social class within physical activity

How Social Class Effects Children’s Participation In Physical Activity

When I was teaching physical education during my second year school placement, all my classes had a variety of different social classes. Many of the students were from the middle class or lower class. Almost everyone in the school played football or some team based sport as the school was a very football orientated school. However, students from a lower socio-economic background often only participated in these team based sports in the school. I noticed that when I was doing invasion games with my students that they were all familiar with the games. In contrast, when I was doing dance there were only two students who had done dance before outside of school. These two students were from a very wealthy background. When doing dance all the students enjoyed dance. One student came up to me and said to me that he really enjoyed dance and that he would like to do more of it. I asked if he would join a dance club and he said that there were none close to him. His social economic had interfered with him taking part in dance outside of school.

The main findings around children’s social class and their participation in physical activity, indicate that students from a “higher socio-economic status take part in more physical activity.” (Wanless, 2004, p.99). This is to do with them having more opportunities to part take in physical activity. It also states that “people with a higher level of final education were less likely to drop out of sport, having been more likely to take it up in the first place” (Kay 2003, p.248). An interesting study that you can look at here   http://repository.edgehill.ac.uk/8962/1/Wheeler,%20Green%20and%20Thurston.docx shows clearly that the higher social class bracket you are in the more sports are available to you. The middle class in this study have more sports available to them. They are also introduced to a wide variety of sports by their parents who invest in their children’s physical activity opportunities. “This inevitably gives the sons (especially) and daughters of the middle-classes a head start in curricular and extra-curricular PE and further-reinforces the already greater social and cultural benefits of being middle-class” (Green, 2008, p.164) according to a study by Philip White (McMaster University) 

William McTeer (Wilfrid Laurier University) “As the child grows older, however, the presence of specialist teachers in middle and high schools and the availability of more and better sports opportunities and facilities may create more and less costly opportunities for involvement. This would suggest that SES effects on sport involvement would decline with age.” (White and McTeer, 2012) This tells us as physical educators that it is our job to close the social class gap and introduce all students to a wide variety of sports.

In the future, I would start teaching physical education through football as it is classless in regardless of social class. This would build relationships within my class and form a common ground amongst the students. then I would quickly move away from the traditional sports such as soccer, basketball and rugby. I would move more towards gymnastics, dance, volleyball, badminton and HRA to give the students a taste of the wide variety of sports there are out there. This might allow a student from a lower socio-economic background gain experience in a sport they might not have otherwise been exposed to. I would also include how to adapt games so the students could play them at home or with their friends if they didn’t have all the equipment needed. I think I will set up an after-school activity class for my students once a week and each week we will introduce the students to a new sport or activity.

References

White, P. and McTeer, W. (2012). Socioeconomic Status and Sport Participation at Different Developmental Stages during Childhood and Youth: Multivariate Analyses Using Canadian National Survey Data. Sociology of Sport Journal, 29(2), pp.186-209.

Wheeler, S., Green, K. and Thurston, M. (2017). Social class and the emergent organised sporting habits of primary-aged children. European Physical Education Review, pp.1356336X1770609.

Gender Blog

Gender issues within Physical Education

My experience of gender issues in Physical education on teaching practice.

I was on teaching practice in an all-boys school so gender issues amongst boys and girls was not an issue within the school. However, there was an issue related to the stereotypes of boys. Everyone in the school felt that they had to be good at football. Students felt left out if they were not good at or participated in football related activities. Boys who are not of the competitive, physically vigorous nature are being excluded from physical education and extra-curricular physical education (Wright, 1996).  When I was teaching gymnastics to my first years I noticed a higher participation of less able students. I had one student in particular come up to me and ask could we do gymnastics from now on as he didn’t want to go back to playing soccer every week. I noticed that everyone was starting from the same point so everyone participated to the best of their ability and did not feel lesser than anyone else in the class.

Key messages and learning from lectures and tutorial readings

I learned that Physical education “remains the most sex-differentiated and stereotyped subject on the school curriculum” (Green, 2008, p.137). I also learned that the gender gap between participation becomes even bigger when you move from physical education class to extracurricular physical activities. Even when physical education is presented as an exam subject the participation of boys is much greater than that of girls. According to a study conducted on GCSE physical education and the embodiment of gender, some of the major factors that contributed to girls not participating in physical education were that they felt uncomfortable preforming on front of boys. The study also showed that girls that did not choose physical education as a subject enjoyed keeping fit, but just not in a physical education setting as they seen it as being dominated by competitive team games. (Velija & Kumar, 2009) One theory that was posed to us in the lecture is that girls simply like sport less than boys (Roberts 1996).

What I would do going forward as a future educator

Going forward as a future educator I would allow my students to wear whatever they felt comfortable in to Physical education class, as reported by Williams and Bedward (2002) that many girls in their study were unhappy with their PE kit. I would also modify my games so that they include everyone and nobody gets left behind. For example, I would make a rule that maybe everyone must touch the ball before scoring of different points awarded to scoring for girls and boys like tag rugby. Going forward as a future physical education teacher I would move away from traditional games as by doing this everyone would be starting from the same skill level and this would remove the idea of boys dominating the games. Research by Flintoff and Scraton (2006) suggests that it is also appropriate to take action aimed at acknowledging and celebrating difference, promoting separate forms of physical education and sport for girls such as indigenous movement forms, aerobics and dance, where this is deemed to be appropriate to specific cultural and religious values I would also try incorporating many self-paced, non-competitive activities as then girls would not feel pressured by boys who were more able and everyone could progress at their own pace.

References

Velija, P. and Kumar, G. (2009). GCSE physical education and the embodiment of gender. Sport, Education and Society, 14(4), pp.383-399.

Scanlon, D. (2018). Gender week 3 lecture.

Empowering Girls and Women through Physical Education and Sport. (2018). [ebook] UNESCO Asia and Pacific Regional Bureau for Education Mom Luang Pin Malakul Centenary Building 920 Sukhumvit Road, Prakanong, Klongtoey Bangkok 10110, Thailand. Available at: https://www.un.org/sport/sites/www.un.org.sport/files/ckfiles/files/UNESCO_Advocacy_Brief_Empowering-Girls_2012_EN.pdf [Accessed 14 Feb. 2018].

Week 2 Blog 1

After my first two weeks of this module, I am beginning to understand the purpose of the module. By the end of this module, I hope to be a more well rounded Physical educator that caters for the interests and abilities for all students in my class not just only the elite athletes or "sporty" students. When I was on TP, I did not take into consideration that all my students may not like the topic I was teaching. Going forward I would like to try and cater for all my students. I expect my lecturer to be on time for my lectures and to be prepared for lectures and tutorial. I expect the tutorials to be as helpful as possible towards facilitating learning and towards achieving our good grades. After this module, I expect to be able to relate current issues to sociological theories. I hope to be a more understanding teacher. I commit to be self motivated and responsible. I expect that this module will be strongly reliant on teamwork and that it will take full participation for the module to be successful. I commit to obeying by the PESS policy. I commit to participate with effort in this module and to help other who are struggling whenever I can. I commit to seeking help when I do not know what to do.  I commit to submitting all my work on time and to the best of my ability. I commit to attending all lectures and tutorials faithfully.