Materialising bodies: there is nothing more material than a socially constructed body

Over the last one of two decades, researchers within the physical education (PE) and sport pedagogy research frequently use the concept ‘the material body’. An initial purpose of this article is to explore what a concept of a ‘material body’ might mean. What other bodies are there? Who would dispute the materiality of bodies? I suggest that the use of a concept as ‘the material body’ suggests a hesitation before the radicalism of the linguistic turn in the sense that the concept ‘discourse’ does not include a material dimension. In this way ‘the material body’ relates to an interpretation of ‘the socially (or discursively) constructed body’ as void of matter. A further purpose with the article is to re-inscribe matter in the concept of ‘discourse’. This is done by way of discussing what theorists like Michel Foucault and, in particular, Judith Butler, has to say about the materiality of the body. In their writings, discourse should not be limited to spoken and/or written language. Rather, discourse is understood in terms of actions and events that create meanings—that matters. One conclusion of the article is that it is important to problematise the mundane view of discourse as ‘verbal interchange’ because it reinforces the promise of an objective knowledge that will eventually shed light on the ‘real’ body and the mysteries of sexual difference, what its origins are, what causes it. Another conclusion is that the PE and sport pedagogy research should pay less attention to the body as an object (what it ‘is’), and pay more attention to how the body matters, and e.g. how movements make bodies matter.     

Institutional care of infants in Sweden: criteria for admission in 1970, 1975 and 1980

The purpose of the present study was to analyze the criteria used for admission of infants to institutional care in the metropolitan area of Stockholm in 1970, 1975 and 1980. The study included 337 infants. Their records from the institutional care have been studied. A significant decrease was observed from 1970 to 1980 on the following grounds for admission: teen-age mother, adoption, unsatisfactory housing situation, hospitalization of the mother. The following criteria for admission showed a significant increase: maternal alcohol and/or drug abuse as well as psychiatric disorders. It is concluded that there has been a dramatic change in the criteria used for admission of infants to institutional care from 1970 to 1980. Voluntary admissions of infants for maternal health reasons or social problems of a temporary nature have apparently been supplanted by non-voluntary admissions owing to maternal addiction and psychiatric insufficiency.     

Prognosis of children admitted to institutional care during infancy

The present study has investigated the prognosis of infants admitted to institutional care. The follow-up was made after five and ten years. Three groups of children were studied: those who were in adoptive homes, foster homes and biological homes, respectively, at the time of the investigation. Approximately 50% of the total population was treated in hospital after the neonatal period. More children in foster and biological homes were hospitalized because of trauma. At 4 years of age the psychomotor development was considered normal in 77% of the adopted children compared to approximately 55% in the other two groups. Furthermore, the children in foster and biological homes demonstrated a higher rate of psychological or behavioral disturbances. The children who were in foster homes had experienced more separations and 39% of them had been subjected to 6 or more placements. The experiences of institutional care per se in infancy do not predispose the child to health and behavioral problems. The determining factor for optimal development seems to be permanency of care and parenting capability.     

Combined metabolic gas analyser and dGPS analysis of performance in cross-country skiing

The purpose of this study was to provide a more detailed analysis of performance in cross-country skiing by combining findings from a differential global positioning system (dGPS), metabolic gas measurements, speed in different sections of a ski-course and treadmill threshold data. Ten male skiers participated in a freestyle skiing field test (5.6?km), which was performed with dGPS and metabolic gas measurements. A treadmill running threshold test was also performed and the following parameters were derived: anaerobic threshold, threshold of decompensated metabolic acidosis, respiratory exchange ratio = 1, onset of blood lactate accumulation and peak oxygen uptake ([Vdot]O_2peak). The combined dGPS and metabolic gas measurements made detailed analysis of performance possible. The strongest correlations between the treadmill data and final skiing field test time were for [Vdot]O_2peak (l?·?min^?1), respiratory exchange ratio = 1 (l?·?min^?1) and onset of blood lactate accumulation (l?·?min^?1) (r = ?0.644 to ??0.750). However, all treadmill test data displayed stronger associations with speed in different stretches of the course than with final time, which stresses the value of a detailed analysis of performance in cross-country skiing. Mean oxygen uptake ([Vdot]O₂) in a particular stretch in relation to speed in the same stretch displayed its strongest correlation coefficients in most stretches when [Vdot]O₂ was presented in units litres per minute, rather than when [Vdot]O₂ was normalized to body mass (ml?·?kg^?1?·?min^?1 and ml?·?min^?1?·?kg^?2/3). This suggests that heavy cross-country skiers have an advantage over their lighter counterparts. In one steep uphill stretch, however, [Vdot]O₂ (ml?·?min^?1?·?kg^?2/3) displayed the strongest association with speed, suggesting that in steep uphill sections light skiers could have an advantage over heavier skiers.     

Multilingual students’ use of translanguaging in science classrooms

ABSTRACT

This study describes multilingual students’ authentic use of their first and second languages in a translanguaging science classroom, from a sociocultural perspective. The study is ethnographic, and has followed some lessons each month in a translanguaging science classroom at a primary school for three years. The observed lessons were documented by four video cameras and four audio recorders, while field notes and different types of students’ texts and other teaching materials were also collected. In order investigate how language operates, and to realise the meaning semantically, we analysed the students’ use of both first and second language to tie paradigmatic relations, and how they move in linguistic loops between languages and discourses. The results illustrate the ways in which a translanguaging science classroom constitutes a resource in joint negotiations of the scientific content and its related language for multilingual students, and benefits the students’ ability to relate and contextualise the science content to prior experience. The creation of translanguaging science classrooms, in which students’ experiences and diverse cultural and linguistic resources interweave with school science, and in which multilingual students are enabled and encouraged to use all available language resources, has important implications for science education.     

Teachers' Experience and Management of Young Children Treated Because of Home Conduct Problems: A qualitative study

In the present study, a sample of 27 teachers were interviewed regarding their experience and management of young children with conduct problems in day‐care or school settings. The children had been referred and treated because of oppositional and conduct problems at home. Qualitative analysis of data was performed by using elements of a grounded theory approach. Although the children had complex conduct problems presenting considerable challenges for their teachers, most teachers described a close and engaged relationship with these children. Teachers used within‐discipline and within‐classroom approaches in their work with a main focus on managing the child's daily life in day‐care or school, supported by close colleagues. Their practices were not deeply rooted in evidence‐based knowledge and methods. Most teachers reported collaboration with parents as positive and necessary, however, they only pursued it to a limited extent. Representatives from supplementary services, such as school psychologist, child protection care and child psychiatry, were rarely involved in the work of teachers. Implications of the findings are discussed.     

The productive effect of power: (dis)pleasurable bodies materialising in and through the discursive practices of boys’ physical education

Background: Pleasure is often a key feature of school physical education (PE) and, indeed, a lot of students find pleasure in and through PE while others do not. However, pleasure is rarely considered to be of educational value in the subject [Pringle, R. (2010). “Finding Pleasure in Physical Education: A Critical Examination of the Educative Value of Positive Movement Affects.” Quest 62: 119–134]. Further, since pleasure is linked to power [Foucault, M. (1980). Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings, 1972–1977. New York: Pantheon; Gerdin, G., and R. Pringle. (2015). “The Politics of Pleasure: An Ethnographic Examination Exploring the Dominance of the Multi-Activity Sport-Based Physical Education Model.” Sport, Education and Society. doi:10.1080/13573322.2015.1019448] it is in fact not entirely straightforward to legitimise the educational value of PE in relation to pleasure.

Purpose: In this paper, we explore how a group of boys derive pleasures from their involvement in PE, but also how these power-induced pleasures are integral to gender normalisation processes. The findings presented are particularly discussed in terms of inclusive/exclusive pedagogical practices related to gender, bodies and pleasures.

Research setting and participants: The research setting was a single-sex, boys’ secondary school in Auckland, New Zealand. Participants in this study were 60 Year 10 (age 14–15) students from two PE classes.

Data collection and analysis: Using a visual ethnographic approach [Pink, S. (2007). Doing Visual Ethnography. London: Sage] involving observations and video recordings of boys participating in PE, the boys’ representations and interpretations of the visual data were explored during both focus groups and individual interviews. The data were analysed using (a visually oriented) discourse analysis [Foucault, M. (1998). “Foucault.” In Michel Foucault. Aesthetics, Method and Epistemology, edited by J. D. Faubion, 459–463. New York: The New Press; Rose, G. (2007). Visual Methodologies: An Introduction to the Interpretation of Visual Materials. London: Sage].

Findings: By elucidating the discursive practices of PE in this setting and employing (Butler, J. (1993). Bodies that Matter: On the Discursive Limits of ‘Sex’. New York: Routledge] concept of ‘materialisation’, we suggest that boy’s bodies materialise as productive and pleasurable or displeasurable bodies through submitting/subjecting to certain bodily regimes, developing embodied mastery when it comes to certain sports, and displaying bodies in particular ways. The analysis indicate that the discursive practices of PE contribute to boys’ bodies materialising as pleasurable or displeasurable and the (re)production of gender in the subject as shaped by discourse and the productive effect of power.

Discussion and conclusions: In line with [Gard, M. (2008). “When a Boy’s Gotta Dance: New Masculinities, Old Pleasures.” Sport, Education and Society 13 (2): 181–193], we conclude that the focus on certain discursively constructed bodily practices at the same time continues to restrict the production of a diversity of bodily movement pleasures. Hence, traditional gender patterns are reproduced through a selection of particular sports/physical activities that all the students are expected to participate in. We propose that the ongoing constitution of privileged forms of masculinity, masculine bodies and masculine pleasures as related to fitness, health and sport and (certain) boys’ subsequent exercise of power in PE needs further critical examination.     

Combinations of Epoch Durations and Cut-Points to Estimate Sedentary Time and Physical Activity Among Adolescents

The purpose of the current study was to investigate how combinations of different epoch durations and cut-points affect the estimations of sedentary time and physical activity in adolescents. Accelerometer data from 101 adolescents were derived and 30 combinations were used to estimate sedentary time, light, moderate, vigorous, and combined moderate-to-vigorous physical activity. Data were analyzed with repeated measurement analyses of variance. Large differences of sedentary time and times of different physical activity intensities were observed between 1 s and longer epoch durations using virtually all cut-points. Generally, sedentary time, moderate physical activity, vigorous physical activity, and combined moderate-to-vigorous physical activity progressively decreased, whereas light physical activity increased with longer epoch durations. The extreme differences between cut-points were large and increased with longer epoch durations for sedentary time and for all physical activity intensities except for vigorous physical activity per epoch duration. Caution is required when cross-comparing studies using different epoch durations and cut-points. To accurately register adolescents’ spontaneous intermittent physical activity behavior, short epoch durations are recommended.     

‘It doesn't matter how they move really,as long as they move.’ Physical education teachers on developing their students’ movement capabilities

Background: Movement is key in physical education, but the educational value of moving is sometimes obscure. In Sweden, recent school reforms have endeavoured to introduce social constructionist concepts of knowledge and learning into physical education, where the movement capabilities of students are in focus. However, this means introducing a host of new and untested concepts to the physical education teacher community.

Purpose. The purpose of this article is to explore how Swedish physical education teachers reason about helping their students develop movement capability.

Participants, setting and research design. The data are taken from a research project conducted in eight Swedish secondary schools called ‘Physical education and health – a subject for learning?’ in which students and teachers were interviewed and physical education lessons were video-recorded. This article draws on data from interviews with the eight participating teachers, five men and three women. The teachers were interviewed partly using a stimulated recall technique where the teachers were asked to comment on video clips from physical education lessons where they themselves act as teachers.

Data analysis. A discourse analysis was conducted with a particular focus on the ensemble of more or less regulated, deliberate and finalised ways of doing things that characterise the eight teachers’ approach to helping the students develop their movement capabilities.

Findings. The interviews indicate that an activation discourse (‘trying out’ and ‘being active’) dominates the teachers’ ways of reasoning about their task (a focal discourse). When the teachers were specifically asked about how they can help the students improve their movement capacities, a sport discourse (a referential discourse) was expressed. This discourse, which is based on the standards of excellence of different sports, conditions what the teachers see as (im)possible to do due to time limitations and a wish not to criticise the students publicly. The mandated holistic social constructionist discourse about knowledge and learning becomes obscure (an intruder discourse) in the sense that the teachers interpret it from the point of view of a dualist discourse, where ‘knowledge’ (theory) and ‘skill’ (practice) are divided.

Conclusions. Physical education teachers recoil from the task of developing the students’ movement capabilities due to certain conditions of impossibility related to the discursive terrain they are moving in. The teachers see as their primary objective the promotion of physical activity – now and in the future; they conceptualise movement capability in such a way that emphasising the latter would jeopardise their possibilities of realising the primary objective. Should the aim be to reinforce the social constructionist national curriculum, where capability to move is suggested to be an attempt at formulating a concept of knowledge that includes both propositional and procedural aspects and which is not based on the standards of excellence of either sport techniques or motor ability, then teachers will need support to interpret the national curriculum from a social constructionist perspective. Further, alternative standards of excellence as well as a vocabulary for articulating these will have to be developed.