ABSTRACT
Today, co-education is a common feature of physical education schooling in many countries. However, in a historical perspective this was not the case until fairly recently. A body of research indicates that the transition from gender separate to mixed classes has not been easy. To some extent, traditional gender patterns are still prevalent in the subject. In Sweden, teachers are actually assigned to counteract these patterns. But how can they, since many of them are either unaware of any traditional gender patterns, or cannot see the point in trying to change them? In this chapter, critical performative pedagogy, a pedagogical approach aiming at changing the current subjectivation of femininity and masculinity in physical education through embodied exploration (i.e., in movement activities), is offered as one way to move forward. Inspired by Pirkko Markula's work on Pilates (Markula, 2008), the author outlines, through examples from his own work as physical education teacher educator, how a critical performative pedagogy can be used by teachers in physical education as a means to fashion a non-repressive teaching in a way that the subject can be relevant to all students.
