Professor Hayley Fitzgerald

This chapter takes as a central focus Barbie Becky Paralympic Champion (1999). Becky is one of the many Barbie dolls produced by the toy manufacturer Mattel and is a wheelchair user. For many young people these dolls can hold significant currency that contributes towards defining the ways in which they embody femininity (and/or masculinity). We draw on critical disability studies and queer theory to better understand how Becky disrupts and reproduces unified representations of the sporting female. The existence of Becky could be interpreted as a forward-thinking attempt by Mattel to diversify the range of identities available to young people. A more critical engagement with Becky demonstrates that she is nonetheless a product of a neo-liberal industry that reproduces patterns of inequality.

In the UK, since the 1970s, the mantra of ‘Sport for All’ has gained significant momentum in policy and practice. At a strategic level the Council of Europe continues to advocate its collective support for a ‘sport for all principle’. Relatedly, there has been important progress associated with the rights of disabled people in different spheres of life including sport. Taken together these developments have inspired some commentators to assert that the world of sport is now a much better place for disabled people to occupy. By drawing on data generated over the past ten years from a range of research projects, this chapter interrogates the mantra of sport for all by focusing on the transformative (im)possibilities of sport for young disabled people. The chapter begins by considering how sport for all is most frequently enacted in order to increase participation by disabled people. Consideration is then given to a number of alternative approaches that could be initiated to promote sport for all. Attention is then given to what young disabled people can tell us about their experiences of sport for all. After this, a number of enduring issues that remain the nemesis of sport for all for young disabled people are discussed including: (a) committed guardians preserving the exclusionary features of sport; (b) a sports infrastructure promoting separation rather than inclusion; and (c) prominence of a normative non-disabled body. In concluding, I argue that the mantra of sport for all will continue to have limited success unless sport begins to more fully interrogate its relationship with young disabled people.

This chapter considers how mentoring can aid Physical Education Teacher Education (PETE) students through their journey towards inclusive practice. Initial teacher education is a key context in which student teachers can be supported to develop their inclusive practice with disabled students. The drama workshop and associated research outlined by Raphael, J. and Allard. A. C. represents one approach for supporting teacher education (TE) students to better understand and work with disabled students in schools. After presenting the findings of this research, Raphael and Allard discuss a number of key issues emerging from the research that may be relevant to other settings. The drama workshop outlined in the paper featured in this chapter provides a number of examples of mentor pedagogy that promote aspects of the Capability Maturity Model for Mentor Teachers (CM3T). In part, university mentors and school-based mentors would have a key role to play in assisting the disabled mentors to understand the relevance and usefulness of CM3T.

This chapter focuses on disability and barriers to inclusion in sport. It begins by re-imagining disability and sport within society. By offering an account based on the 2012 Paralympics, readers are invited to reflect upon how society could embrace utopian values that support and respect difference. A central feature of this utopian society is working towards inclusion, and this notion is considered in relation to society and sport. After this, a range of barriers to inclusion in sport by disabled people are outlined including attitudinal and structural barriers. In concluding, this chapter highlights how barriers to sports participation are inextricably linked to wider societal views and expectations of disabled people.

The beginning of Chapter 1 captures a snapshot of James’s, Anna’s and Matt’s diverse lives, and we briefly get a sense of the ways they experience difference and inequalities. As we read these short tales we are likely to interpret, empathize and relate to them in a variety of ways. Like the zoom of a camera lens, each of us will be attracted to, and focus on, a particular aspect of the tales. For example, were any of these tales familiar stories which you might tell yourself? Did you relate to a specific character, plot or situation? And, if so, did this result in you feeling more empathetic and understanding, or evoke bad memories that you would rather leave well alone? Or did hearing about James’s, Anna’s and Matt’s lives make you feel uncomfortable - as if you were treading on unfamiliar territory to which you have not previously been exposed? If this is the case, it perhaps reminds us that our own experiences will not always be the same as those of the young people we teach or coach. An ongoing challenge for practitioners is to get to know young people within, and beyond, the classroom and the gym in ways which can usefully help to support positive and stimulating health and physical education (HPE) and community sport experiences. This is a challenge that practitioners and researchers in HPE and community sport have been perhaps, to a certain degree, loath to embrace (O’Sullivan and MacPhail 2010). I would argue it is a challenge that we need to attend to, if we are serious about offering fulfilling and enabling HPE and community sport to all young people. In this exemplar I focus on a few of the young people featured in the narratives of Part II and aim to stimulate conversations and reflections on how the practices, attitudes and values of practitioners, young people and family can contribute to maintaining, or challenging, difference and inequalities experienced by young, disabled people in HPE and community sport. In the same way that I invited you to zoom your camera lens and reflect on your interpretations of James’s, Anna’s and Matt’s short tales, I will offer my reading of two tales, ‘Them special needs kids and their waiters’ (pp. 124-9), and the auto-ethnographically inspired tale, ‘Second toe syndrome’ (pp. 90-3). I crafted ‘Them special needs kids and their waiters’ on the basis of my researcher analyses, what Polkinghorne (1995) terms a ʼnarrative analysis’. As Chapter 2 discusses, my narrative story is a synthesis of the incidents and episodes reflected through the various sources of data generated, and aims to be explanatory. My theoretical and experiential lenses are implicitly present in the narrative, but they have explicitly guided the structuring of the tale. As such, I have a more intimate and different relationship with this tale than with the others in Part II. For example, in my role as a researcher, I walked the corridors, had many lunches in the school canteen, witnessed onslaughts of abuse directed at the disabled pupils and talked at length with the various characters featured in this tale. I feel a physical and emotional closeness to this tale, because I was there, the narrative analysis is mine. More broadly, my professional experiences of working in sports development mean I have been exposed to these kinds of school environments for many years. As the memories of some schools, teachers and pupils have faded, others stay with me and are a reminder of the work that still needs to be done to ensure disabled pupils have positive and fulfilling school experiences. These sediments of experience have also affected the way I tell this particular story; they form a part of my researcher/writer identity. For example, I remember at one school I was the sport development officer to which the disabled pupils were dismissively dispatched by the so-called ‘trained’ HPE teachers, as if my subject knowledge or skills were any better than theirs. These HPE teachers didn’t want to have the disabled pupils in their class. At another school I was the person asking tricky questions of HPE staff when I saw disabled pupils not taking part. I made it my business to seek out these pupils; they were usually hidden away in the library or ‘quiet room’, but I made sure I got their side of the story. I was the one who spent weeks on end sitting with Sam, a disabled pupil, who had been ‘allowed’ to take part in HPE for the first time. She had been told for years that she shouldn’t, and couldn’t, do HPE, so it wasn’t surprising to me that it took some persuasion to convince her that she should have a go. Because of these kinds of experiences and my closeness to ‘Them special needs kids and their waiters’ you may find your reading(s) of this tale, and indeed ‘Second toe syndrome’, differs from mine - but this provides a starting point for conversations and critical dialogue beyond what is written in this text. What is interesting to note is the way in which I can continue to reflect upon, and engage in the hermeneutical process of understanding the story I authored, because I can use new theoretical lenses with which to revisit the young people’s experiences and my interpretations of them. Before I focus on ‘Them special needs kids and their waiters’ and ‘Second toe syndrome’ I first want to reflect more generally on a striking feature I was drawn to when initially reading all the narratives found in Part II, the talk about young people. As I was drawn to this talk, a number of questions came to mind. How are young people talked about in these tales? Where does this talk come from? How does this talk influence these young people and others around them? Take, for example, Kirsty, a HPE teacher featured in Rossi’s tale who talks about ‘the fat kids’ and ‘the uncos’ (uncoordinated pupils). The young people in lisahunter’s play are distinguished according to assumptions made about performance (‘Runfast’, ‘Jumphigh’), behaviour (‘Wellbehaved’, ‘Chatterbox’) and body shape (‘Fatnugly’). A number of characters in Morrison’s and Fitzgerald’s tales talk of ‘retards’ when referring to disabled young people. As I initially read the narratives this assortment of ‘talk’ jumped from the pages and it illustrates how the naming and labelling of young people is commonplace in many schools and community contexts. I was reminded of my own schooling and some of the derogatory nicknames that circulated - ‘Lardy Arse’, ‘Bugs Bunny’, ‘Ray the Gay’ and ‘Pizza Face’. Reading the tales in Part II provided an uncomfortable reminder of the role I played in helping to maintain this kind of talk. But I also remembered the occasion when I attempted to challenge others and the backlash I encountered as a result; I, too, then became the butt of mean and unfriendly whispers and gossiping. Whether it is the nickname that one pupil calls another, a name used in the privacy of the staffroom or something unspoken that is evoked in the mind of a practitioner, it is the repeated use of these labels, and their associated discourses, that contributes to shaping the ways in which young people ‘become known’ and ‘make themselves known’ (Priestley 1999). Whilst this talk may seem rather innocent it is, in fact, laden with value. As Wright (2004: 20) observes: ‘Questions can, therefore, be asked about how language works to position speakers (and listeners) in relation to particular discourses and with what effects.' Who is perceived as ‘sporty’, ‘fitting in’, ‘successful’, ‘odd’ or a ‘wimp’ will be governed by the talk and choices in language circulating in the gym, corridors, classes and staffrooms. Of course, much of this talk also seeps into other social spheres (such as the family, sport and popular culture), and this continues the ebb and flow of meanings and values afforded through discourse to different young people (Holt 2011). Consider for a moment these questions: What talk (names and labels) about different young people circulates in the contexts you have worked? How is this talk reproduced? What kinds of meanings and values are associated with this talk? What may the consequences be for the young people who are talked about? By reflecting on these questions you may be better positioned to begin to understand the role you, and your colleagues, play in supporting discourses that legitimize and celebrate some young people’s identities, whilst marginalizing others. Next, I turn to one group of people who often experience marginalization and feelings of otherness - disabled people. Historically, disabled people have been institutionalized, segregated from society and deemed to have no meaningful purpose in life (Miller and Gwynne 1972). Examining the meaning of the words used to describe disability also reinforces this kind of negative outlook. For example, the term ‘handicap’ (hand-in-cap) originates from the begging many disabled people were forced, and continue, to endure in order to survive (Eide and Ingstad 2011). Moreover, the prefix ‘dis’ in the word disability provides a constant reminder of the perceived inferior and negative relationship between disability and an ‘able-bodied’ person. More broadly, non-conforming disabled bodies have been perceived as ‘spoilt’ (Goffman 1968), ‘flawed’ (Hevey 1992) and in need of care (Hunt 1966). To a large extent, international changes associated with legislation and policy developments promoting inclusion and equity have gone some way to redressing the position and the place that disabled people hold within contemporary society (Slee 2009). Whilst these changes may be positive, sediments from the powerful discourses of the past continue, however, to influence society’s view of disability and perceptions of disabled people. By reflecting on ‘Them special needs kids and their waiters’ and ‘Second toe syndrome’, I want to ‘home in’ on these sediments and offer an interpretation of the ways in which the characters featured in these tales navigate, and (re)articulate, contemporary understandings of disability. Whilst not disregarding other identity markers such as gender, social class and ethnicity, I draw what Archer et al. (2001) describe as a ‘provisional boundary’ around disability. In doing this, I seek to illuminate disability within the wider contemporary debates and political agendas focusing on difference and inequality. As Chapter 1 outlines, there is good reason for doing this, not least because of the lack of concern that scholars in HPE have afforded to issues of disability in relation to difference and inequality. By foregrounding disability and talking of ‘disabled people’1 I am aware of the ways in which these discussions may contribute to an essentialist discourse of disability that assumes commonality, rather than difference, between disabled people; I talk more about this later in the chapter in relation to the narratives. The first narrative I will consider is ‘Them special needs kids and their waiters’. As I revisit this tale that I constructed, and reflect on the ‘provisional boundary’ of disability within the school, I am immediately drawn to the talk circulating about the disabled pupils. For example, Josh (a non-disabled pupil) calls some disabled pupils ‘fuckin’ retards’ and then goes on to give examples of activities he believes they cannot engage in properly: ‘can’t even eat properly’, ‘can’t do lessons like us’ and in PE ‘everyone has to pretend they have scored’. These comments are not expressed in a friendly or complimentary manner, but rather emerge out of a series of frustrations that Josh experiences as he attempts to get some lunch at school. When further reflecting on the bustling and tussles that dominate the beginning of this narrative I began to wonder if there was more to be considered about where Josh was actually directing his anger. His words seemed to be pointed and filled with venom, as if his anger had been stored up in readiness for an attack on the disabled pupils (‘the retards’). And, although Josh has unfinished business with those who caused his late arrival to the school canteen - Michael pulling his backpack and the sixth-form boys laughing at him - it is not these boys he decides to focus his energies and retaliation upon. So, why did Josh target the disabled pupils for his subsequent outburst?.

PURPOSE: This study investigated adult goalball players’ motivation and socialization into sport. The perceived severity of disability as measured by Health Utilities Index 2 and 3 (HUI2 & HUI3) and other demographical indices were examined. METHODS: Participants included 52 goalball players (56% male, 44% female, mean age =28.24 yrs); 15% with acquired disability, 81% with congenital. Of the 52 goalball players, 66% were British, 15% were European, and 19% were other (e.g. American). Using HUI3 scores, 3.8% of the athletes were classified as “mild”, 15.4% as “moderate” and 80.8% as “severe” disability. A sequential mixed methods design was used. Participants completed Motives for Physical Activities, Basic Needs Satisfaction, and the HUI2 and 3 perceived disability measures. RESULTS: Of 52 goalball players 88.5% reported that their PE teachers/coaches socialized them into goalball. Furthermore, 79.6% reported that their main friendships were formed with teammates in goalball. Almost all (98.1%) stated that goalball provided an opportunity for them to participate in organized sport. A MANOVA analysis yielded two significant main effects for HUI2 (p=0.020) & Income (p=0.012) with Motivation for Fitness, Appearance and relatedness. There was a significant interaction effect between HUI2 & Income (p=0.021) with Motivation for Fitness, Appearance and relatedness. CONCLUSION: Findings indicate that goalball athletes with >40,000 income and severe disability perceptions (HUI2) reported themselves to be less fit, felt less attractive and less social than those with lower income and moderate disability perceptions. This research was supported by The State Scholarship Foundation, Greece & Health Utility Incorporation, Canada

The bell goes and a sea of pupils surge towards the school canteen, a disorderly sight of impatience as they bustle and barge to secure a prime spot, the queue already snaking halfway down the hall. Michael slyly pulls on Josh’s backpack, quickly bypassing him to join the back of the queue. As Josh stumbles, his bag and contents spill over the red tiles. On his knees he frantically grabs at football cards as they get kicked out of his grasp, a mix of scuffed shoes and dirty trainers unaware of the damage they cause to his collection. Annoyed, he yells, ‘Hey, watch it, look where you’re stepping, hey look out!' His voice dies in his throat as he watches a departing boot leave a clear and distinguishable mark on one of his prized possessions, ‘Ryan Giggs’. Panic begins to bubble on top of the layers of frustration and irritation as he notices his dinner money has escaped, tantalizingly out of reach on the other side of the corridor. Desperately he tries to beat the next braying surge, but the stray coins roll and swirl on their edges, before finally disappearing. Frantically he scans their faces to see which one wears the smug smile, but the thief hides their actions well. ‘Come on lads, own up, whose taken it, it’s me lunch money.' Some giggle and some laugh out loud as the waves of bottle green blazers engulf him and soldier on. Still on all fours, Josh gathers the last of his belongings, stray footy sock, planner, house keys and, as he stands, he sees a group of sixth-formers laughing in the corner. Has to be one of them, he thinks, they’ve had words before. Boldly he begins to make his way towards them, shoulders back, chest out, ready for confrontation, but Mr Taylor promptly materializes as if from the cracks in the walls. They all scurry off, their mutterings travelling down the corridor, ‘Bloody idiot, who does he think he is?' ‘Rocky, Rocky, Rocky, ' they chant, nearly falling over themselves with laughter, punching the air as they make their way to the playground. ‘Move on quickly, Munroe, ' Taylor’s voice booms at him and eagle eyes send out their warning message. ‘There will be no trouble on my watch.' Resignedly Josh swiftly turns round and barges his way through the canteen doors, all of his senses suddenly assaulted. The smell of greasy burgers and salty chips, the cacophony of shouts, laughter, knives and forks clattering, the pushing and shoving, bumping and tripping, and the sight of constantly moving bodies rushing between tables, counters, cash registers and back out to the playground. The queue steadily grows behind him, beginning to ease some of the frustration he feels at being so far at the back. Being in the front half of the queue is paramount to achieving the food of your choice. Those at the back end up with the things no one really wants to eat, like an overflowing bowl of thick stew packed with carrots or, worse still, curry, all spicy and sloppy. The thought makes Josh crane his neck to see what’s still left. Matthew Smith bags the last burger, grinning as he walks away with his prize. Still half a tray of lasagna, mounds of pies and a steaming pile of freshly cooked chips to be snapped up by the 20 or so people in front of him. Big, fat Billy Reynolds, sweat dripping off his face, red and flustered, seems to be getting agitated at the painfully slow progress of the queue. Theatrically he wafts his arm and gestures to those in front, ‘Can we get a shifty on here? I’m starving. Don’t anyone have the last chicken and mushroom or they’ll be answering to me.' Further back in the queue a group of Year 7s snigger behind their hands at his outburst. Josh’s frustration levels begin to rise again, quickly, like a thermometer in the midday sun. If only he hadn’t dropped his bag, he thinks. Huh, better idea, don’t let the retards in before everyone else. Make them come in when the rest of us have eaten. The thought of them beating the queue irritates Josh further. ‘Fuckin’ retards. Really bugs me how they fuckin’ queue hop. Can’t even eat properly, dribbling and slobbering. Seriously, who wants to have to look at that when you’re having your lunch?' he mutters to himself. Reaching boiling point, Josh has to vent, and tries to engage Andy Smart behind. ‘You know, they don’t have to fuckin’ queue. It’s just not fair. Who wants to watch that eat?' he whines, as the queue shuffles forward, inch by painful inch, getting closer to the table reserved for the special needs kids. As Josh’s vent gathers momentum, his grumblings get louder; not seeming to care who hears, he unleashes another rant: ‘Look at them, jammy bastards. No pushing and shoving for them to get their food and table. First choice of food every day, probably don’t even have to pay. And there’s more bloody staff than students. Have you seen the support workers, it’s like they’ve got their own waiters at lunchtime and footy coach in PE! Huh, not like that helps, can’t kick a fuckin’ ball if it’s lined up for them. Seriously, I don’t know why they bother.' Andy nods, tries to say something, but only gets as far as opening his mouth. There’s no stopping Josh when he’s on one of his rolls. ‘I mean, if they need so much help they shouldn’t be at our school, ‘cause like this is a normal school, not one of them special schools.' He gestures with his index fingers when he says ‘special school’, which only serves to emphasize his contempt at the concept. ‘They go round in their groups and just get in the bloody way. I swear, last week one of them rammed me on purpose. Wouldn’t bloody move his wheelchair to the side, expected me to walk round him. He could’ve got out of my way. And like yesterday they were all stood waiting inside the main entrance, by the teachers’ photographs, ready to go on one of their special trips, and no one could get in or out. Like, helloooo. Fuckin’ move! None of their waiters to be seen then, was there? I think the waiters are as thick as the retards, probably do their homework and that’s why they don’t get good marks!' As he nears the serving area Josh grabs a tray and scans the scarce remains. Spotting the head teacher talking to one of the dinner ladies, the mean one who gives you small portions of chips and big portions of peas, even when you haven’t asked for them. He lowers his voice. ‘If you think about it, they can’t do lessons like us. They just can’t. So, why make them try? It’s a waste of our time and it’s holding us back. Look at PE. All we seem to do is practise passing and shooting and everyone has to pretend the retards have scored by letting their goals in. It makes me sick! I’m gonna refuse to do it; I don’t care if I get a bollocking from their bloody support workers. They aren’t my teacher. And then you have to “include” them in the game.' His knife and fork stab the air as he tries to gesticulate his contempt again. ‘Inclusion? That’s a fuckin’ joke! It’s us that end up being excluded!'.

This article explores non-disabled young people’s understandings of Paralympic athletes and the disability sports they play. The article examines how society has come to know disability by discussing medical and social model views of disability. The conceptual tools offered by Pierre Bourdieu are utilised as a means of understanding the nature and value of capital afforded to Paralympic athletes and disability sports. Data were generated using interactive focus group discussions with four groups of non-disabled young people from one secondary school in England. The main themes emerging from these data include: different, impaired bodies (“Honestly my gut reaction is yuck, yuck”); legitimising and valuing disability sports (“It’s not a normal sport”); and experiencing (un)valued disability sports (“I’d love to do it”). In concluding, I argue that whilst the 2012 Paralympics offers one vehicle for sporting excellence to be publicly acknowledged and celebrated, sustained efforts beyond this mega-event are needed if athletes with disabilities are to secure parity of status with athletes without disabilities.

The sport of wheelchair rugby is the subject of a recent film Murderball, which tells the story of the apparently intense rivalry between the Canadian and United States men's teams. In part, the story is told through the lives of some of the game's leading players and coaches. Murderball deals with a series of ethical and political questions concerned with conceptions of disability, articulations of sporting bodies, and the value attached to sporting performance. In this paper we offer a critique of Murderball and explore a number of themes including: (1) What can disabled bodies do?; (2) This is not the Special Olympics; and (3) ‘Hot’ and disabled. We conclude that these themes offer us new intellectual challenges for thinking about the physical education experiences of young disabled people and progression in disability sport. Indeed, we argue that Murderball moves disability issues into new intellectual terrain, thus increasing the ways in which people who work with young people and sport might need to take account of disability.

This chapter presents a brief comparison of inclusive practice in physical activity and education from four European national/regional perspectives - the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy and Norway/Scandinavia. The contributions are unified in as much as they suggest a common sense of purpose and philosophy: that difference should be recognized and welcomed and accommodation through changes in policy and practice put in place to ensure a broad and balanced physical education and sport experience for all young people. The UK section wrestles with the issue that terminology around inclusion has inhibited a clear direction but also emphasizes the significant role played by education in driving change. The section on Germany further reinforces the crucial importance of embedding inclusive practice in the education context but also highlights the variations in policy that can be endemic in a federal system. The Italy and Norway/Scandinavia contributions show how declarations agreed at an international level can influence policy and affect practice on the ground in markedly different ways; in both, a focus on the needs of the individual is key. Whatever the approach, in all cases inclusion is primarily viewed as a fundamental human right.

This chapter centralizes the insights of three disabled boys and explore the interrelationships between family, disability and sport. It explains how Bourdieu’s conceptual tools can be effectively used to explore the embodied identities of young disabled people within the family. Historically, disability has been understood in a number of ways, reflecting different social, cultural and political norms within society. While there are varied definitions and understandings of disability, two key models dominate; these are known as the medical model and the social model of disability. The medical model focuses on the individual with the impairment and centralizes deficiency and abnormality. Marcel Mauss’s notion of techniques of the body was deployed explicitly to challenge the idea that activities such as walking, marching, swimming and climbing were merely biomechanical. Habitus is, in Bourdieu’s work, a central concept used as a means to bridge the relationship between agents and their social worlds.

How can or does youth sport reconcile what seems to be a fundamental contradiction between understandings of sport and disability? Has youth sport been challenged in anyway? Have alternative views of sport for disabled people been presented? Examining some of the latest research, this book considers the relationship between sport and disability by exploring a range of questions such as these. Disability and Youth Sport further challenges current thinking and therefore serves to stimulate progressive debate in this area. Drawing on a breadth of literature from sports pedagogy, sociology of sport, disability studies, inclusive education, and adapted physical activity, a socially critical dialogue is developed where the voices of young disabled people are central. Topics covered include: • researching disability and youth sport • inclusion policy towards physical education and youth sport • constructions of disability through youth sport • the voices of young disabled people • the historical context of disability sport With its comprehensive coverage and expert contributors from around the globe, this book is an ideal text for students at all levels with an interest in youth sport, disability studies, or sport policy.

On a daily basis we are bombarded with messages and stories about difference and inequality. A TV news report highlights increased levels of poverty endured by people living in an unfamiliar, third world country; a radio interview on International Women’s Day features the continuing pay gap between women’s and men’s salaries; a national billboard campaign urges us to rethink our views and prejudices towards disabled people in society; or an article in a local newspaper reports on the rise in unemployment for immigrant young men. Differences and inequalities are felt locally and globally; they are all around us, although we may not always be aware of them. This chapter is about difference and inequality and specifically why they matter for understanding young people’s experiences of physical education (PE), youth sport and health. As teachers, coaches or others working with young people, we are involved in hundreds of decisions and interactions, some made on a momentby-moment basis, that will determine who gets made to feel different, who learns and experiences success and, conversely, those who don’t. Whilst everyone should have an equal right to achieve educational or sporting merits, or to be healthy, the reality we know is somewhat different. Think about some of the young people with whom you have worked and reflect upon how you relate to them in ‘different’ ways. Are they, for example, like James? He is growing up in an urban, working-class suburb, has a dualheritage background, and lives with his mum and two older brothers. James loves playing one-on-one basketball and has even constructed an improvised basketball net onto a nearby telegraph pole so he can play with his friends. Or do you perhaps more easily recognize Anna? She has used a wheelchair since an early age and lives with both parents in a wealthy, rural green-belt area. After being collected from school by her mum, she is often ferried to an assortment of clubs and activities. Or does Matt remind you of a young person you’ve known? He lives in a working-class part of a large city with his dad and three sisters. For them, space is tight; they only have two bedrooms and Matt sleeps in the lounge. When Matt’s dad is at work he often has to look after his sisters. Even though these three young people have different kinds of lives, this shouldn’t matter to their learning and everyday experiences of PE and sport. Young people like James, Anna and Matt live in an increasingly differentiated world, where socio-economic, and other inequalities associated with disability, gender, ethnicity or religion, structure their experiences. In democratic societies, education and sports systems have developed with the political goal of seeking to contribute to a more equal distribution of wealth and knowledge. Specific policies abound seeking to promote equality, drawing on well-known mottoes such as ‘Sport for All’. More recently, the discourse has turned to ‘inclusion’ and ‘inclusive education’, reflected, for example, in the Every Child Matters agenda in the UK and No Child Left Behind in the USA. However, whilst there is much talk of inclusion in policy and practice, how much actual change is there? Armstrong and Barton (2007: 5) contend that much of the discourse has become ‘an empty signifier’ - there may be a lot of talk, but with little change in practice. After all, how often do we actually reflect on what inclusion in youth sport or education means? How do we include James, Anna, Matt and all the other pupils in PE when we know that their social backgrounds and health behaviours can be so diverse? Is it possible to counteract such differences? This book aims to shake up the ‘taken-for-grantedness’ of this policy rhetoric, and help you to see the complexities behind the realities of striving towards providing positive educational experiences in PE, sport and health, irrespective of social and cultural background. In this first chapter, we map how difference and inequality can be understood by drawing upon social theory in general and, more specifically, social research in the field of PE, youth sport and health, and we explore the implications of these understandings for practice. In doing so, we aim to show how social theory is useful to our everyday practices working with young people, rather than something abstract or merely something that researchers do in their dusty, university offices! In focusing on social theory, we are not forgetting that differences have also been the focus of bio-behavioural scientific theories too; for example, physiologists explain differences in men’s and women’s 100-metres times as a result of differences in males’ and females’ physiological makeup. However, in this chapter, we are concerned with social thought, and specifically the relationships between differences and inequalities. Some time ago, Willis (1974: 3) questioned ‘Why is it that some differences and not others, are taken as so important, become so exaggerated, [and] are used to buttress social attitudes or prejudice?' Willis was talking here about sex/gender difference in sport, and how the very small, physiological differences between men’s and women’s bodies have, nevertheless, been used to support discriminatory practices against women. However, ethnicity, sexuality, disability, age and religion are other categories of identity that can also result in individuals being treated inequitably. We are particularly interested in this chapter in embodied difference - the ways in which individuals and groups get constituted and constructed as different, and unequal, on the basis of their bodies; how particular bodies become valued and celebrated, whilst others are marginalized or ignored, and how these inequalities are taken up and reproduced in everyday and institutional practices. As a teacher, sports coach or health personnel (and as researchers too), we have a professional responsibility to work positively with difference, to celebrate difference and promote positive learning environments that enable all young people to learn, to develop skills and to flourish. Yet, in practice, this is far from easy. Whilst many PE teachers claim that their main priority is for their students to have fun, which we can assume they see as a prerequisite for good learning (see Dismore and Bailey 2010; Green 2000), research shows that, for a good many children, they fail in this quest. For these young people, physical activity becomes something to be avoided rather than embraced, with many looking back negatively on their time in school PE (Beltrán-Carrillo et al. 2010; Ennis 1996; Sykes 2010). As Evans and his colleagues note: the most that many [young people]. .. learn is that they have neither the ability, status nor value, and that the most judicious course of action to be taken in protection of their fragile educational physical identities is to adopt a plague-like avoidance of its damaging activities.

This article draws on the theoretical concepts of Pierre Bourdieu to provide a critical analysis of the social construction of disability in high-performance sport coaching. Data were generated using a qualitative cross-case comparative methodology, comprising 18 months of ethnographic fieldwork in high-performance disability sport, and interviews with coaches and athletes from a cross-section of Paralympic sports. We discuss how in both cases ‘disability’ was assimilated into the ‘performance logic’ of the sporting field as a means of maximising symbolic capital. Furthermore, coaches were socialised into a prevailing legitimate culture in elite disability sport that was reflective of ableist, performance-focused and normative ideologies about disability. In this article we unpack the assumptions that underpin coaching in disability sport, and by extension use sport as a lens to problematise the construction of disability in specific social formations across coaching cultures. In so doing, we raise critical questions about the interrelation of disability and sport.

© 2018 Association for Physical Education Background: In Aotearoa New Zealand, as it is internationally, there is a desire to ensure physical education is inclusive of all students regardless of their abilities. Yet, medical discourses associated with disability continue to position students who are perceived as not having the capacity to participate fully in traditional physical education programmes as the teacher’s ‘helper’, ‘helped’, or ‘helpless’. As a result, these students may have negative experiences of physical education and this can impact on future involvement in movement-related activities within school and community settings. Methodology: Drawing on the data from a larger critical participatory action research project, we explore how one primary school teacher, Joel, attempted to work more inclusively within physical education. Specifically, we draw from personal journaling, student work and records of dialogical conversations to shed light on Joel’s experiences. Conclusion: Joel’s experience demonstrates that there is not one singular solution to inclusion within physical education and it is a combination of actions that support this process. In Joel’s case, this included becoming a reflexive practitioner, getting to know his students, being receptive as opposed to respective to difference in positive ways rather than seeing this as limiting, working imaginatively to reconsider what constitutes learning in physical education, and sharing ownership for curriculum design and learning with his students. Working in this way illustrates how a multi-layered approach can make a difference to how all the students in a class experience inclusion, including students positioned as disabled.

This book aims to enliven our professional and research conversations about difference and inequalities in physical education (PE), youth sport and health. Ultimately it has a modest aim to help teachers and coaches to create more inclusive learning environments for young people in physical activity and health contexts, although we are abundantly aware that education for social justice and democracy is a complex project which requires widespread political support from far beyond the boundaries of our field. The book was conceived on account of our sense of frustration at the ways in which issues of difference and inequality seem to be increasingly marginalized in the field of PE and sports science, as well as an acknowledgement about how difficult it is to gain broad acceptance for ‘different’ ways of knowing. All three of us have experienced the mechanisms of being silenced in an academy which is once again becoming saturated with ‘male’, neo-liberal notions of ‘what counts’ (Hekman 1995). We have felt the professional melancholy described by Evans and Davies (2008), as the discourses of professional flagellation and the pedagogy of despair engulf us during our work with teachers, coaches, students and young people, when we recognize the persistence of inequities despite rhetorical claims to the contrary. We do not concede the view that ‘what works’ for ‘effective’ PE teaching or sports coaching can best be gleaned from the physical, biological and behavioural sciences, although we are fully aware that knowledge from these fields has long held a hegemonic place in sports science (Evans and Davies 1986; Tinning 2004, 2010). We respect, of course, these disciplines’ contribution to the field of knowledge about the body and human movement, but we believe, like Tinning (2004), that this has regrettably been, and continues to be, at the cost of a focus upon social theory. Young people entering a school gymnasium or a community sports hall are not objects or machines waiting to be tuned, as the commonly used metaphor in the bio-behavioural sciences implies, but they are subjects and their identities need to be acknowledged as central to their learning experience. Teachers and coaches participate in social interaction with their learners, and their actions have social consequences (both intended and unintended); they, therefore, require knowledge about the social body, as well as the bio-behavioural body. Teachers and learners are enfleshed, emotional and intellectual beings, and they are inevitably located in social matrixes of power in society within and beyond the arena of physical activity. Despite the way in which slogans such as ‘Sport for All’ and ‘Every Child Matters’ readily slip off the tongue, and the long-established idea in the taken-for-granted public consciousness that sport, with its level playing fields, is a social equalizer, statistics and individual experience tell a different story. PE and health classes, and sport, are sites of struggle about competing definitions of what and who counts as worthwhile, where some young people benefit and others lose out because they have the ‘wrong’ body or lack ‘ability’ in relation to the dominant values within a given time and context. Ultimately, what goes on in physical activity contexts is ‘implicated in social and cultural reproduction and the distribution of power and principles of control’ in society at large (Evans and Davies 2004: 4). During the last three decades a considerable body of knowledge has been developed which can help us to better understand these aspects of ‘learning’ in PE, health and sport, yet we are concerned that too many important insights into the complexities of ‘schooling the body’ remain largely within the domain of theoreticians and only fragmentarily filter down into practice. By making this observation we have no intention to apportion any sense of blame; to do so would deny the ‘social base of the pedagogic relation, its various contingent realisations, the agents and the agencies of its enactments’ (Bernstein 2001: 364, cited in Evans and Davies 2004: 4). Nor do we wish to imply that professionals in the field intend to create inequitable learning environments, because clearly this is preposterous. Moreover, we are complicit in these observations. However, at the same time, we would argue that failure to systematically engage in critical reflection about the values which underpin PE and sport and, in particular, ideas about social difference, can lead to unintended inequitable outcomes. We hope therefore that this book may help to nurture such critical reflection, and via its use of narrative also expand the profession’s ‘toolkit’ for getting to know and better understand ‘difference’. Interest in narrative ways of knowing has grown dramatically in recent times, across the range of subject disciplines, but in spite of its promise as a way of knowing the social world, it has to date remained a relatively little used research approach within the field of PE and sport. We think this is a pity given that narratives can help to illuminate individual experiences located within broader social and cultural structures, and their potential to facilitate professional self-reflection (Barone 1995; Butt et al. 1992; Clandinin and Connelly 2000; Day 1999a, 1999b; Goodson 1995; Polkinghorne 1995). Research on teachers, and indeed our many years of experience as teachers, tells us that teaching is always very personal. Our teacher selves cannot be separated from self-identities (Goodson 1995). Who we are, as individual subjects and as teachers, is in fact the story (or stories) we tell to ourselves, and to others, about our lives. In other words, the art of storytelling is something we do on a daily basis in the process of making sense of who we are and what we experience. These self-stories are also a reflection of cultural narratives: about the social spaces we inhabit. Whilst many of us take this aspect of our life for granted - it is just something we do - we suggest we might capitalize upon our skills as storytellers and analysts; it may represent an approach to knowledge which is close to our actual worlds. Like genuine critical reflection in teacher professional development (Day 1999a), a narrative approach to difference in PE and sport is about the past, the present and the future, and it is about ‘problem posing’, as well as ‘problem solving’. It demands a critique of practice and the values implicit in that practice, as described above. Importantly, narratives recognize the role emotions play in how we come to understand our worlds, in addition to cognitive ways of knowing. Few would deny that their enthusiasm, or indeed loathing, for physical activity or sport is linked to strong feelings, yet surprisingly little attention has been paid to how these emotions structure embodied experience in the field of PE, health and sport. By engaging in educational storysharing (Barone 1995), both teachers and students can co-construct knowledge about their social worlds, which can counteract the current tendency to marginalize their voices in the neo-liberal ‘market place of education’ dominated by the discourses of achievement, assessment and accountability. Like Hargreaves (2003), Hargreaves and Shirley (2009), Lingard (2007) and Sachs (2003), we envisage professionals as people engaged with a broad project of education for social justice and democracy. In a global world increasingly characterized by diversity, mobility and uncertainty, with a rise of xenophobic political climates (e.g. the ‘war on terror’, ‘cracking down’ on illegal immigrants) and world economic crisis, the need to recognize and understand difference has perhaps never been as necessary as in the current moment. This need appears to be accentuated in the case of physical educators in the developed world, who persistently comprise a homogeneous, mainly white group of able-bodied people, unlike the increasing social diversity to be found among their students.

Results: The narratives reveal the ways in which whiteness operates within PETE through processes of naturalisation, ex-denomination and universalisation. We have been educated, and now work within, teacher education contexts where professional discourse about race at best focuses on understanding the racialised ‘other’, and at worse is invisible. By drawing on a ‘racialised other’, deficit discourse in our pedagogy, and by ignoring race in own research on inequalities in PETE, we have failed to disrupt universalised discourses of ‘white-as-norm’, or addressed our own privileged racialised positioning. Reflecting critically on our biographies and careers has been the first step in recognising how whiteness works in order that we can begin to work to disrupt it.

In this chapter we discuss the use of student-centred research as a classroombased pedagogical technique for exploring young people’s physical education and sporting experiences. According to Arnold (1985), physical education can be understood as a subject that is not merely the doing of physical activity. Indeed, Arnold (1985) believes students can learn ‘in’, ‘about’ and ‘through’ physical education. This chapter draws on this understanding of physical education to illustrate how students can learn ‘about’ physical education by participating in classroom-based, student-centred research. Initially, we discuss the use of student-centred research with young disabled people. Given the many organisations that now claim to support and develop opportunities for these young people (Department of Culture, Media and Sport 2001; English Federation of Disability Sport 1999) and the increasing recognition of the importance of personal autonomy and empowerment (Children and Young Peoples Unit 2001), it is appropriate that when we explore physical education and sporting experiences we include young people within the process. We review a number of examples of student-centred approaches that have been used. We then consider the usefulness of student-centred research for researchers, school staff and students. Finally, we explore the relevance and possibilities of the pedagogic principles underpinning student-centred research for other groups of young people in the context of physical education.

It has long been recognised that family is an important arena in which sporting tastes and interests are nurtured. Indeed, for many young people the family introduces them to and then provides ongoing support for engaging in sport. Research has also indicated that the family has a significant position in the lives of young disabled people. In this paper we explore the interrelationships between sport, family and disability. Like a number of writers within disability studies we see the benefits of moving beyond a structure/agency dichotomy that currently limits social and medical model understandings of disability. In particular, we draw on the work of Marcel Mauss and Pierre Bourdieu both of whom argued that social life can be better understood by considering the embodiment of individuals through their habitus. We draw on data generated in an interview‐based study with 10 young disabled people to explore the ways in which family contributes to, and mediates, sporting tastes and interests. We consider two key questions: How do young disabled people negotiate relations within the family and in what ways do these relations influence sporting tastes and interests? To what extent are young disabled people able to use sport to generate and convert (valued) capital within the family and other related arenas?

In this article, Hayley Fitzgerald, Anne Jobling and David Kirk consider the physical education and sporting experiences of a group of students with severe learning difficulties. Their study is thought provoking, not only because of the important and somewhat neglected subject matter, but equally for the research approach adopted. The way in which the study engaged with the students and the insights gained from that engagement will be of particular interest to practitioner researchers.

This article will report on the process of student‐led research as an innovative pedagogical technique for learning more about the physical education (PE) and sporting experiences of young disabled people. The article drawson work fromtwo school based curriculum projects thatsought to work with young people in an empowering manner. We argue that student‐led project work can place value on students voices, promote dialogue between students and teachers and enables students’ to enhance their awareness and reflective capacity.We propose that as researchers we needto rethink our understandingof the research process if we are to support research centralising the voices of young people.

In this paper I continue to develop the growing interest in working with research approaches that enable people experiencing severe learning disabilities to participate in research activities. In particular, I discuss a research project that adopted a number of data generation strategies, including a drama pilot project. In this paper I focus on the drama pilot project by reviewing the processes involved in working with drama as a research approach. In reflecting upon the use of drama I explore a number of issues concerning the process of transcription and the competing discourses of research and engaging in a creative performance. Although I identify a number of challenges encountered in this drama pilot I would argue that this technique remains a worthwhile and relevant strategy for engaging with many students, including those experiencing severe learning disabilities.

Within education generally and more specifically physical education inclusion has become a central concern of legislation, policy and programming. Set within an environment where there is much talk of inclusion this paper seeks to interrogate adult stakeholders’ understandings of inclusion by exploring their responses to the drawings and commentary of young disabled students’ experiences of mainstream physical education. By engaging in this research in this way I attempt to ‘connect’ these conversations about inclusion. Four main themes emerged from these data including: (1) ‘activity setting’; (2) ‘enjoying physical education’; (3) ‘challenging practice’; and (4) ‘stakeholder empathy’. In concluding, this paper highlights the contradictory and inconsistent views stakeholders express about inclusion. Furthermore, the utility of adopting a data generation strategy incorporating student drawings and stakeholder responses is reflected upon.

This paper addresses an increasing concern within physical education and sports research to engage with young people to find out more about their experiences of physical education and school sport. In particular, I centre my concerns on the experiences of five young disabled pupils. I use the conceptual tools offered by Bourdieu to extend understandings of disability beyond those typically associated with medical and social model perceptives and in so doing explore the notion of the embodied identities of the disabled pupils in this study. In this paper, I also develop Evans' (2004) recent discussion focusing on ‘ability’ and particularly his concern for ability to be conceptualised as a sociocultural and dynamic entity. The data generated reveals that a paradigm of normativity prevails in physical education. It would seem the physical education habitus serves to affirm a normative presence in physical education and school sport and is manifest through conceptions of ability that recognise and value a mesomorphic ideal, masculinity and high levels of motoric competence. I conclude by suggesting that articulations of ability need to be recast and understood in ways that extend beyond narrowly defined measures of performance and normative conceptions of what is it to have a sporting body.

Goalball was invented in 1946 by Hanz Lorenzen (Austria), and Sepp Reindle (Germany) for the visually impaired and blind World War II veterans. In 1976 goalball became a Paralympic sport and remains popular in special schools attended by people with visual impairment. Within mainstream schools goalball remains on the margins of the school curriculum. Physical activity and sport participation for people with disabilities is an area that has been researched widely. However, limited attention has been given to visually impaired people’s involvement in sport and specifically in goalball. In order to address this gap in research knowledge, this study adopted a mixed method approach to explore the initial socialisation and the motivation for goalball participation by visually impaired athletes engaging in recreational and elite levels.  The study encompassed two phases including quantitative and qualitative data collection. The first phase involved the completion of a battery of validated questionnaires. Fifty-two athletes took part in this first phase which included twenty-nine (56%) males and twentythree (44%) females. The mean age of all the participants was M = 28.24 (SD = 9.010) :M = 28.6 (SD = 10.4) for males, M = 27.7 (SD = 7.0) for females. Phase Two involved qualitative semi-structured interviews with athletes selected from Phase One. Twenty-three British athletes were selected for the second phase of the research study and eighteen interviews were conducted. Theoretically, this study draws on Self-Determination Theory (SDT) and social model understandings of disability to explore the socialisation and participation in goalball for this specific sample.  The results from Phase One were descriptive offering insights into the specific population studied. Additionally, motivation was measured with regards to basic psychological needs, perceived autonomy, competence and motives for participation in goalball. The results from the second qualitative phase provide understandings about initial socialisation, motivation to play goalball, and engagement and investment in goalball. These data position schooling and PE as an important site in which visually impaired young people may, or may not, develop their goalball careers. Friends, family and organisations were also critical contributors for the initial and on-going goalball involvement. Reasons for playing goalball and challenges encountered appear to be similar to those experienced by people without disabilities engaged in sport. The results also reveal that motivation was affected by intrinsic and extrinsic reasons. Relationships within the goalball community were cited as key reasons for ongoing engagement in goalball. This study concludes by arguing that the way society is constructed can impact on people with visual impairments and their experiences v of sport including goalball. Despite feeling motivated to play goalball, it appears that the opportunities to be active members of the goalball community were influenced by wider societal factors.

This article focuses on young people with disabilities and mainstream physical education in England. Within this context there have been unprecedented levels of funding and resources directed towards physical education in order to support more inclusive physical education experiences for all young people, including those with disabilities. Physical education holds a unique place within the school curriculum; it is a subject area where the physicality of students is publicly exposed to others (including teachers, classmates, and support staff). There are likely to be some tensions around physical education and its relationship with students with disabilities. In particular, it is claimed that physical education was conceived of, and continues to be practiced, in a normative way. By drawing on interview data from three young people with disabilities, non-fictional narratives are used to re-present their identities at the intersections of schooling, physical education and disability. These narratives offer insights about how physical education impacts on various aspects of social life including home, family, friends and other school subjects.

© 2019 Australian Council for Health, Physical Education and Recreation. Physical education (PE) research focusing on initial teacher education (ITE) and continuing professional development (CPD) have been preoccupied with practitioners in mainstream (regular) schools. This article used situated learning theory to explore special school PE teachers’ perspectives of their ITE and CPD in England. A number of key themes were constructed from six interviews with special school teachers, including, ‘Special educational needs and disabilities are marginalised during initial teacher education’, ‘Special school-based placement may help to prepare trainee teacher’, ‘The professional development opportunities available to special school PE teachers are limited’ and ‘PE-specific CPD should be tailored to the needs of staff and pupils in schools’. Regardless of route into the profession, all teachers recalled a lack of focus on Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and inclusion in the context of PE during their ITE. This trend was also evident through subsequent CPD offered, although there were accounts of informal opportunities. In concluding we argue that further consideration must be given to the nature of inclusive PE training offered within ITE. There is also a need to reconsider how CPD can best support career-long professional development that nurtures inclusive PE practitioners.

Background: The persistent gaps between a largely white profession and ethnically diverse school populations have brought renewed calls to support teachers' critical engagement with race. Programmes examining the effects of racism have had limited impact on practice, with student teachers responding with either denial, guilt or fear; they also contribute to a deficit view of racialised students in relation to an accepted white ‘norm’, and position white teachers ‘outside’ of race. Recent calls argue for a shift in focus towards an examination of the workings of the dominant culture through a critical engagement with whiteness, positioning white teachers within the processes of racialisation. Teacher educators' roles are central, and yet, while we routinely expect student teachers to reflect critically on issues of social justice, we have been less willing to engage in such work ourselves. This is particularly the case within physical education teacher education (PETE), an overwhelmingly white, embodied space, and where race and racism as professional issues are largely invisible. Purpose: This paper examines the operation of whiteness within PETE through a critical reflection on the three co-authors' careers and experiences working for social justice. The research questions were twofold: How are race, (anti) racism and whiteness constructed through everyday experiences of families, schooling and teacher education? How can collective biography be used to excavate discourses of race, racism and whiteness as the first step towards challenging them? In beginning the process of reflecting on what it means for us ‘to do own work’ in relation to (anti) racism, we examine some of the tensions and challenges for teacher educators in PE attempting to work to dismantle whiteness. Methodology: As co-authors, we engaged in collective biography work – a process in which we reflected upon, wrote about and shared our embodied experiences and memories about race, racism and whiteness as educators working for social justice. Using a critical whiteness lens, these narratives were examined for what they reveal about the collective practices and discourses about whiteness and (anti)racism within PETE. Results: The narratives reveal the ways in which whiteness operates within PETE through processes of naturalisation, ex-denomination and universalisation. We have been educated, and now work within, teacher education contexts where professional discourse about race at best focuses on understanding the racialised ‘other’, and at worse is invisible. By drawing on a ‘racialised other’, deficit discourse in our pedagogy, and by ignoring race in own research on inequalities in PETE, we have failed to disrupt universalised discourses of ‘white-as-norm’, or addressed our own privileged racialised positioning. Reflecting critically on our biographies and careers has been the first step in recognising how whiteness works in order that we can begin to work to disrupt it. Conclusion: The study highlights some of the challenges of addressing (anti)racism within PETE and argues that a focus on whiteness might offer a productive starting point. White teacher educators must critically examine their own role within these processes if they are to expect student teachers to engage seriously in doing the same.

This commentary introduces David Kirk's paper entitled 'Making a career in Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy in the corporatized university: Reflections on hegemony, resistance, collegiality and scholarship', which was presented in the 2012 Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy (PESP) 'scholar lecture' at the British Educational Research Association (BERA) conference. We briefly describe the origins of the scholar lecture and its link to the PESP special interest group of BERA and then make a few introductory comments about the lecture, highlighting a number of points of tension that the paper raises for us. © 2013 © 2013 Taylor & Francis.

Developing teacher education programmes founded upon principles of critical pedagogy and social justice has become increasingly difficult in the current neoliberal climate of higher education. In this article, we adopt a narrative approach to illuminate some of the dilemmas which advocates of education for social justice face and to reflect upon how pedagogy for inclusion in the field of physical education (PE) teacher education (PETE) is defined and practiced. As a professional group, teacher educators seem largely hesitant to expose themselves to the researcher's gaze, which is problematic if we expect preservice teachers to engage in messy, biographical reflexivity with regard to their own teaching practice. By engaging in self- and collective biographical story sharing about ‘our’ teacher educator struggles in England and Norway, we hope that the reader can identify ‘her/his’ struggles in the narratives about power and domination, and the spaces of opportunity in between.

This paper connects with practitioners and scholars in sport management regarding the utility of adopting narrative inquiry, and more specifically stories as a medium to re-present research findings. We map out the broad field of narrative inquiry and also discuss what features are required to constitute stories. Drawing from some sport management research undertaken on behalf of The English Football Association, we offer one story crafted to re-present data generated. We discuss the benefits and challenges of using stories as a means of data re-presentation. The paper concludes by offering our thoughts regarding the contributions stories make to research in sport management.

Internationally, there is a general concern with lower levels of engagement in sport by women and girls in comparison to men and boys. This concern has largely focused on active sports participation. The research discussed in this presentation takes a different perspective, foregrounding women as sports volunteers. Within England, sport is the third most common sector in which people volunteer and the Active People Survey (2014/15) reveals that two-fifths of sports volunteers are female. Quantitative research in sports volunteering has focused on satisfaction, decision-making, time and future intentions. Traditionally volunteering has been associated with altruism where volunteers have a lifelong commitment to support the group they are serving. More recently, this simplistic notion of volunteering has been extended through the development of a number of frameworks that offer a more complex understanding of volunteer motives, aspirations and commitment. This research draws upon these frameworks and aims to explore why and how women volunteer in sport. By taking a gendered analysis we explore the key factors and circumstances that facilitate and challenge participation in sports volunteering. Over 50 women and men were interviewed from three regions in England, across three contexts: core sports (boxing, rugby league, netball, cycling, tennis and disability sports); mass market sports (Park Run); and the non-sport/ leisure sector. This presentation focuses upon data generated from the core sports context and considers: (a) how life choices or circumstances influenced the frequency, consistency and amount of time that women could dedicate to volunteering, (b) the kinds of challenges women experienced in their quest to volunteer, (c) how they navigated these challenges, and (d) what governing bodies of sport can learn from these women’s experiences to better serve the needs of their women volunteers. These findings demonstrate that a number of gendered differences influence women’s sport volunteering experiences, and that the intersections of gender with disability and/or ethnicity lead to more or less favourable experiences for some volunteers. Many of the women experienced discriminatory stereotyping that influenced their volunteering and sense of wellbeing. Importantly, some women were able to draw on the support of others to navigate challenges and to enable positive personal outcomes. The findings offer a valuable resource for governing bodies of sport to enable them in their future planning, marketing, and training of their volunteer workforce. In so doing, they will be better placed to attract and retain more women in volunteering roles within their sport.

Conference presentation about Black and Minority Ethnic teachers' experiences of becoming and being a Physical Education teacher

Background Despite increases in the ethnic diversity of the student population within English schools, there remains a distinct lack of Black and minority ethnic representation within the teaching profession. Research has explored the reasons behind this lacuna within education more broadly, highlighting discrimination, verbal abuse, lack of management support, and racial inequalities in pay and promotional opportunities contributing to Black and minority ethnic teachers feeling undervalued. However, within Physical Education (PE), a subject area where this gap is more pronounced, there has been less attention paid to the experiences of Black and minority ethnic teachers. Purpose This paper explores Black teachers’ lived experiences of becoming and being a PE teacher. Two tenets of Critical Race Theory (CRT) are drawn upon – the permanence of racism and counter-storytelling. These offer an interrogative lens to explore White norms and dominant discourses that render the education system inequitable. Method Semi-structured interviews with six self-identified Black PE teachers were used to generate data. Data were initially analysed using Reflexive Thematic Analysis. Then, in adopting the position of ‘storyteller’, these data were woven together and the themes reflected in a counterstory featuring three composite, fictional and data driven characters. Discussion The counterstory, featuring Shanice, Leon and Clive is offered, and demonstrates the permanence of racism through the multiplicity of overt and insidious ways it pervades all facets of these characters’ lives. After offering the story we discuss three key themes embedded within it: lack of representation; stereotyping; and acts of resistance. Conclusion In drawing the paper to a close we offer a number of concluding remarks about Shanice and Leon’s experiences. In so doing, we highlight some strategies that can be initiated within schools and higher education that might help to increase the representation of Black educators at all levels of the profession, promote more equitable practice, and better support Black teachers to fulfil their teaching aspirations. The paper ends by recognising the usefulness of counter-storytelling before we contemplate how, as an authorship team, we can extend this research.

Background Despite increases in the ethnic diversity of the student population within English schools, there remains a distinct lack of Black and minority ethnic representation within the teaching profession. Research has explored the reasons behind this lacuna within education more broadly, highlighting discrimination, verbal abuse, lack of management support, and racial inequalities in pay and promotional opportunities contributing to Black and minority ethnic teachers feeling undervalued. However, within Physical Education (PE), a subject area where this gap is more pronounced, there has been less attention paid to the experiences of Black and minority ethnic teachers. Purpose This paper explores Black teachers’ lived experiences of becoming and being a PE teacher. Two tenets of Critical Race Theory (CRT) are drawn upon – the permanence of racism and counter-storytelling. These offer an interrogative lens to explore White norms and dominant discourses that render the education system inequitable. Method Semi-structured interviews with six self-identified Black PE teachers were used to generate data. Data were initially analysed using Reflexive Thematic Analysis. Then, in adopting the position of ‘storyteller’, these data were woven together and the themes reflected in a counterstory featuring three composite, fictional and data driven characters. Discussion The counterstory, featuring Shanice, Leon and Clive is offered, and demonstrates the permanence of racism through the multiplicity of overt and insidious ways it pervades all facets of these characters’ lives. After offering the story we discuss three key themes embedded within it: lack of representation; stereotyping; and acts of resistance. Conclusion In drawing the paper to a close we offer a number of concluding remarks about Shanice and Leon’s experiences. In so doing, we highlight some strategies that can be initiated within schools and higher education that might help to increase the representation of Black educators at all levels of the profession, promote more equitable practice, and better support Black teachers to fulfil their teaching aspirations. The paper ends by recognising the usefulness of counter-storytelling before we contemplate how, as an authorship team, we can extend this research.

Issues of equity remain an essential theme throughout the study and practice of physical education (PE), youth sport and health. This important new book confronts and illuminates issues of equity and difference through the innovative use of narrative method, telling stories of difference that enable students, academics and professionals alike to engage both emotionally and cognitively with the subject. The book is arranged into three sections. The first provides an overview of current theory and research on difference and inequality in PE, youth sport and health, together with an introduction to narrative forms of knowing. The second section includes short narratives about difference that bring to life the key themes and issues in a range of physical activity contexts. The third section draws upon a selection of narratives to offer detailed, practical suggestions for how they might be used in, or inform, teaching sessions. This is the first book to explore issues of equity through narrative, and the first to examine the pedagogical value of a narrative approach within PE, youth sport and health. With contributions from many of the world’s leading equity specialists, it will be invaluable reading for all students, scholars and professionals working in PE, youth sport, health, sports development, gender studies and mainstream education programmes.

The study focuses on the use of blended professional development (BPD).That is, merging long-distance and face-to-face professional development (PD) characteristics to introduce a physical education pedagogical model to a primary (i.e., elementary) school physical education teacher. This study sought to: (a) to contextually describe how a BPD in Student-Designed Games (SDG) approach was designed and delivered, and (b) identify how the BPD was aligned with O’Sullivan and Deglau (2006) Principles of PD Design and Delivery. Data collection included lesson plans, observations and interviews. Data analysis was undertaken through the BPD indepth description and a systematic process of deductive analysis using O’Sullivan and Deglau (2006) as the theoretical framework. Three key finding emerged relating to: (1) empowering the teacher, (2) meaningful learning in contextualised environments, and (3) ongoing support. The BPD incorporated 4 stages of delivery: preparation, learning game categories, adjustment to students’ background and supporting students to refine games. Through these stages the BPD was able to provide: (i) a balance between the teacher’s background knowledge and PD vision; (ii) meaningful learning in contextualised environments; . However, it should be recognised that the nature of this PD project was challenging to implement because of the high level of time commitment required.

Participatory research with young people has become an approach increasingly adopted by researchers within PE and sport. In this paper, we draw on our research diaries to collectively reflect on our experiences of attempting to work in participatory ways. Although we each work with different young people and have adopted differing participatory approaches, there are similarities in our research experiences. This includes recurring accounts of ‘muddling through’ and messiness occupying our reflections. We are also struck by the absence of concern within the literature to reveal the messiness of research. In light of our shared musings about participatory research with different young people, this paper offers some preliminary thoughts about our experiences of dealing with this messiness. We take as our focus the increasing concerns to support rights-based research that advocates inclusion, participation and empowerment, and draw on our research to explore how these features were worked towards. In these discussions we are open about the limitations of the research, challenges encountered and the resultant messiness arising. Our conclusion turns to what it might mean if researchers were more transparent about the usually unpredictable, messy and confusing situations that arise in the practice of doing participatory research with young people.

© The Author(s) 2020. Physical education (PE) research has largely been preoccupied with mainstream (regular) schools. This article reports on part of a larger research project that centralises special school PE. In particular, Gramsci’s conceptualisations of hegemony, power and ideology are utilised to help shed light on the key factors that shape the culture of special school PE. A number of key themes were constructed from twelve interviews with special school senior leaders and PE teachers including, ‘economic climate: budgetary constraints’, ‘access to appropriate facilities and learning spaces’ and ‘pressures from Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills (Ofsted) and senior management team’. These findings demonstrate how particular historical and contemporary factors contribute to the positioning of PE in special schools. The status and value of PE in these settings is sometimes considered less favourably than other areas of the curriculum or indeed mainstream PE. In spite of this, staff tasked with delivering special school PE had the desire and creativity to offer engaging experiences. In concluding we note that issues concerning economic constraints, limited space to deliver PE and pressures associated with Ofsted can be found in many mainstream schools too. However, honing in on the particular circumstances within special schools broadens insight about PE in contemporary schools.

D/deaf people are often ignored within sports research. This paper centralizes the experiences of four D/deaf athletes who have competed in the Deaflympics and offers some insights about their socialization into sport. The key questions addressed are: (1) What are the key factors enabling D/deaf athletes’ involvement and progression in elite D/deaf sport? (2) What are the key challenges D/deaf athletes face when participating and progressing in D/deaf sport? Findings from the interviews suggest that early specialization into sport does not include exposure to Deaf sport.

© 2020, © 2020 Educational Review. Educational “inclusion” has led to a debate about the appropriateness of special and mainstream schools. This paper adds to this debate by drawing on the concept of cultural hegemony to analyse the nature, purpose and value of special school physical education (PE). Eighteen individual interviews explored the perceptions of PE teachers, senior leaders and learning support assistants. The findings suggest that common sense cultural norms in special school PE are underpinned by an aspiration to develop the “whole child”: physically, socially and cognitively. This involved the delivery of a broad curriculum that is guided by a needs-based approach. Special schools appeared to be taking a more open view about what constitutes PE, when compared to mainstream schools, which was also accompanied with a desire to embrace cross-curricular possibilities. We end by offering questions requiring further consideration, and by highlighting opportunities for mutual learning within and across special and mainstream schools.

In this article, we explore the footballing experiences of girls with learning disabilities. We situate our article within an after‐school football initiative that sought to forge a partnership between Bryant Park Special School and Liberty High Specialist Sports College, both based in different suburbs within one city in the north of England. We ask the following question: How are after‐school football initiatives, designed to enhance football opportunities and links between special and mainstream schools, being experienced by a range of stakeholders? In seeking to explore this question, we offer a series of critical non‐fiction narratives that capture the different ways in which a number of girls with learning disabilities, a male football coach and the male head teacher of a special school experience the realities of the football initiative. These tales illustrate not only the practical challenges of attempting to enhance football opportunities but also the theoretical challenges of exploring intersectional discourses concerned with girls, learning disability and girlhood.

This chapter details our journey of discovery into the world of arts-based research (ABR). Starting with a defining of the field, we then outline some benefits and challenges of engaging with ABR. After this, we explore what ABR has to offer those researching in disability and PE and sport. In so doing, we take a critical lens to some of our own work and consider this in relation to Chilton and Leavy’s six criteria for ABR. Overall, this chapter offers an introduction to anyone interested in exploring the possibilities of using ABR as part of their future methodologies.

It is often claimed that physical education and school sport (PESS) can provide opportunities to transform the lives of those who participate. Research has consistently reported a variety of benefits for engaging in PESS. The development of fundamental movement skills, positive personal, social and health outcomes, and employability and life skills including teamwork, respect, resilience, trust, working with others and leadership have been well rehearsed (Coalter, 2007; Coalter, Theeboom and Truyens, 2020; Holt, 2008). Other suggested benefits include enhanced feelings of belonging (Jones et al., 2020), combatting loneliness (Sport England, 2023), and improving pupils’ attention, engagement and behaviour within school lessons (Daly-Smith et al., 2018; Norris et al., 2020). It is also well documented that physical health and mental wellbeing can be improved through PESS and physical activity (Girlguiding, 20221; Sport England, 2023; World Health Organisation, 2020). This latter aspect is particularly important with ongoing concerns regarding young people’s mental health, and the rise in referral rates to mental health services (NHS Digital, 20232; Sport England, 2023).

A number of recent Managing Sport and Leisure commentaries have explored how COVID-19 is touching sport. Our commentary adds to these discussions by considering COVID-19, lockdown and (disability) sport. This is especially pertinent given the positioning of disabled people as particularly “vulnerable” in relation to current political discourse. Four key points of discussion are focused upon. First, we explore how the media has attended to issues concerning (disability) sport during lockdown. Second, consideration is given to how sporting and physical activity opportunities have been promoted during lockdown. Third, we focus on the notion of inclusion and explore the ways in which this has thrived during lockdown. Fourth, attention is given to community (disability) sport post-lockdown and what this may mean for disability sport. We conclude by arguing that the future legacy of lockdown and COVID-19 will tell us much about how disabled people have really been embraced within sport.

This paper explores the physical activity experiences of a group of women based in England, and who are over the age of 30. This particular age group represent a ‘forgotten’ age, that is, they are largely ignored in academic scholarship, policy and physical activity provision. The paper explores how this group of women ‘re/engaged’ in physical activity after a sustained period of inactivity. The study is situated in a weekly football initiative (Monday Night Footy) based in the north of England, managed and organised by a group of women for women to train and play five-a-side football. Data were generated through semi-structured interviews and the use of photo-biographical boards with 11 women, all of whom are regular participants to the football sessions. We use a middle ground feminist lens and Archer's notion of ‘fr/agility’ to help make sense of the women's experiences. From these women's stories three key findings emerge: (a) Biographies of (in)activity–the ways in which relationships with physical activity can be characterised by fractures and fissures despite seemingly positive early physical activity experiences; (b) Pathways of re/engagement–the motives and enablers to these women once again participating in physical activity after a sustained absence; and (c) Monday Night Footy as a space for re/engagement–the ways in which this context contributes to these women's continued involvement in football and broader physical activity. The paper concludes by offering policy makers and physical activity providers with some recommendations alongside considerations for future research.

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.

Transgender inclusion has become a prominent issue on the agendas of policy makers in education and sport in recent years. Despite this, teachers face continued challenges in providing inclusive experiences for transgender young people. This is particularly apparent in PE, which is a unique subject in its potential to perpetuate gender norms. There is a growing body of literature exploring LGBTQ+ issues in PE. However, there is a need to consider how trans* young people’s experiences may differ from their LGB counterparts. A small number of existing studies offer insight into the experiences of trans* youth in PE. However, comparatively little is known about the challenges faced by PE teachers in providing inclusive PE experiences for trans* young people. This paper presents a creative non-fiction monologue that reflects findings from seven interviews with secondary school PE teachers about their experiences of working with trans* young people. We draw on a ‘feminist-queer’ theoretical approach to examine the potential for PE pedagogies to reproduce, disrupt and transform binary gender discourse. Findings present three key themes: (1) teachers’ knowledge and understanding of trans* identities in PE; (2) trans* challenges to PE practice; and (3) moving towards trans*-inclusive PE. We conclude by arguing that the benefits of trans*-inclusive approaches to PE are far-reaching, and extend to all young people.

The development of the Women's Super League (WSL) in English football, increased media coverage of the game, and an expansion of grassroots opportunities indicate a bright future for women and girls who want to play. Yet this vision must be tempered against compelling evidence of deep rooted and enduring gender inequalities within the game. This is the case for both players, and women who undertake non-playing roles, which is reflected in the relatively low numbers of women coaches and referees. Whilst The Football Association (The FA) has signalled addressing these inequalities as a key priority, critics argue that such efforts amount to superficial and limited efforts to support meaningful change. This paper departs from a concern with playing the game and responds to calls for more research to explore the experiences of women involved in football in non-playing roles. More specifically, it focuses on women coaches and referees, and addresses the following question: how do women in positions of power in football negotiate their place in what remains a distinctly male-dominated profession? In addressing this question, we take a theoretical position located at the nexus between radical and post-structural feminism, acknowledging the significance of structural power relations and individual agency in shaping daily lived social realities. Data were generated from interviews with 14 women coaches and 10 women referees. These interviews explored the structure and culture of the game and its impact on women's experiences of men's and women's competitive and grassroots football. Through a rigorous process of thematic analysis, three themes were identified: gendered entry into football careers; reinforcement of women's difference on the football field; and coping strategies for remaining in the game. Centralising the women's voices in this research highlights the insidious and persistent nature of gendered microaggressions, the sexism of football culture, and the ways in which these women negotiate this masculine terrain in their pursuit of being coaches and referees. “Andy Gray and Richard Keys hauled off air for sexist comments” (The Guardian, 24 January, 2011) “Crystal Palace Women goalkeeper accuses clubs of ignoring FA protocols after she was subjected to sexist abuse” (The Telegraph, 16 January, 2020) “Football manager demands ban on women referees” (The Guardian, 12 November, 2006) “Richard Scudamore sexism scandal intensifies as conspirator in sexist emails investigated by own law firm” (The Telegraph, 16 May, 2014) “Soccer chief's plan to boost women's game? Hotpants” (The Guardian, 16 January, 2004) “Women in Football survey a damning indictment of sexism in the workplace” (HRreview, 11 March, 2014) “Clattenburg criticised for claim female referees must pick career or children” (The Telegraph, 1 October, 2021)

Internationally, there is a general concern with lower levels of engagement in sport by women and girls in comparison to men and boys. This concern has largely focused on active sports participation. The research discussed in this presentation takes a different perspective, foregrounding women as sports volunteers. In England, sport is the third most common sector in which people volunteer and the Active People Survey (2014/15) reveals that two-fifths of sports volunteers are female. Quantitative research in sports volunteering has focused on satisfaction, decision-making, time and future intentions. Traditionally volunteering has been associated with altruism where volunteers have a lifelong commitment to support the group they are serving. More recently, this simplistic notion of volunteering has been extended through the development of a number of frameworks that offer a more complex understanding of volunteer motives, aspirations and commitment. This research draws upon these frameworks and aims to explore why and how women volunteer in sport. By taking a gendered analysis we explore the key factors and circumstances that facilitate and challenge participation in sports volunteering. 64 women and men were interviewed from three regions in England, across three contexts: core sports (boxing, rugby league, netball, cycling, tennis and disability sports); mass market sports (Park Run); and the non-sport/ leisure sector. This presentation focuses upon data generated from the core sports context and considers findings relating to: (a) how life choices or circumstances influenced the frequency, consistency and amount of time that women could dedicate to volunteering, (b) the kinds of challenges women experienced in their quest to volunteer, (c) how they navigated these challenges, and (d) what governing bodies of sport can learn from these women's experiences to better serve the needs of their women volunteers. These findings demonstrate that a number of gendered differences influence women's sport volunteering experiences, and that the intersections of gender with disability and/or ethnicity lead to more or less favourable experiences for some volunteers. Many of the women experienced discriminatory stereotyping that influenced their volunteering and sense of wellbeing. Importantly, some women were able to draw on the support of others to navigate challenges and enable positive personal outcomes. The findings offer a valuable resource for governing bodies of sport to help their future planning, marketing, and training of their volunteer workforce. In so doing, they will be better placed to attract a wider range of women volunteers within their sport.

Rob Burrow and Kevin Sinfield are iconic Leeds Rhinos ex-rugby league players. In recent years they have collectively engaged in charitable work for the motor neurone disease (MND), a condition Rob was diagnosed with in 2019. One of their recent challenges was to participate in the ‘Run For All’ 2022 Leeds 10K road race. Kevin pushed Rob around the course in an adapted wheelchair. This kind of ‘assisted running’ has only recently become permissible in road race events. In this paper we present a commentary on the position of Rob and, by implication, Kevin in the ‘Run For All’ Leeds 10K as a symbol of contemporary discourse about disability and sports participation in society. Specifically, we consider the following questions: 1) What does it mean to be included and participate in sport? 2) How does the visibility of Rob in this event challenge the disability/ability binary? And 3) What role do non-disabled allies play in shaping perceptions of their disabled counterparts in sport? By exploring these questions, we contend that it should not matter that Rob and Kevin took on different roles, moved in different ways, and received different kinds of support. These facets of their collective participation signal the possibilities that open up when consideration is given to the ‘normality of doing things differently’. In concluding we argue that Rob and Kevin’s participation in the Leeds 10K represents the possibilities of what road races can become if some of the taken for granted conventions in sport are reconsidered.

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.

Researching the intersection of class, race, gender, sexuality and disability raises many issues for educational research. Indeed, Maynard (2002, 33) has recently argued that ‘difference is one of the most significant, yet unresolved, issues for feminist and social thinking at the beginning of the twentieth century’. This paper reviews some of the key imperatives of working with ‘intersectional theory’ and explores the extent to these debates are informing research around difference in education and Physical Education (PE). The first part of the paper highlights some key issues in theorising and researching intersectionality before moving on to consider how difference has been addressed within PE. The paper then considers three ongoing challenges of intersectionality – bodies and embodiment, politics and practice and empirical research. The paper argues for a continued focus on the specific context of PE within education for its contribution to these questions.

© 2021 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This paper focuses on part of a research project that considers women’s sports volunteering experiences. Specifically, we draw on interview data with four women boxing volunteers. Research focusing on boxing and gender has largely been preoccupied with the politics of women’s inclusion in competitive boxing, media coverage, and women boxers’ gendered identities. Less attention is given to women who volunteer within boxing clubs. Theoretically we use feminist-queer thinking, which challenges structural constraints whilst incorporating post-structural and queer deconstructive approaches towards understanding the gendered body. To re-present the women’s accounts we offer a story, ‘The boxing gym: A women’s volunteering story’, and discuss three themes: women as an exception in boxing; women having to prove themselves; and women’s sense of belonging within their boxing community. Our closing remarks highlight the precarious position of women volunteers in boxing and reiterate their role as pivotal constituents in sustaining the future of boxing communities.

The authors report on findings from part of a larger research project ‘Gender in Volunteering Research’ (GiVR). Data were collected from 24 women volunteers in 3 contexts—cycling, parkrun, and the broader field of leisure to explore the ways these women volunteer— including a consideration of the key challenges they face and how they overcome them. By taking a gendered analysis and drawing on feminist middle ground thinking, the authors extend current qualitative research within volunteering. Findings suggest the en/gendering of volunteering is evident within volunteer organisations through the ways in which gender influences the roles and volunteering experiences within these settings. Personal circumstances also mediate the en/gendering of volunteering and the women in this study were aware of how they needed to negotiate these so they could continue their volunteer activities. The authors highlight the need for sport organisations to be more caring and interested in their volunteers’ lives and circumstances.

This paper explores the physical activity experiences of a group of women based in England, and who are over the age of 30. This particular age group represent a ‘forgotten’ age, that is, they are largely ignored in academic scholarship, policy and physical activity provision. The paper explores how this group of women ‘re/engaged’ in physical activity after a sustained period of inactivity. The study is situated in a weekly football initiative (Monday Night Footy) based in the north of England, managed and organised by a group of women for women to train and play five-a-side football. Data were generated through semi-structured interviews and the use of photo-biographical boards with 11 women, all of whom are regular participants to the football sessions. We use a middle ground feminist lens and Archer’s notion of ‘fr/agility’ to help make sense of the women’s experiences. From these women’s stories three key findings emerge: (a) Biographies of (in)activity – the ways in which relationships with physical activity can be characterised by fractures and fissures despite seemingly positive early physical activity experiences; (b) Pathways of re/engagement – the motives and enablers to these women once again participating in physical activity after a sustained absence; and (c) Monday Night Footy as a space for re/engagement – the ways in which this context contributes to these women’s continued involvement in football and broader physical activity. The paper concludes by offering policy makers and physical activity providers some recommendations alongside considerations for future research.

Our ‘Belonging Framework’ is designed for those working in sports organisations. Evidence-informed, grounded in lived experiences, and created from a significant body of research from an internationally leading team of researchers in this area, its purpose is to move our thinking, conversations, and actions from a compliance or transactional approach to one that is more transformative and person-centred. Its value is in reframing the issue of inclusion, challenging our thinking and shifting our sense of responsibility through a focus on four anchors. Feeling Seen - Recognising individuals for both their performance and the unique life experiences they bring to the workplace. It’s about celebrating diversity in all its forms and ensuring people see themselves reflected across roles and leadership in the organisation. Feeling Heard: Providing employees with opportunities to voice their ideas and concerns, and then acting on them. Open, transparent dialogue in safe spaces is essential for driving meaningful change. Feeling Known: Employees want to be understood as unique individuals, with opportunities to connect meaningfully across teams and levels. Holistic understanding of both their professional roles and life outside work is key. Feeling Valued: Knowing your work and authentic self are respected, celebrated, and needed. A supportive culture that prioritises growth, development, and work-life balance is critical.

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.

Covering a range of topics that lend themselves quite naturally to existentialist analysis - crime and deviance as becoming and will, the existential openness of symbolic exchange, the internal conversations that take place within criminal ...

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.

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

Purpose: Disabled young people are at a substantially increased risk of obesity, together with an increased risk of developing serious health conditions. A lack of current provision, guidelines and data on effective weight management programmes serve to maintain this health inequality. The aim of this research was to explore and understand the weight management programme experiences of disabled young people and key stakeholders within a special school setting. This insight addresses a clear gap in the literature and provides a better understanding of how more suitable programmes can be developed.  Methods: Conducting a systematic review provided a transparent and reliable synthesis of existing weight management programmes and focused on disabled young people with obesity. Following the systematic review, the main primary research was undertaken and underpinned by a qualitative approach to data collection. This explored how a group of 11 disabled young people aged 10-12 years, their parents, school staff and service staff experienced a special school-based weight management programme in England. Innovative data collection techniques of repeat semi-structured interviews, scaffolding techniques and visual aids captured insights before, during and after the programme. Thematic analysis enabled the interpretation of participants’ experiences.  Findings: The findings of the systematic review demonstrated a clear need for further qualitative-orientated research focusing on weight management programmes for disabled young people. The review also demonstrated the need to consider additional outcomes independent of effects on adiposity or weight status. The qualitative research offered a unique contribution into how multiple stakeholders experienced a weight management programme. Specifically, findings revealed an increased awareness of healthy eating, more physical activity, dietary changes, social exposure and wider, longer-term effects in school. The findings from this research highlighted features that other providers could incorporate into the development and delivery of future weight management interventions for disabled young people. These features include programme adaptations that accommodate the ii specific needs of disabled young people and reframing the focus away from weight data in favour of other noteworthy outcomes. Similarly, valuing the individual personality and prior knowledge of practitioners, and recognising the need to involve parents and family life were highlighted as being fundamental to effective implementation and could be utilised in future delivery.  Conclusions: This research provides new insight and evidence that disabled young people and stakeholders working together can begin to address inequalities. The findings may have important implications for health services, practitioners and policy-makers in facilitating and developing more suitable and inclusive public health interventions, to better meet the needs of disabled young people.

Working within the Centre for Social Justice in Sport and Society (CSJ) at Leeds Beckett University, UK, has provided opportunities for the authorship team to work with sports organisations on issues of equity, diversity and inclusion. What has become increasingly apparent is the need to conceive inclusion in ways that move beyond issues of access and participation, a policy or targeted programme. What emerges across our research projects is the significance of belonging to inclusion. Within this paper we offer insights into the embodiment of belonging through four processes – feeling seen, heard, valued and known which form our ‘Anchors of Belonging’ framework. We bring each anchor to life using examples from the CSJ’s research portfolio. We pose several reflective questions organisations might use as a guide to leverage the anchors and adopt a more proactive ­person-centred approach to create an inclusive environment for their workforce.