Göran Gerdin

‘This book offers one of the first in-depth explorations of social justice pedagogies in physical education (PE) from a student perspective. Based on rich qualitative research, it highlights how school PE can support the physical, cognitive, emotional and social development of young people and contribute to building more socially cohesive and just societies. Placing student perspectives at the heart of the analysis, the book challenges dominant practices in PE and explores how inclusive and equitable teaching can be developed in collaboration with students. It defines key terms such as ‘inclusion’, ‘equity’ and ‘critical pedagogy’ and provides practical guidance for creating meaningful learning environments that reflect these values. The book explores key themes including student interpretation of PE experience, the importance of care and relationships and the use of modified and non-traditional activities and spaces. It shows how PE can be transformed into a site of empowerment by centering the agency of young people. This is invaluable reading for trainee and in-service teachers who want to create more inclusive and socially just pedagogical practices grounded in the lived experiences of students.

This book makes the case that school Health and Physical Education (HPE) can make a unique contribution to young people’s physical, emotional and social health outcomes when teachers of HPE engage in pedagogies for social justice that emphasise inclusion, democracy and equity. Drawing on observations and teacher interviews across Sweden, Norway and New Zealand, the book explores successful school teaching practices that promote social justice and equitable health outcomes. In particular, it draws attention to the importance of building relationships, teaching for social cohesion and explicitly teaching about and acting on social inequities as pedagogies for social justice. The book also argues that context matters and that pedagogies for social justice need to recognise how both approaches to, and focus on, social justice vary in different contexts. This is essential reading for academics and students interested in social justice and working in the fields of education, HPE and teacher education.

This book makes the case that school Health and Physical Education (HPE) can make a unique contribution to young people’s physical, emotional and social health outcomes when teachers of HPE engage in pedagogies for social justice that emphasise inclusion, democracy and equity. Drawing on observations and teacher interviews across Sweden, Norway and New Zealand, the book explores successful school teaching practices that promote social justice and equitable health outcomes. In particular, it draws attention to the importance of building relationships, teaching for social cohesion and explicitly teaching about and acting on social inequities as pedagogies for social justice. The book also argues that context matters and that pedagogies for social justice need to recognise how both approaches to, and focus on, social justice vary in different contexts. This is essential reading for academics and students interested in social justice and working in the fields of education, HPE and teacher education.

Using visual ethnography, this book explores the many forms of pleasures that boys derive in and through the spaces and their bodies in physical education. Employing the works of Michel Foucault and Judith Butler, Gerdin examines how pleasure is connected to identity, schooling, and power relations, and demonstrates how discourses of sport, fitness, health and masculinity work together to produce a variety of pleasurable experiences. At the same time, the book provides a critique of such pleasurable experiences within physical education by illustrating how these pleasures can still, for some boys, quickly turn into displeasures and can be associated with exclusion, humiliation, bullying and homophobia. Boys, Bodies, and Physical Education argues that pleasure can both be seen as an educational and productive practice in physical education but also a constraint that both engenders and privileges some boys over others as well as (re)producing narrow and limited conceptions of masculinity and pleasures for all boys. This book works to problematize these pleasures and their articulations with gender, bodies, and spaces.

Using visual ethnography, this book explores the many forms of pleasures that boys derive in and through the spaces and their bodies in physical education. Employing the works of Michel Foucault and Judith Butler, Gerdin examines how pleasure is connected to identity, schooling, and power relations, and demonstrates how discourses of sport, fitness, health and masculinity work together to produce a variety of pleasurable experiences. At the same time, the book provides a critique of such pleasurable experiences within physical education by illustrating how these pleasures can still, for some boys, quickly turn into displeasures and can be associated with exclusion, humiliation, bullying and homophobia. Boys, Bodies, and Physical Education argues that pleasure can both be seen as an educational and productive practice in physical education but also a constraint that both engenders and privileges some boys over others as well as (re)producing narrow and limited conceptions of masculinity and pleasures for all boys. This book works to problematize these pleasures and their articulations with gender, bodies, and spaces.