The aim of this article was to explore how young women with physical impairments make use of technology in their identity construction, drawing on the metaphor of the cyborg as well as on science and technology studies and disability research. In addition to participant observation, semistructural interviews were conducted and video diaries were kept of the women playing sledge hockey, wheelchair basketball, or table tennis. The informants included their wheelchairs in constructing their identities as young women and active subjects. In talking about pleasure and strength, they opposed the discourse that characterizes disabled people as leading empty, tragic lives. They challenge stereotypical notions of gender in sport by displaying determination, strength and risk-taking, while embodying a more traditional femininity when resisting the widespread view of disabled women as non-gendered and asexual.
The aim of this article was to explore, from a gender perspective, how young sporting women with physical impairments experience physical education (PE), and which strategies they use to manage situations that arise in the everyday interaction in connection with those lessons. Phenomenology provides a theoretical framework that includes the body. Ten semistructured interviews were conducted with the women, aged 15-28. In addition, semi-structured interviews were held with three boys, aged between 10 and 15, and with one male coach. Those latter interviews are used in the article as material for comparison. The young women had a strong aspiration to appear normal. However, in relation to PE, the participants highlighted issues dealing with experiences of exclusion and special treatment. It appeared to be difficult for teachers to see these women as the sports-interested youths that they were. The young women used different strategies of resistance. Some of them did not participate in certain aspects of PE, or chose to quit the whole course. To receive a higher grade, another participant showed the teacher her medals from the Swedish national swimming championship, thus stressing her competence. When the women finally described the stigmatization that they had been subjected to, they avoided positioning themselves as victims, by downplaying the seriousness of a discriminatory situation or by using in the interview the word 'we' instead of 'I', thus describing the incident in collective terms. Previous research supports the suggestion that the students' opportunities to show their capacities and strength during PE are dependent on the students' gender. While one of the boys and a male coach gave examples of experiences of more inclusive PE, with a potential to challenge the ablebodied norm within the subject, the gender norm remained unquestioned. ARTICLE HISTORY
This article discusses dis/ability and physical education teacher education (PETE). The aim is twofold. First, I explore how dis/ability is problematised in PETE syllabi from nine Swedish universities. Bacchi's What's the problem represented to be? approach for analysing policy texts is used. The centre of attention thus shifts from a problem and its solution, to how a phenomenon is made into a problem and to the effects of this problematisation. Second, a theoretical framework that corresponds better with the aims of the steering documents advising Swedish compulsory schools and PETE is proposed. In the analysis, two dominant problem representations were discerned. First, pupils with impairment or special needs are constructed as the problem. When pupils with impairment are problematised, they risk being constructed as deviant and marginal in PE. This is reinforced by the fact that, in some cases, the subject is dealt with in only a few pages of text and as part of a single course. Second, power relations, norms or inequality are constructed as the problem. Thus, the focus shifts from the pupils' reduced physical, cognitive or neuropsychiatric ability to the interactions with able-bodied teachers and peers. Bacchi also asks where the silences are in the texts. The notion of disability, caused by social barriers such as inaccessibility and prejudices, is completely missing. Moreover, ableismdiscrimination that favours being able-bodiedis not explicitly dealt with, not even when the syllabi bring up power relations or norms. A change within PETE is required, with inclusive education as the goal. I suggest that both the effects of impairment and ableism, which lead to disabilities, need to be taken into account. Cripistemologiesthat is, the knowledge of disabled peoplewould be useful in this process, as a way to dismantle ableism and appreciate differences.
The aim of this article is to examine how the Swedish Sports Organization for the Disabled (SHIF) portrays disabled people. A text analysis of two policy documents, Disability Sports Policy Programme and Sports Objectives-Summary of Aims and Guidelines for the Sports Movement examines ways in which sports are supposed to affect people's bodies and contribute to society. Counter to its own aim to integrate disabled people, SHIF constructs such people as different and subordinated to able-bodied people, setting up an insurmountable boundary between the two groups.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
customersupport@researchsolutions.com
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.