Creating a Culturally Relevant Curriculum for Disengaged Girls

Abstract

Findings from physical education research conducted over the last two decades suggest that girls' experiences in and perceptions of physical education in many team sport-based programs are less than satisfactory. Team sports taught within a traditional multi-activity format often permit dominant aggressive male players to control the game, marginalizing and alienating low-skilled girls and boys. This paper critiques the circumstances often found in sport based physical education and reports the use of an innovative approach to team-sport curriculum entitled, 'Sport for Peace', to enhance girls' levels of engagement and satisfaction in urban high school physical education. In this research, seven teachers and 15 girls were involved in the curriculum innovation in three urban high schools. Teachers trained and mentored using the curriculum implemented the program in two classes in each school. The implementation process was described using observation protocols and the teachers and girls were interviewed formally at the conclusion of the observation period. Data were analysed using constant comparison. Findings suggested that the Sport for Peace curriculum improved the sport environment for girls by enhancing their perceptions of success, promoting ownership of the sport content and the class processes, creating authentic cooperative environments for boys and girls, and encouraging the use of second chances to promote understanding and learning. Boys' attitudes towards girls' ability and motivation became more positive and girls indicated that they enjoyed participating with boys in these sport programs. The findings were analysed within Ladson-Billings' conceptualization of culturally responsive pedagogy. Article: Creating a Culturally Relevant Curriculum for Disengaged Girls Thinking reflectively and critically about girls' experiences in physical education is essential as we work to create spaces where they can overcome traditional societal role constraints and construct an identity that includes an active, healthy lifestyle. This is particularly true for adolescent girls who are members of oppressed minority ethnic groups (Ogbu, 1994). These girls may not have access to information regarding activity and health and may be unwilling to cross boundaries of expectations constructed within their culture and reinforced by adolescent female and male peers (Connell, 1996). Over the past decade my research has focused on examining the context of physical education classes taught in urban schools in the United States in which the majority culture was African-American. The purpose of this line of research was to investigate how well these physical education programs promoted learning and met the needs of adolescents from diverse cultural backgrounds. Our extensive ethnographic studies examined student and teacher experiences in middle and high school physical education programs in a large urban school district in the eastern United States (e.g.

Overcoming acculturation: physical education recruits' experiences of an alternative pedagogical approach to games teaching

“…For example, traditional practice drills isolate technical skills from relevant perceptual and decision-making skills, in contrast to an authentic games context where all three skills are performed simultaneously ). The traditional approach also allows confident and aggressive males and females to dominate games and excludes girls and less skilled and less confident boys (Ennis 1999).…”

“…This decontextualised approach to practice is not compatible with the aim of developing intelligent, thinking performers, a central theme in physical education curriculum documents worldwide The traditional 'one-way-fits-all' pedagogical approach, which erroneously assumes that one movement pattern acts as an optimal template suitable for all individual learners Schöllhorn et al 2012), is also failing physical education students on a psychological level. Emphasising the mastery of specific techniques in drills and competitive games can sometimes humiliate, marginalise and exclude less gifted and confident individuals (Ennis 1999;Light and Georgakis 2005). In contrast, student-centred, inquiry-based approaches to teaching physical education games such as Teaching Games for Understanding constraints that present a challenge to this desired evolution of physical education teaching 5 approaches.…”

“…Emphasising the mastery of specific techniques in drills and competitive games can sometimes humiliate, marginalise and exclude less gifted and confident individuals (Ennis 1999;Light and Georgakis 2005). In contrast, student-centred, inquiry-based approaches to teaching physical education games such as Teaching Games for Understanding (TGfU) (Bunker and Thorpe 1982), offer viable teaching alternatives more compatible with the development of the cognitive and affective dimensions of the games performer.…”

Understanding Stress and Aggression Behaviors among Urban Youth

“…Significant research suggests that when multiactivity and team-sport curricula dominate PE curriculum, students are more likely to report increases in bullying, teasing, and other aggressive behaviors among classmates [9,11]. Additionally, recent studies indicate that bullying in PE leads to future avoidance of school-based PA for children who have fallen victim to it [12].…”

“…Hoover and colleagues [6] defined bullying as the physical or psychological abuse of an individual. The majority of the studies done in the United States have examined bullying as a subset of aggressive behavior that has potential to cause physical or psychological harm [7].Stress and aggression are of particular concern in urban physical education (PE) given the proliferation of competitive, multi-activity sport-based curricula and the often-limited supervision that takes place in the gymnasium [8][9][10][11]. Significant research suggests that when multiactivity and team-sport curricula dominate PE curriculum, students are more likely to report increases in bullying, teasing, and other aggressive behaviors among classmates [9,11].…”