Social inclusion in multi-ethnic physical education classes: Contextualized understandings of how social relations influence female students’ experiences of inclusion and exclusion

Abstract

Within increasingly diverse societies, school is considered an important arena for social inclusion, as it ensures that all students can participate in social life within and outside the class. The Norwegian national curriculum emphasizes physical education (PE) as a particularly relevant subject for social inclusion, yet studies have revealed that some students experience discrimination and marginalization in PE because of their ethnicity, race, religion, social class, sexuality, and/or gender. This paper aims to examine how female students’ diverse backgrounds influence their positioning among classmates and to investigate how inclusion and exclusion in PE can be understood in light of social relations in multi-ethnic classes. The article is based on an intersectional perspective. The data consist of written fieldnotes and semi-structured interviews from ethnographic fieldwork in two coeducational, multi-ethnic PE classes at a public school in Oslo, Norway. Three female students’ narratives are discussed. The findings reveal that gender was the most significant factor in the girls’ stories of inclusion and exclusion in PE. With regard to ethnic relations, the narratives show that ethnicity intersected with gender, social class, religion, and race, creating hierarchical boundaries in the peer group. However, these boundaries were less prevalent in the girls’ PE experiences. The findings indicate that gender overshadows other differences in PE, making it difficult to see how exclusion is also clustered around other parts of students’ positionalities.

Using physical education lessons to develop the autonomy of primary school children

“…The results of previous studies indicate negative trends in the physical fitness of schoolchildren (Núñez-Quiroga et al, 2018;Fu et al, 2019;Masanovic et al, 2020;Fühner et al, 2021;Oñate Navarrete et al, 2021;Jiang et al, 2021); unwillingness of the majority of schoolchildren to engage in physical culture and sports on a systematic basis (Rodriguez-Ayllon et al, 2019;Goh et al, 2019;Andermo et al, 2020). For example, Guthold et al, 2020 Great attention in the context of our research was paid to works where the role of general developing exercises in primary school is investigated (Taylor et al, 2018;Watson et al, 2019;Cañas Encinas et al, 2021); theoretical views on the use of means for physical education in educationaleducative activities (Chanal et al, 2019;Ledezma, 2019;Quennerstedt, 2019;Masini et al, 2020;Gómez-Álvarez et al, 2021;Thorjussen, 2021;Wassenaar et al, 2021).…”

1. Kritisk blikk på inkludering og mangfold i barn og unges bevegelsesarenaer

“…Det kan dermed virke opplagt at inkludering er idealet på politisk plan i skole, organisert idrett og samfunnet generelt. Men forskning viser at marginalisering og ekskludering av ulike grupper av barn og unge er en tilbakevendende problematikk (Svendby, 2020;Strandbu mfl., 2017;Thorjussen, 2021;Wilhelmsen, 2017). Hvorfor synes inkludering og mangfold så utfordrende å følge opp i praksis?…”

7. Ekskludering i en inkluderende skolefritidsordning

“…For å underbygge dette ytterligere kan det vises til en etter hvert omfattende nasjonal og internasjonal litteratur som belyser hvilken betydning elevers ulike bakgrunner har for inkludering og ekskludering i kroppsøvingsfaget (Gerdin & Pringle, 2022, s. 2). Forskningen viser blant annet at laereplan og praksis i faget i størst grad ser ut til å inkludere elever med bakgrunn i majoritetskulturen (Azzarito, 2016;Barker mfl., 2014;Fitzpatrick, 2013;Stride, 2014;Thorjussen & Sisjord, 2020), elever med bakgrunn fra organisert konkurranseidrett Säfvenbom mfl., 2015), og gutter i større grad enn jenter (Dowling Naess, 2000;Thorjussen, 2021;Walseth mfl., 2018). Selv om forskningen viser hvordan ulike sider ved elevers identitet kan lede til ekskludering i kroppsøving, er ofte årsaksforklaringene de samme: en praksis som preges av et sterkt idretts-og konkurransefokus i kombinasjon med normalitetsdiskurser knyttet til hvem som oppfattes som dyktige elever i faget (Aasland mfl., 2019, s. 489).…”