Dr Ruth Brazier

Historically, practice within physical education (PE) has tended to treat students the same, without accounting for difference. This has generated much research interest within the field. Importantly, research on difference and experience within PE has commonly adopted a ‘single-issue’ approach, which considers individual identity positions in isolation (Penney, 2002). For example, there have been many studies which consider the influence of disability or ethnicity or gender (for example, Hills, 2007; Barker, 2017; Maher et al., 2019a). In contrast, this research attends to notions of difference within PE by utilising an intersectional framework. This builds on a growing body of research in PE that adopts this framework (for example, Oliver and Hamzeh, 2010; Stride, 2014; Haegele et al., 2018; Thorjussen and Sisjord, 2018). Inspired by the core principles of intersectionality, outlined by Hill Collins and Bilge (2016), I specifically focus upon the intersections of disability, ethnicity and gender to explore how multiple differences influence girls’ experiences in PE. Data generation took place over a two-year period in a secondary school in the north of England. This school has higher than the national average numbers of ethnic-minority students (90%) and students with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (15%). Thirteen girls aged 11 and 12 took part in a qualitative research project, ‘PE and Me’, which included focus group discussions and the generation of research artefacts. Data were also generated through observations before, during and after the ‘PE and Me’ project. Data analysis involved two phases. First, I adopted a storyteller position, presenting each student’s experience in the form of a narrative. Second, I took a narrative analyst position (Smith, 2016a), drawing out patterns and themes emerging from all of the narratives. The findings demonstrate the complex and fluid nature of each girl’s experience in PE. Experiences are influenced by a myriad of factors, including the structure and delivery of PE, the context of the school, and peer relationships. The complex construction of identity leads to different experiences as the girls move across spaces and interact with different people, leading to moments of privilege and marginalisation. These findings have important implications for future research within PE, calling for a more nuanced understanding of sameness and difference, and a more critical examination of the methodological approaches used when researching with students. Moreover, this thesis calls for practitioners to better recognise the ways in which differences are created through practice, to ensure a more equitable experience is had by all.No description supplied

This PhD study aims to explore the PE experiences of young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) from an ethnic minority background. Despite there being a growing number of intersectional studies within PE, there is yet to be any attention to the intersections of disability and ethnicity. This project aims to centralise these young people’s voices and experiences and in doing so build on the current understanding of intersectionality in practice. The research is primarily located in the ‘inclusion unit’ of an inner city secondary school, where young people with SEND are pulled out of mainstream lessons for additional support. The school population as a whole is over 90% British Asian ethnic heritage. This presentation will focus on the theoretical base of the project. The PhD is framed by 3 key concepts: identity, space and structure/agency. It is understood that intersectional identities are complex constructions that are spatially located and contextual, and therefore affect young people’s lived experiences in a variety of ways (Valentine, 2007). The project will utilise a middle ground approach, in recognising both the structures that affect the young people’s experiences, but also their agency and power in relation to these structures. These theoretical concepts will help me to answer the following research questions: How are a range of identities performed and constituted in PE? How do identities inform their sense of belonging in PE? How do PE spaces inform their identity construction? How do they understand and value their bodies?

Research shows that women and girls face multiple challenges to participate in sport and physical activity. For example, the gendered nature of sport, a lack of female role models and unequal provision all hinder girls’ ability to participate. Girls in the EU across a broad range of sports and countries, are four times less likely than boys to engage in organised sport (Emmonds et al., 2021). By not participating, girls are missing out in all the potential physical, mental, social and professional benefits of regular physical activity. Importantly, early negative experiences of sport, physical education and physical activity during the primary school years contribute to girls’ lower levels of activity. ICOACHGIRLS (ICG) is an Erasmus+ funded project, which is part of the larger ICOACHKIDS (ICK) family. ICOACHGIRLS has two key objectives: 1) To increase physical activity and sport participation among primary school age girls 2) To increase the number, competence and confidence of female coaches.

Executive Summary This report contains the findings of the second part of ‘The Children Sport and Physical Activity Workforce in the UK’ study. This research has been commissioned by UK Coaching to inform the wider work of the Children’s Coaching Collaborative (CCC). The findings presented here are taken from a series of qualitative interviews and focus groups conducted with 22 active coaches of children1, all of whom had been invited to participate after answering the quantitative survey which informed part 1 of the report. Of these 22 coaches, there are some key demographics to take into consideration: • 14 men and 8 women took part in these interviews. This mirrors the wider coaching landscape whereby 62% of coaches are men. • There is an even split between coaches working in grassroots and youth performance spaces (11 each). This is a different pattern to the youth coaching landscape, where 64% of coaches work in grassroots settings and 14.6% work in youth performance or youth representative. However, this is reflective of the purposive nature of the sample for this research. • In terms of payment, 16 of the 22 coaches were completely voluntary (received no compensation or expenses). This is a slightly higher proportion than reported in the survey, where 47% of coaches were completely voluntary, 16% of coaches received compensation, 23% were part-time and 14% were full-time. The coaches discussed a wide range of topics, including: • The value of coaching • The issues they encountered in their coaching roles • Their training and development needs • Their preferred learning contexts The report is structured around these four key topic areas, before concluding with some actionable recommendations for the CCC.

ICOACHGIRLS will aim to positively influence primary school age girls across these three domains and support them to become more physically active over the long term. - Think - Cognitive - Knowledge & Understanding - Do - Physical - Physical Competence - Feel - Affective - Motivation & Confidence

Research shows that women and girls face multiple challenges to participate in sport and physical activity. For example, the gendered nature of sport, a lack of female role models and unequal provision all hinder girls’ ability to participate. Girls in the EU across a broad range of sports and countries, are four times less likely than boys to engage in organised sport (Emmonds et al., 2021). By not participating, girls are missing out in all the potential physical, mental, social and professional benefits of regular physical activity. Importantly, early negative experiences of sport, physical education and physical activity during the primary school years contribute to girls’ lower levels of activity. ICOACHGIRLS (ICG) is an Erasmus+ funded project, which is part of the larger ICOACHKIDS (ICK) family. ICOACHGIRLS has two key objectives: 1) To increase physical activity and sport participation among primary school age girls 2) To increase the number, competence and confidence of female coaches.

Research shows that women and girls face multiple challenges to participate in sport and physical activity. For example, the gendered nature of sport, a lack of female role models and unequal provision all hinder girls’ ability to participate. Girls in the EU across a broad range of sports and countries, are four times less likely than boys to engage in organised sport (Emmonds et al., 2021). By not participating, girls are missing out in all the potential physical, mental, social and professional benefits of regular physical activity. Importantly, early negative experiences of sport, physical education and physical activity during the primary school years contribute to girls’ lower levels of activity. ICOACHGIRLS (ICG) is an Erasmus+ funded project, which is part of the larger ICOACHKIDS (ICK) family. ICOACHGIRLS has two key objectives: 1) To increase physical activity and sport participation among primary school age girls 2) To increase the number, competence and confidence of female coaches.

This paper seeks to explore the potential of embedding an intersectional approach to coach development practice, to contribute to addressing issues of social justice that permeate the field of sport and coaching, and manifest through interaction between coaches and coach developers (e.g., Gearity and Henderson Metzger, 2017; Rankin-Wright et al., 2017). With roots in Black feminism (Crenshaw, 1991), central to intersectionality is the recognition that race, gender, class, and similar systems of power are co-constructed, and produce interdependent, complex social inequalities (Hill Collins, 2019). In dialogue with other critical social theories, intersectionality offers a way of understanding how relations of power (structural, cultural, disciplinary, and interpersonal; Hill Collins & Bilge, 2020) manifest through social contexts to produce inequalities imbued in coach developer interactions. Intersectional analysis responds to previous work illuminating how coach developers’ biographies – including their identities – influence development and practice (Jones et al., 2023; Stephens et al., 2024). Through examining examples from programme evaluation interviews with coach developers, coach mentors, and coaches participating in positive action coach learning initiatives, we highlight some specific coach development practices where we propose intersectionality can be employed to generate critical awareness of the experiences of coach learners from marginalised groups. Until there is more diversity within the coach development workforce, critical reflection is necessary on our positionality as coach developers, and the privileges that certain identities afford in our contexts. Research has begun to consider how gendered power relations can problematically infuse coach mentoring relationships (Leeder & Sawiuk, 2021). Intersectionality calls us to do more, to not simply consider identities (and the power relations that produce them) in isolation. Critical awareness of how coach learners navigate intersecting inequalities including racism, sexism, ableism, and classism in their contexts, may have potential to help to build trust, authenticity, and collaboration within mentoring relationships. Our data suggest that in the absence of this, relationships can be perceived as superficial, inauthentic, and not for mutual benefit. To implement learner-centred approaches within programmes that are often characterised by high levels of predetermined content and assessment (Dempsey et al., 2021), coach developers can seek to understand the ways in which coaches’ oppressed identities enable and constrain their ability to engage with and apply learning. For example, how have some coaches been historically excluded from opportunities to acquire the meta-cognitive skills necessary for individualised learning (McCarthy et al., 2021)? This may partially disrupt the dominant discourse of learning as an unproblematic linear process, independent of context, that underpins much group-based coach learning initiatives (Cushion et al., 2021). Crucially, the goal of intersectional theorising and practice is not simply to add to the corpus of work demonstrating the nuance and complexity of coach learning and development. It is rather to seek meaningful ways of disrupting and challenging pervasive and unequal power relations that create conditions for inequalities to persist. We invite readers to engage in reflexive dialogue about what a more just, equitable, diverse, and effective coach development practice can look like.

Background: School populations in England continue to diversify, particularly in relation to ethnicity, language, and Special Education Needs and Disabilities (SEND). Yet research demonstrates that Physical Education (PE) often remains structured, organised and delivered in ways that privilege White, male, cisgender, heterosexual, non-disabled students. Whilst the experiences of those students marginalised within PE have been explored, a single-issue approach dominates. That is, disability, ethnicity or gender have often been researched in isolation. More recently an intersectional lens has been used to consider young people’s multiple identities and how these simultaneously influence experiences of PE. However, much of this research has focused on two identities, for example gender and ethnicity, or gender and disability. Purpose: This paper offers insights regarding the ways that disability, ethnicity and gender intertwine to influence the PE experiences of five girls attending an English secondary school, Hillside High. Methods: Data were generated over two years through focus group interviews and observations of PE lessons. Using a narrative approach to data re-presentation, five stories are presented to reflect the girls’ experiences. Findings and Conclusion: Following the narratives, three themes are discussed: the (ir)relevance of PE; the importance of peer relationships; and school-imposed labels. In concluding, we explore how privilege, inequality, and difference operate; the differences between girls who share identity categories; and consider the utility of adopting an intersectional lens.

In recent years, Physical Education (PE) has seen a growth in the commitment to youth voice research. This approach foregrounds the practice of researching with young people, rather than conducting research on or about them. Whilst we are cognisant of the many possibilities youth voice research offers, we are also concerned that there is a tendency to overlook the challenges of supporting youth voice activities. This paper draws on our collective reflections to bring to the fore some of the complexities we have encountered when attempting to engage in school-based youth voice research. We explore the following questions: How can youth voice research engage with different young people to capture a diversity of voices? What are the challenges of undertaking youth voice research? What are the possibilities of change through youth voice research? We consider these questions by drawing upon four principles of student voice work including communication as dialogue, participation and democratic inclusivity, unequal power relations, and change and transformation. We use these principles to critique our own research and, in doing so, draw on entries from our research diaries. The paper questions whether young people need help to share their insights and experiences about PE, or whether it is us - researchers, teachers and schools - who need help to more readily recognize and be attentive to young people's voices. We also point to the importance of recognizing modest change through youth voice research and the need to secure adult allies to support activities and potential outcomes. Engaging in youth voice research is an immersive and messy encounter that involves navigating a journey that is anything but straightforward. Even though this is the case, our moral and ethical compass continues to point us in this direction and we remain firm advocates of youth voice work. This paper offers a starting point for others to begin to grapple with the pitfalls and possibilities when supporting youth voice research.

Scraton’s [1992. Shaping up to womanhood: Gender and girls’ physical education. Open University Press] ground breaking research highlighted how Physical Education (PE) contributed to the reproduction of gender power relations; more specifically, how three messages around motherhood, sexuality and physicality, reflected through PE’s structures, activities and delivery, contributed to young women’s sense of self. Twenty five years on, this paper explores how contemporary PE reproduces and challenges gender power relations in four English secondary schools. Data were generated from eighty hours of observations of PE lessons, and eight semi-structured interviews with PE teachers. Guided by Hill Collins’ [2000. Black feminist thought: Knowledge, consciousness, and the politics of empowerment. Routledge] four domains (structural, disciplinary, hegemonic, interpersonal) underpinning the matrix of domination the findings demonstrate that gender remains a visible organising feature in the structural arrangements of PE. Moreover, teachers’ gendered beliefs and assumptions circulating within the hegemonic domain, and actions in the disciplinary domain, ensure that students embody their gender in appropriate ways. Furthermore, a consistency of practice was evident in teachers’ pedagogy despite differences in the schools’ cohorts. Similar blocks of teaching activities and a performance-based pedagogy failed to include difference. We suggest this is unsurprising and unlikely to change with the current National Curriculum promoting a performative, PE as sport discourse, and teacher training not conducive to developing teachers who can engage with difference and challenge inequalities. As such, PE continues to reinforce gender power relations and gender differences. By drawing upon the matrix, the need for change to occur at different levels and contexts is identified. To this end, teacher training must do better in developing the next generation of teachers who are willing and able to critique the status quo and work with girls to advocate for change. Relatedly, we draw attention to what can be achieved when power is shared through a democratic pedagogy that values girls’ voices and recognises them as co-collaborators in curriculum design.

The World Health Organization (WHO) states that approximately 3% of the world population has intellectual disabilities (Li & Wang, 2013). Many health problems present at higher rates in individuals with intellectual disability than in the typically developing population. For populations with disabilities, including intellectual disability, participation in physical activity is reported at lower rates when compared to their typically developing peers. There is, however, growing evidence physical recreation and activity can confer multiple health benefits for people with intellectual disabilities (Hassett et al., 2024) but more insight is needed. Individuals with intellectual disabilities face multiple barriers/problems when it comes to sport participation, and these occur at an individual, social, physical environment and political levels (Aksit et al., 2023). To mitigate these issues, Special Olympics International commissioned ICOACHKIDS and Leeds Beckett University to conduct a narrative review of three “factors” that impact the experiences of young people with ID in sport: 1. Coaching 2. Coach Education 3. Competition In this symposium, we will look at the findings of the narrative review of these three “factors” through the lens of Special Olympics ideals, initiatives and insights. Coaching Given the size of this population, there is a need for good quality descriptive research concerning the successful practices of coaches to understand the strategies that coaches can use to effectively meet the needs of their athletes while fulfilling the mission of SO (Cybulski et al., 2016). Critical to the success of Special Olympics is the expertise of their volunteer coaches in engaging athletes with intellectual disabilities in sports training and competitions. They have to adapt their sports and coaching skills to the particular needs of athletes with intellectual disability. Coaches of individuals with an ID, in particular, must adapt their coaching to ensure that it meets their specific and individual needs. This element of the symposium explores the challenges coaches face when working with participants with ID. More specifically examples of how this coaching workforce perceives and meets these challenges, and where more support is required. Coach Education While Special Olympics is committed to offering athletes with access to qualified coaching personnel, coach training and certification requirements are not overseen nor regulated by the organisation (Turgeon et al., 2023). Coaching children with intellectual disabilities who have mixed levels of motor competence requires specific training and expertise. The SO coaching workforce is often dependent on volunteers. These volunteer teacher–coaches, however, do not necessarily have training in physical education, sport, or educational strategies to support students with ID (O’Rourke et al., 2023). While there must be a balance in what can be asked of volunteer program leaders in terms of the time they have available for training, there is evidence to suggest that these coaches would welcome additional sources of knowledge development (MacDonald et al., 2016). This element of the symposium explores the training available to coaches of individuals with ID and recommendations for future coach education practice in this space. Competition Competition has been an integral component of youth sport for decades. Every week, millions of children take part in matches, games, races, fights, tournaments, festivals, and other forms of competition globally. Competition per se is neither good nor bad; its impact depends on the way it is designed, presented, managed and interpreted by the adults in charge, and those spectating (Lara-Bercial et al., 2023). Notwithstanding this, recent research suggests that for many children, competition can be a significant factor in their decision to drop out of sport (Lara-Bercial et al, under review). This element of the symposium discusses what is known about competition; the motivations children have to compete (or not), the positive and negative impact competition can have on children, key considerations those organising competitions for children need to be aware of, and the multiple ways in which competition can be adapted to lead to more positive outcomes for children.

Research shows that the coaching workforce in most countries is composed of a blend of volunteers, part-time and full-time paid individuals (Moustakas & Bales, 2022; UK Coaching, 2023a). However, the exact make up of this workforce across the youth sport1 participation spectrum is not well understood. While previous studies have sought to understand the coaching landscape, very few studies have focused specifically on the youth sport landscape. Given the societal importance of youth sport, and the positive contribution that coaches make (Lara-Bercial, Bales, et al., 2022), this is an area that needs further attention. Using a mass survey methodology, this study aimed to create a detailed picture of the current landscape of youth sport coaching in the UK. Findings show some similarities to previous workforce audits. For example, youth sport coaching is primarily a voluntary activity (62%) – yet opportunities to access paid positions have grown. Moreover, findings also show that the youth sport workforce is not a homogenous entity. This signals the need for further research to gain an accurate understanding of the needs and wants of coaches individually, and in their specific working environments, before implementing any recruitment or development programmes.

Our two new courses are all about supporting teenagers make the most of their sport participation, be it at the grassroots or performance level. In MOOC 4, “Maximising Sport Participation and Engagement in Youth Sport”, we look at the youth sport dropout phenomenon and explore what we can do to help young people stay in sport for life. In MOOC 5, “Developing Effective Talent Development Environments”. we explore what “talent” is and what effective and holistic talent development environments look like.

The idea for this Special Issue, ‘Gender, Physical Education and Active Lifestyles: Contemporary Challenges and New Directions’ developed from the interest generated by a one day conference held at Leeds Beckett University in September 2017. The conference marked 25 years since the publication of Sheila Scraton’s ground breaking, feminist analysis of Physical Education. As a pivotal text that has contributed to the growth of gender research within the UK and more broadly, it seemed fitting to mark this occasion. The reach of Sheila’s work was perhaps realised through the delegate body. Early career researchers mingled with established scholars from America, Australia, New Zealand, Europe and the UK. Building on this conference and a wider call for papers, we are delighted to offer two Special Issues of Sport, Education and Society. The first issue engages explicitly with the challenge of theorising and understanding gendered subjectivities and embodiment across a range of contexts. These papers reflect the diversity of theoretical approaches being employed with some drawing on feminist perspectives, and others using Bourdieu, intersectionality, critical whiteness studies, and masculinity studies. The collection of papers in the second issue seek to examine the different ways in which gender becomes implicated in pedagogical relations and practice. These range from accounts of teachers’ struggles to use critical pedagogies to address gender inequities in PE classes, to analyses of the wider pedagogical ‘work’ of the media in constructing understandings about gender, with several papers exploring these two aspects in combination. We hope you enjoy reading the papers across these two Special Issues as much as we have enjoyed the journey as the editorial team. Collectively the papers raise alternative questions and provide new insights into gender and active lifestyles, and importantly, all seek to make a difference in moving towards more equitable physical activity experiences.

Whilst gender related research in Physical Education is extensive, what is less considered is the ways in which gendered power relations both influence and are reinforced by PE policy and practice. In this regard Scraton’s (1992) study has been pivotal in highlighting how PE contributes to young women’s understandings of themselves, their bodies and their place in the world. Through its structures, content, and delivery, PE reinforces messages around young women’s sexuality, physicality and motherhood. 25 years on from Scraton’s work, this study explores to what extent contemporary PE reproduces and challenges gendered power relations. Data were generated across four secondary schools in the north of England through observations (80 hours of boys’ and girls’ PE classes across two half terms) and semi structured interviews with 10 PE teachers. Using a middle ground feminist lens and Hill Collins’ (2000) matrix of domination as the theoretical framework, this presentation will explore the ways in which gendered power circulates across multiple sites. Moreover, this presentation will explore the interconnected ways in which gendered power relations operate within the daily routines of a PE department contributing to the reproduction of gendered difference and making resistance to the status quo difficult.

Our two new courses are all about supporting teenagers make the most of their sport participation, be it at the grassroots or performance level. In MOOC 4, “Maximising Sport Participation and Engagement in Youth Sport”, we look at the youth sport dropout phenomenon and explore what we can do to help young people stay in sport for life. In MOOC 5, “Developing Effective Talent Development Environments”. we explore what “talent” is and what effective and holistic talent development environments look like.

Research Overview: This research project, commissioned by BUCS and undertaken by the Centre for Social Justice in Sport and Society at Leeds Beckett University, was designed to respond to the recognition that volunteers from diverse ethnic backgrounds are underrepresented within university football, and as participants in BUCS football leadership programmes. The project sought to understand how football clubs, universities, and BUCS can contribute to enhancing diversity, equity, and inclusion in volunteering by producing insight to: • Understand who is engaged and not engaged in university football volunteering. • Gain insight into the football volunteer experience. • Identify the contextual conditions that enable or constrain volunteer engagement.

Research shows that the coaching workforce in most countries is composed of a blend of volunteers and part-, and full-time paid individuals. However, the exact makeup of this workforce across the youth sport1 participation spectrum is not well understood. While previous studies have sought to understand the coaching landscape, very few studies have focused specifically on the youth sport landscape. Given the societal importance of youth sport and the positive contribution that coaches make, this is an area that needs further attention. Using a mass survey methodology, this study aimed to create a detailed picture of the current landscape of youth sport coaching in the United Kingdom. Findings show some similarities to previous workforce audits. For example, youth sport coaching is primarily a voluntary activity (62%)—yet, opportunities to access paid positions have grown. Moreover, findings also show that the youth sport workforce is not a homogenous entity. This signals the need for further research to gain an accurate understanding of the needs and wants of coaches individually, and in their specific working environments, before implementing any recruitment or development programmes.