Showing papers in "Sport Education and Society in 2002"

'It's All About Getting Respect': The Coaching Behaviors of an Expert English Soccer Coach

Abstract: In light of the paucity of research addressing the critical concerns of social interaction at the micro level of the coaching process, this study aimed to generate an in-depth understanding of the coaching behaviours utilized by a top-level English football coach. A mixed-method approach was used to not only identify the pedagogical behaviours used by the subject in the practice environment, but to also generate an in-depth insight into the rationales that underpinned their use. Using the concepts of 'social role', 'power' and 'the presentation of the self' [E. Goffman (1959) The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (Garden City, Doubleday)] to analyse the data, it is suggested that the subject's coaching practice was influenced by his perceived need to establish a strong social bond between himself and his players; a bond founded on the players' respect for his professional knowledge and personal manner.

Pedagogical work and the 'cult of the body': considering the role of HPE in the context of the 'new public health'.

Abstract: Physical education, now often explicitly identified with health in contemporary school curricula, continues to be implicated in the (re)production of the 'cult of the body'. We argue that HPE is a form of health promotion that attempts to 'make' healthy citizens of young people in the context of the 'risk society'. In our view there is still work to be done in understanding how and why physical education (as HPE) continues to be implicated in the reproduction of values associated with the cult of body. We are keen to understand why HPE continues to be ineffective in helping young people gain some measure of analytic and embodied 'distance' from the problematic aspects of the cult of the body. This paper offers an analysis of this enduring issue by using some contemporary analytic discourses including 'governmentality', 'risk society' and the 'new public health'.

Physical Education Teachers in their Figurations: A Sociological Analysis of Everyday 'Philosophies'

Abstract: This paper seeks to explain the socio-genesis of PE teachers' 'Philosophical' (or, rather, ideological) orientations from a sociological (specifically, figurational) perspective. Starting from the premise that such 'philosophies' cannot be adequately explained by studying either the ideas themselves or the teacher (him or herself) in isolation, it argues that PE teachers' everyday 'philosophies', and the underlying ideologies therein, can only be fully understood when teachers are located in the figurations they form with each other--as inescapably interdependent people. Two salient dimensions of the figurations of PE teachers are identified as their deeply-rooted attachments and associated convictions (e.g. towards the value of sport) and their practice of PE or, more precisely, the constraints circumscribing their practice. It is claimed that whilst various social processes (such as medicalization and professionalization) may well prove to be motors that drive psychical change towards health and academi...

Developing citizenship through sport : the impact of a sport-based volunteer programme on young sport leaders

Abstract: The Millennium Volunteers (MV) is a nation-wide government initiative designed to encourage citizenship in young people by providing opportunities to volunteer their time in the community for the benefit of themselves and others. This paper examines an MV programme focused solely on sport that sets out to provide training and support for young sport leaders to do volunteer work in their schools and the community. The rationale behind this study is to describe the psycho-social characteristics of young sport leaders (males = 138; females = 168; mean age = 16.6 years) from across England who were involved in the programme. Assessments were made on their motives and attitudes to volunteer work and their perceptions of leadership skills over a nine-month period. Overall results showed that leadership skills and volunteer motivations increased while the importance of and attraction to volunteering also changed over time. Providing a profile of young sport leaders and a measure of the impact of their volunteer ...

African American Racial Identity and Sport

Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to attempt to synthesize and apply African American racial identity theory and related research to the development of sport and physical activity patterns and preferences in African American youth. Historically the African American over-representation in particular sports phenomena has been examined genetically, anthropocentrically, physiologically, sociologically, and psychologically. The profusion of explanations is a testimony to the complexity of this phenomena. This manuscript provides yet another compelling perspective. Cross ((1995) The psychology of Nigrescence: revising the Cross Model, in: J.G. PONTEROTTO et al. (Eds) Handbook of Multicultural Counseling (Thousand Oaks, CA, Sage)) outlines the metamorphic process whereby African Americans 'become Black'. This is a developmental process in which African Americans develop a manner of thinking about and evaluating themselves in terms of being 'Black'. This paper examines the Cross model of African American racial identity development and gives theoretical implications for the development of sport and physical activity in African American youth.

'It's Only the Sissies …': Analysis of Teaching and Learning Processes in Physical Education: A Contribution to the Hidden Curriculum

Abstract: The article is a discussion and an analysis of an event observed in a critical classroom study on teaching and learning in physical education. It demonstrates how sociocultural discourses are embedded in children's and teachers' discursive practices [Fairclough (1992) Discourse and Social Change (Cambridge, Polity Press)] in the classroom, how discourses of physical education and discourses of gender relations are connected, and how these construct and are constructed by the social structures of the physical education lesson, and influence students' learning. Using the notion of situated learning [Lave & Wenger (1991) Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press); Wenger (1998) Community of Practice: Learning, Meaning, and Identity (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press)], the paper analyses how discourses in the physical education setting influence children's learning processes, and points to the different meanings the discursive practices observed in the ...

Up Close and Personal on Physical Education Teachers' Identity: Is Conflict an Issue?

Abstract: Much of the research on teachers' work is informed by role theory that assumes teachers' identity is largely ascribed. When there are inconsistencies in teachers' and others' expectations for different occupational roles such as physical education teacher and sports coach, 'role conflict' is said to occur. This study sought to investigate if role conflict was a major concern for Australian physical education teacher/coaches. Findings, informed by case studies with five teacher/coaches, challenge the assumption that moving between professional responsibilities causes role conflict. Rather, in moving across contexts, the physical education teachers managed inconsistencies in ways that resulted in positive and rewarding work experiences.

Lifelong participation, physical education and the work of Ken Roberts.

Abstract: A broad consensus has emerged in recent years in relation to the desirability of one particular purpose for physical education (PE); namely, the promotion of lifelong participation in sport and physical activity. This paper represents an attempt to rectify what is taken to be the relative failure of those investigating (whilst typically advocating) lifelong participation through PE to make use of a sociological perspective on leisure, youth cultures and sport. More specifically, it brings the seminal work of someone often referred to as a 'founding father' of the field, Ken Roberts, to bear on the topic, on the premise that any study of young people's propensity towards ongoing involvement in sport and physical activity needs to be viewed as an aspect of their lives 'in the round' and that, in this regard, Roberts' contribution is especially important. The paper argues that among a number of lessons to be learned from Roberts' work over the last decade or so is that sports participation--contrary to the c...

Developing Physical Education as a 'Connective Specialism': Is Sport Education the Answer?

Abstract: This paper addresses the challenge identified by Penney and Chandler [(2000) Physical education: what future(s)? Sport, Education and Society, 5(1), pp. 71-87] for physical education to develop as a 'connective specialism' [Young (1998) The Curriculum of the Future: From the 'New Sociology of Education' to a Critical Theory of Learning (London, Falmer Press)], characterised by a commitment to engage with the complex contexts in which knowledge gained in physical education might be applied. It specifically examines the extent to which 'Sport Education' [Siedentop (1994) Sport Education: Quality PE through Positive Sport Experience (Champaign, IL, Human Kinetics)] can be regarded as a curriculum and pedagogical framework that has the potential to facilitate the development of physical education as a connective specialism. The concepts of 'situated learning' and 'legitimate peripheral participation' previously employed by Kirk and Macdonald [(1998) Situated learning in physical education , Journal of Teachin...

Physical Education as a Subject in France (School Curriculum, Policies and Discourse): The Body and the Metaphors of the Engine--Elements Used in the Analysis of a Power and Control System during the Second Industrial Revolution

Abstract: An analysis of several works by people who contributed greatly to the development of physical education in France from the middle of the nineteenth century to the 1960s enables us to pinpoint the rules underlying the specialized language used in this field and the metaphorical and mythological systems that were set up as systems of control over the body. Among these images, it is particularly interesting to examine how 'man' came to be seen in terms of a steam engine, then as a machine, and even more generally as a humanized form of 'productivity'.

Ethics of Drug Testing in Sport-An Invasion of Privacy Justified?

Abstract: Though agencies, such as the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport and the Australian Sports Drug Agency, argue that much effort is being directed toward educating athletes about the virtues of fair play, the risks of drug use, and the ethics of cheating, the primary focus of government led initiatives is catching cheaters through testing. As a result, a decade following the inaugural Canadian Inquiry random drug testing is an accepted part of the culture of elite sport and is recognised as the most powerful deterrent for prospective abusers. As public confidence rests implicitly upon testing as the best and only direct means to establish a fair level of competition, it is perhaps not surprising that little attention is given to the ethical implications of testing as an invasion of privacy. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the ethical implications of testing athletes for the use of banned substances and determine if the current course of action is a morally justified suspension of privacy.

The Pictorial Representation of Gender and Physical Activity Level in Caldecott Medal Winning Children's Literature (1940-1999): A Relational Analysis of Physical Culture

Abstract: The pictorial representation of physical activity and gender over three time periods is investigated in Caldecott Medal winning children's literature. Relational analysis and recent national position documents on physical activity are used to frame an interdependent relationship between current levels of physical activity among children and the various institutionalized forms of physical culture with which they interact. Fifty-seven Caldecott Medal winning books were analyzed. Frequency counts were recoded for each book in four categories: (1) females engaged in sedentary roles, (2) females engaged in active roles, (3) males engaged in sedentary roles and (4) males engaged in active roles. A 2 (gender) 2 2(activity level) 2 3 (time period) factorial ANOVA adjusted for nonormally distributed data was used to test frequency of pictorial representation. Results indicate the illustrations in Caldecott Medal literature are a poor media for communicating a physically active lifestyle to children while at the sa...