Sostenibilidad de la deuda pública

2.3.1 PHYSICAL EDUCATION REINFORCING GENDER NORMS

PE is a routine part of most New Zealanders’ education15. The term ‘healthism’ has been used with reference to PE, which is where an individual is capable of (thus in charge of, and accountable for) forming their own ideas about health and physical well-being and activity (Culpan, 2005). One of the limitations with the healthism argument is that it fails to account for the influential effect that the classroom teacher can have on the environment, and therefore the student (Culpan & Grant, 2007). Hence, as noted by Fitzpatrick (2011), the PE classroom can be a place where teachers inadvertently reinforce socially accepted norms by monitoring and structuring how young people dress, move and behave (p.39), and perhaps think. The section below speaks to some of the challenges that may be experienced within the PE classroom, with a focus on girls.

2.3.2 THE IDEAL BODY

Adolescence is a particularly difficult time to negotiate, due to changes in body shape. Many practices in PE can have an adverse effect on how students view their bodies, and this can lead to negative evaluations of their own, and others’ bodies (Burrows, 2008). Many discourses around what the ‘ideal’ body is, are normalised, and sometimes reinforced in the PE classroom (Garrett, 2004), with girls more so than boys, feeling the pressure to be the ‘ideal’ (Burrows, 2008); the ideal being slim and athletic. Young women become acutely aware that they are being evaluated, via assessment, and that their bodies are on show (Azzarito, 2009; Azzarito & Solomon, 2005; Cockburn & Clarke, 2002; Fitzpatrick, 2011c; Garrett, 2004; Krane, 2001). Using

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the example of swimming, this awareness of being on show, has seen many girls opt out of the activity, and some schools no longer have swimming as a module, or run this module separating out boys and girls. The PE class can also be challenging as girls become aware of societal pressures placed upon them about ways to behave, or what is expected of them.

2.3.3 BEHAVING LIKE A GIRL

In 1980, a seminal article was published entitled, ‘Throwing like a Girl: A Phenomenology of Feminine Body Comportment Motility and Spatiality’ by Young. In the article Young (1980), in contesting notions of femininity within a Western cultural context, argued that women experience their bodies differently as they assume femininity; females can thus also learn to experience their bodies in the limited ways that society regards as feminine (Krane, 2001; Young, 1980). Young states that ‘the more a girl assumes her status as feminine, the more she takes herself to be fragile and immobile and the more she enacts her own body inhibition’ (1980, p. 153).

As physical prowess is often considered the domain of men, Cleary (2000) concludes sport can be seen to be masculine and as such, PE has also been associated with masculinity. For young women, negotiating femininity within a sphere that is still largely considered to be masculine, can be difficult (Hills, 2007). Krane (2001, p. 116) suggests that females often police themselves in this regard, which thus emphasises the perceived importance of balancing perceptions of masculine athleticism and feminine appearance.

Within the perceived masculine space of the PE classroom, girls are considered to be oppressed by boys. Boys’ competitive and aggressive behaviour means that girls actually shy away from the traditional competitive, typically male-dominated activities that are often played in class (Azzarito & Solomon, 2005). Such traditional activities are thought to reinforce a gender order through male dominance (Cockburn & Clarke, 2002). In support of this Okely et al., (2011), claims that girls cite boys’ ‘dominating’ behaviours as a reason for non-participation, stating they want the opportunity to

choose more non-traditional activities such as yoga in PE. However, these authors fail to consider those girls who are also competitive by nature (Constantinou, Manson, & Silverman, 2009).

It is important that suggest that feminism third wave should focus on exploring power relations with reference to gender (Azzarito & Solomon, 2005, p. 29). Despite the masculine sphere of the PE classroom and the dominating nature of boys, within the safe learning space of a PE classroom, oppositional and hierarchical gendered and racial constructs can be destabilised (Azzarito, 2009, p. 35).

In summary, while teachers can reinforce socially accepted norms, for example, gender norms, this does little to account for the agency of students. Hence, a more balanced perspective, or perhaps a middle ground to Fitzpatrick’s (2011) idea, is the notion that PE teachers have the opportunity to facilitate analytical thinking skills in young people, enabling them to become critical consumers (Smith, 2011) of, for example, the ideal body and ways to behave (see Azzarito, 2009; Brady, 2005; Huggins & Randell, 2007). PE could indeed be central to reconceptualising issues surrounding the bodies and their display. It has the potential to be a transformative space where, as the HPE Curriculum (2007) intends, a broader sense of self, and others, occurs. The section to follow looks more widely at this issue of Sport and PE as having the power to transform.

2.4 SPORT AND PHYSICAL EDUCATION FOR DEVELOPMENT: REFLECTING