Heterotopias in physical education: towards a queer pedagogy?

Abstract

PostprintThis is the accepted version of a paper published in Gender and Education. This paper has been peerreviewed but does not include the final publisher proof-corrections or journal pagination.Citation for the original published paper (version of record):Larsson, H., Quennerstedt, M., Öhman, M. (2014) Heterotopias in physical education: towards a queer pedagogy?. Gender and Education AbstractThis article sets out to outline how prevailing gender structures can be challenged in physical education (PE) by exploring queer potentials in an event that took place during a dancing lesson in an upper secondary physical education class. The event and its features were documented through video recording and post-lesson interviews with the teacher and some of the students. It is argued that the event can be seen as a heterotopia, according to Michel Foucault a 'counter-site' enabling the resistance to authority, where the production of normalcy was challenged. Further, even though the event happened spontaneously, the authors suggest that it can show a way towards a queer pedagogy for PE through teaching paradoxically; it indicates a preferred ethos of the lesson and the use of conceptual tools by teachers and students that make them able to intervene in the production of normalcy.

Joy, fear and resignation: investigating emotions in physical education using a symbolic interactionist approach

“…He claims that ideologies 'appear materially in the embodied, the vocal, the experiential' (p. 116) and suggests that people cannot escape the social and institutional positions that they occupy. While we appreciate the cultural embeddedness of interaction, we leave agentic room open for people to employ resources in the novel or unexpected ways, a decision based on previous research observations (see Larsson, Quennerstedt, & Öhman, 2014). In this respect, we agree with Nguyen and Janssens (2019) who suggest that context is both the project and product of the participants' actions.…”

What did they learn in school today? A method for exploring aspects of learning in physical education

“…By focusing on actions, this approach makes it possible to take issues of power relations in the learning situation into account, which involves adding a theory of power to the sociocultural learning theory (see, for example, Wertsch, 1998). In this way we complement situated approaches with a clear involvement of individual experiences in our studies, and didactique approaches by also involving issues of power as well as wider social, cultural and structural influences on the learning situation (for empirical examples see, Larsson et al, 2014;Quennerstedt et al, 2014).…”

Physical education and the art of teaching: transformative learning and teaching in physical education and sports pedagogy

“…As indicated initially, I see hope for physical education in, for example, activist, appreciative, paradoxical and participatory approaches (Enright, Hill, Sandford, & Gard, 2014;Enright & O'Sullivan, 2010;Larsson et al, 2014;Luguetti et al, 2017;Oliver & Hamzeh, 2010;Oliver & Kirk, 2016). Other apt examples are the work on meaningful physical education (Fletcher, Ní Chróinín, Price, & Francis, 2018;Ní Chróinín, Fletcher, & O'Sullivan, 2018), social justice (Azzarito, Macdonald, Dagkas, & Fisette, 2017), or pedagogical cases such as those introduced by Armour (2014).…”