Gender and Physical Education Contemporary Issues and Future Directions

Research by sports historians and sociologists show that many of the games and sports continuing to be part of the PE curriculum were created to promote and maintain dominant forms of femininity and masculinity. This book offers a critical and comprehensive commentary on issues relating to gender in PE and teacher education and challenges our understandings of gender, equity and identity in PE. Presenting a wealth of original research it delivers a comprehensive overview of the progress and shortcomings of contemporary policies and practice in PE as they relate to gender, and reflects on the similarities and differences between developments in the UK, US and Australia.

Gender and Physical Education offers a critical and comprehensive commentary on issues relating to gender in PE and teacher education. The book challenges our understandings of gender, equity and identity in PE, establishing a conceptual and historical foundation for the issue, as well as presenting a wealth of original research material. The book delivers a critical analysis of the progress and shortcomings pf contemporary policies and practice in PE as they relate to gender, and reflects on the similarities and differences between developments in the UK, US and Australia. It also offers a new framework for research, policy and practice with a view to advancing gender equity, and addresses the roles that teachers, educators and policy makers can play in challenging existing inequalities. Gender and Physical Education is important reading for students and lecturers in education, teacher educators and providers of continuing professional development in PE, and anybody concerned with gender issues in education, PE or sport.

Part One: Setting the Agenda 1. Introduction 2. Talking Gender 3. Physical Education: A Gendered History Part Two: Gender Agents 4. Difference Matters: Sexuality and Physical Education 5. Muslim Women in Teacher Training: Issues of Gender 6. Gender Positioning as Pedagogical Practice in Teaching Physical Education Part Three: Gender and Physical Education: Policies and Practice 7. Gendered Policies 8. Gender, Health and Physical Education 9. Understanding Girls' Experience of Physical Education: Relational Analysis and Situated Learning Part Four: Extending Gender Agendas in Physical Education 10. Gender Equality and Physical Education: A USA Perspective 11. Physical Education Teacher Education: Sites of Progress or Resistance 12. Extending Agendas: Physical Culture Research for the Twenty First Century