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].