Leeds Beckett University - City Campus,
Woodhouse Lane,
LS1 3HE
Conference to explore gender and physical education
The one-day event will celebrate the 25th anniversary of the publication of Leeds Beckett Emeritus Professor Sheila Scraton’s book, ‘Shaping up to Womanhood: Gender and Girls’ Physical Education’, and will take place at Leeds Beckett’s Headingley Campus on 11 September. The conference, organised by The Institute for Sport, Physical Activity and Leisure at Leeds Beckett, will provide space for socio-critical and/or feminist analyses of young people’s experiences of physical education, sport, health and active lifestyles.
Conference organiser and Senior Lecturer at Leeds Beckett, Dr Annette Stride, explained: “Researchers in the Carnegie School of Sport have developed significant expertise in gender, physical education, sport and physical activity, particularly in raising awareness of the ways in which PE can reproduce gender stereotypes, inequalities and discrimination.
“This conference allows attendees an opportunity to reflect on the work of researchers in sport, leisure, coaching and PE and will help to strengthen the work of the Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) and Sport Coaching and PE (SCOPE) research centres at Leeds Beckett, whilst contributing to the University’s broader commitment to gender equality through its submission for Athena SWAN accreditation.”
The Carnegie School of Sport is internationally renowned for its research in gender, PE, sport and physical activity. In particular, the work of Professors Sheila Scraton and Anne Flintoff, spanning the last three decades, has been significant in raising awareness of the ways in which PE can reproduce gender stereotypes, inequalities and discrimination.
Following the conference Dr Annette Stride will guest edit a special issue of the Sport, Education and Society journal. Included within the special edition will be a research paper based on her own research using a critical interpretive feminist lens to explore how present day gender relations are constituted or challenged through contemporary PE policy and practice. Using her recently awarded University funded Early Career Researcher grant, Annette’s research will use observations and semi structured interviews with teachers working within four of the University’s partner schools to explore curriculum, pedagogy and leadership.
Annette’s research will complement and add to the work of other feminist colleagues working in sport, leisure, coaching and PE, strengthening the work of the Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) and Sport Coaching and PE (SCOPE) research centres, whilst contributing to the University’s broader commitment to gender equality through the Athena Swann accreditation
Keynote speakers at the conference will be Emeritus Professor Scraton and Dr Emma Rich from the University of Bath and the conference will provide an opportunity to celebrate research that considers gender, PE, active lifestyles and young people’s experiences.
Emeritus Professor Sheila Scraton was Pro Vice Chancellor and Director of University Research at Leeds Beckett from 2004-2008, until her retirement in 2010. As Professor of Leisure and Feminist Studies she has led research for the past 20 years in the area of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion within the Carnegie Research Institute. Her major research interests include cross-national qualitative work on women and sport; sport, ethnicity and gender; women and football; older women and leisure; gender and physical education; leisure and feminist theory.
Dr Emma Rich is a Senior Lecturer in the Department for Health at the University of Bath. Her work draws upon the sociology of education, pedagogy, the body and physical culture. She is particularly interested in health discourses and the body and draws upon critical perspectives on the body, health and illness in her research. In recent years, research projects have explored issues such as moral panic over obesity, eating disorders and education and surveillance of young people’s bodies.