pupils as effectively as they might.

This paper reports on the main phases of a wider study exploring pupils’ conceptions, knowledge and understandings of healthy, active lifestyles. These phases have explored what pupils within secondary schools in England know, understand and conceive about healthy, active lifestyles, where and how they learn about these, and how they utilise what they know, understand and conceive in the context of their own lifestyles. It is anticipated that the findings from the study will be able to inform policy and practice in this area both within curricular PE and across the whole school.

The theoretical framework underpinning the study draws on the work of Foucault. Specifically, it draws upon a genealogical analysis of discourse. This seeks to analyse how discourse influences and informs individuals’ understandings of the world, paying particular attention to the social and political relationships/structures from which these understandings are constructed. It focuses on the ideological underpinnings of the dominant discourses that have shaped the ways in which individuals think about the world, how they are positioned within it, and how they assume or resist these positions (Wooffitt, 2005). Within the study, ‘health’ discourses and their manifestations will be examined through the ‘talk’ of pupils to explore how these discourses ‘play out’ within PE, schools, and the lives of children and young people more broadly.

Method

The study adopted a case study approach involving two schools from the East Midlands region of England. Semi-structured focus groups were conducted with 60 Year 7 pupils (11-12 year olds) at each of the two case study schools between October and December 2015 and June and July 2016. Pupils each participated in two semi-structured focus groups, one during each of the data collection periods. Focus groups were typically conducted with groups of six pupils and were between 45 and 75 minutes in duration. A schedule was developed to guide each focus group drawing on literature within the field and guided by the research questions the study sought to address. Participatory methods were employed to generate discussion and to elicit pupils’ conceptions, knowledge and understandings of, healthy, active lifestyles. In line with this, the focus groups involved pupils undertaking a range of interactive tasks/activities. Examples of these included: drawing what ‘health’ meant; responding to true/false statements about leading a healthy, active lifestyle; and discussing cartoon images representing a range of lifestyle contexts related to health and physical activity. Pupils worked interactively with one another to undertake and discuss tasks/activities in line with the ‘youth voice’ approach that underpinned the research. This approach is often allied with participatory methods (Heath et al., 2009) and seeks to privilege the voices of younger participants, recognising that children and young people are competent social agents, capable of both understanding and articulating their own experiences (Christensen and James, 2008). The focus group discussions were audio recorded and subsequently transcribed verbatim to generate transcripts for analysis. Data were organised within NVivo 10 and analysed using genealogical discourse analysis, drawing on the work of Foucault.

Expected Outcomes

The findings support, and contribute to, the growing body of research expressing concerns over pupils’ conceptions, knowledge and understandings of healthy, active lifestyles. It was evident that almost all pupils found ‘health’ to be a confusing topic, with the vast majority having gaps or errors in their knowledge and understandings. Pupils also demonstrated a preoccupation with the corporeal aspects of health, with almost all of them describing ‘health’ mainly in the physical sense. Whilst some described wider aspects, such as mental and social health/wellbeing, generally this was at a rather superficial level. Allied to this, when considering moderators of health, most pupils spoke almost exclusively about diet and exercise. Pupils also had a tendency to talk about health in negative terms with most describing what not to do to be healthy, rather than what to do. For example, when asked how they might lead a healthy, active lifestyle, typical responses included not eating too much ‘junk’ food and not spending too much time sitting down. It was encouraging, however, that almost all pupils considered leading a healthy, active lifestyle to be important, with the vast majority also expressing a desire to learn more about how they might lead one. It would seem, therefore, that PE and schools do have a somewhat captive audience for the promotion of healthy, active lifestyles. However, present findings would suggest that careful consideration needs to be given as to how practitioners might make best use of this, to effectively promote healthy, active lifestyles to pupils.

References

Cale, L. and Harris, J. (2005) Promoting Physical Activity within Schools, in L. Cale and J. Harris (Eds.) Exercise and young people: issues, implications and initiatives. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 162-190. Cale, L. and Harris, J. (2011) ‘Every child (of every size) matters’ in physical education! Physical education’s role in childhood obesity, Sport Education and Society, 18 (4), 433-452. Cale, L., Harris, J. and Duncombe, R. (2016) Promoting physical activity in secondary schools: Growing expectations, ‘same old’ issues? European Physical Education Review, 22 (4), 526-544. Department for Education [DfE] (2013) National Curriculum in England: Physical Education Programmes of Study. London: DfE. Christensen, P. and James, A. (2008) Research with children: perspectives and practices. London: Routledge. Harris, J., Cale, L., Duncombe, R. and Musson, H. (2016) Young people’s knowledge and understanding of health, fitness and physical activity: issues, divides and dilemmas, Sport, Education and Society, DOI: 10.108013573322.2016.1228047. Heath, S., Brooke, R., Cleaver, E. and Ireland, E. (2009) Researching young people’s lives. London: Sage. O’Sullivan, M. (2004) Possibilities and pitfalls of a public health agenda in physical education, Journal of Teaching in Physical Education, 23, 392-404. Shephard, R. and Trudeau, F. (2000) The legacy of physical education: influences on adult lifestyle, Pediatric Exercise Science, 12, 34-50. Trost, S. (2004) School physical education in the post-report era: An analysis from public health, Journal of Teaching in Physical Education, 23, 38-337. Wooffitt, R. (2005) Conversation Analysis and Discourse Analysis: A Comparative and Critical Introduction. London: Sage.

Author Information

Oliver Hooper (presenting / submitting)

Loughborough University

School of Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences

Loughborough

Jo Harris

Loughborough University, United Kingdom

Lorraine Cale

Loughborough University

Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences