Understanding and overstanding: Feminist-poststructural life histories of physical education teachers

This article discusses theoretical tensions within a feminist-poststructural life history study that used a hybrid methodology for data analysis, including speech act theory, deconstruction, psychoanalysis and social postmodernism. In particular, the article explores the paradox of using "spoken accounts" to investigate "homophobic silences" about lesbian sexuality in the life histories of six lesbian and heterosexual physical education teachers. This paradox was, in part, resolved by drawing on Jonathon Culler's (1992) distinction between understanding, which asks questions the text insists upon, and overstanding, which asks questions the text did not pose. Excerpts from the life history interviews about coming out, marriage, lesbians in sport and teacher-student crushes illustrate how speech act theory and social postmodernism led to understanding while deconstruction and psychoanalytic theory contributed to overstanding.