Physical education, diversity and inclusion: Students’ narratives of inclusion and exclusion from an intersectional perspective

Abstract

An increasing number of international studies have shown both that some students experience exclusion and marginalization in physical education (PE) and that these phenomena often are linked to students’ gender, sexuality, social class, (dis)ability, religion, or ethnicity. However, knowledge of the processes that lead to exclusion in PE is lacking, especially in the Norwegian context. In addition, research on inclusion and exclusion has tended to focus only on single aspects of students’ identities. Based on an intersectional perspective, the purpose of this doctoral thesis is to provide more knowledge about inclusion in PE by investigating the experiences of students with diverse backgrounds. Intersectionality sheds light on the interplay between social categories like gender, ethnicity, social class, and ability in different contexts and on outcomes in terms of inclusion and exclusion. Moreover, intersectionality provides analytical and conceptual tools for understanding how power and power relations often appear natural and are thus reproduced within institutions and disciplines.

The overall goal of the study is operationalized through two research questions: RQ1) What are the PE experiences of students in a multi-ethnic PE context? RQ2) What stories of inclusion and exclusion are revealed at the intersection between the researcher’s accounts, the curriculum, teachers’ practice, and students’ stories of PE in a multi-ethnic class? Data was generated through fieldwork in two secondary school classes at a school in Oslo, the capital of Norway. The data foundation consists of field notes from observations of 56 PE lessons and semi-structured interviews with 17 students. The data is presented in the form of four articles.