ABSTRACT
In many respects debate about the question ‘Who is physical education for?’ is not new. Historically, various issues relating to inclusion and equity have provided momentum and focus for research and professional debates in the UK and internationally. Matters such as gender, class, ethnicity and ability remain both pertinent and challenging for physical education policy and practice to address. Inequalities in, for example, post-school participation rates in sport and active leisure, and unacceptable forms of communication including sexist, racist and elitist language and attitudes, continue to prevail in physical education, as in education generally. This is despite considerable efforts over many years to address these things. This chapter reflects the view that there is a need to continue debates about inclusion and equity in physical education and, furthermore, to seek to extend them. What knowledge, skills and understandings are considered of value in physical education and how they are addressed, will always and inevitably have implications for (or will define) whose learning needs and interests are provided for or, in contrast, neglected or overlooked. Thus, questions should be posed of curriculum, pedagogy and assessment from an equity perspective, and none of these aspects of physical education should be considered neutral or independent of the other. A concern with equity recognises that notions of difference are inherently tied to social and cultural values. It prompts us to engage critically with the values and value structures that physical education curriculum, pedagogy and assessment act to reaffirm (see also Hay and Penney, 2011). Our emphasis is, therefore, that decisions about curriculum structure, principles and content, teaching contexts and approaches, and choices about assessment tasks and methods, all have fundamental implications for ‘who will learn what’ in physical education – about movement, physical activity, sport and health, but also, about the individuals, abilities and bodies that are valued in physical education, sport and society. Throughout our discussion we reaffirm that many factors, including political ideologies, institutional histories and traditions, physical resources and many
people (policy-makers, teachers, coaches, parents and pupils themselves) are influential in shaping learning opportunities, experiences and outcomes in physical education. There are no simple or straightforward answers to the questions being addressed in this chapter. The intention is to prompt engagement with the complexities associated with equity and inclusion in physical education and encourage renewed thinking about the challenges and opportunities that physical educators in various arenas face in relation to these issues. In each of the sections that follow, the starting point for debate is an issue that will be familiar to many physical educators. We pose deliberately provocative and challenging questions about various issues and about the ways in which they may typically be perceived and approached by policy-makers, teachers, teacher educators and/ or researchers. We begin by focusing on the issue of gender, but in addressing this, extend discussion to consider intersections (Flintoff et al., 2008) between gender, class, culture and ethnicity. We then turn attention to ability in physical education, and consider the significance of the ways in which ability is conceptualised and enacted in physical education from an equity perspective. Our discussion explores the abilities that are recognised and rewarded in physical education, or in contrast, marginalised and overlooked (Evans, 2004; Penney and lisahunter, 2006) and the implications of particular abilities being privileged over others. Once again, we draw attention to linkages with other equity issues and reaffirm that multiple, interrelated influences, rather than single issues, ultimately define whether or not physical education connects with any individual pupil’s learning needs and interests. The third main section of the chapter brings to the fore social class as an issue that has, with a few exceptions (such as Evans and Davies, 2008), all too often been marginalised in debates and research in physical education. We explore critically ways in which class is embedded and embodied in contemporary physical education curriculum, pedagogy and assessment and how school systems and societies can be seen to reaffirm and legitimate class-based differences in educational opportunities and attainment.
