A Poststructural Analysis of High School Students’ Gender and Racialized Bodily Meanings

2006 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-98 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Azzarito ◽  
Melinda A. Solmon

Recently, national studies have reported on young people’s low level of participation in physical activity. Because the effect of gender and racial differences among youth participating in physical activity have not been sufficiently addressed, examining the social construction of the body in physical education can provide valuable insights. This study uses poststructuralism as a lens to investigate how students’ construction of meanings around the body varied by gender and race, and how bodily meanings related to students’ participation in physical education classes. The participants were 528 students from public high schools. An instrument was used to assess students’ racial and gendered construction of bodily meanings around specific discursive constructs. Results indicated that students’ meanings differ by race and gender, especially in regard to size, power, muscularity, and appearance. These findings suggest that bodily meanings were influential in students’ self-reported levels of participation in physical education classes.

2006 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 200-225 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Azzarito ◽  
Melinda A. Solmon

The study of the social construction of the body has become crucial to contemporary academic discourses in education and physical education. Employing feminist poststructuralist theory and a qualitative ethnographic design, this study investigated how high school students identified themselves with images of bodies drawn from fitness and sports magazines, and how their body narratives were linked to their participation in physical education. Students’ body narratives reflected notions of comfortable, bad, and borderland bodies that influenced students’ physical activity choices and engagement in physical education. Girls’ narratives of their physicality were found to be significantly less comfortable than boys’. Critical pedagogy to destabilize gendered dominant discourses of mass media body culture and to develop positive, meaningful, and empowering student physicality is discussed.


1996 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 67-92 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Krasner

Although Aida Overton Walker (1880–1914) belonged to the same generation of turn-of-the-century African American performers as did Bob Cole, J. Rosamond Johnson, Bert Williams, and George Walker, she had a rather different view of how best to represent her race and gender in the performing arts. Walker taught white society in New York City how to do the Cakewalk, a celebratory dance with links to West African festival dance. In Walker's choreography of it, it was reconfigured with some ingenuity to accommodate race, gender, and class identities in an era in which all three were in flux. Her strategy depended on being flexible, on being able to make the transition from one cultural milieu to another, and on adjusting to new patterns of thinking. Walker had to elaborate her choreography as hybrid, merging her interpretation of cakewalking with the preconceptions of a white culture that became captivated by its form. To complicate matters, Walker's choreography developed during a particularly unstable and volatile period. As Anna Julia Cooper remarked in 1892.


2006 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 226-239 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jianmin Guan ◽  
Ron E. McBride ◽  
Ping Xiang

Two types of social goals associated with students’ academic performance have received attention from researchers. One is the social responsibility goal, and the other is the social relationship goal. While several scales have been validated for measuring social relationship and social responsibility goals in academic settings, few studies have applied these social goal scales to high school students in physical education settings. The purpose of this study was to assess the reliability, validity, and generalizability of the scores produced by the Social Goal Scale-Physical Education (SGS-PE) in high school settings. Participants were 544 students from two high schools in the southern United States. Reliability analyses, principal components factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and multistep invariance analysis across two school samples revealed that the SGS-PE produced reliable and valid scores when used to assess students’ social goal levels in high school physical education settings.


2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 14-33
Author(s):  
Shauna A. Morimoto

This article draws on qualitative data of U.S. high school students considering their place in the adult world; the purpose is to investigate Jeffrey Arnett’s (2000) concept of “emerging adulthood” as a new stage of life course. Drawing on interviews and observational data collected around the time when Arnett’s notion of emerging adulthood started to take hold, I use intersectional interpretive lens in order to highlight how race and gender construct emerging adulthood as high school students move out of adolescence. I consider Arnett’s thesis twofold. First, when emerging adulthood is examined intersectionally, young people reveal that – rather than being distinct periods that can simply be prolonged, delayed, or even reached – life stages are fluid and constantly in flux. Second, since efforts to mitigate against uncertain futures characterizes the Millennial generation, I argue that the process of guarding against uncertainty reorders, questions or reconfigures the characteristics and stages that conventionally serve as markers of life course. I conclude that the identity exploration, indecision, and insecurity associated with emerging adulthood can also be understood as related to how the youth reveal and reshape the life course intersectionally.


Author(s):  
Galih Prasetyo ◽  
Suroto ◽  
Dwi Cahyo Kartiko

The purpose of this research is to improve physical fitness which is one of the goals of physical education in Indonesia while also improving the nutritional status of Surabaya vocational high school students. This research uses the treatment of physical activity 3 times a week in 2 months as a task in physical education to improve physical fitness and nutrional status on the sample of this research. Research design uses quasi experimental design with metode non-randomized control group pretest-posttest design. Research data was obtained as follows: data processing result on experiment group show that physical activity to VO2max got significant score based calculating using SPSS of 0,00 and physical activity to nutrional status got sig. of 0,60. Whereas in the control group, physical actifity got sig. of 0.20 to VO2max and sig. to 0.11 on nutrional status. Based on the above analysis it can be concluded that physical activity has a significant effect on physical fitness but physical activity has no significant effect on nutrional status to Surabaya vocational high school students.


2020 ◽  
pp. 074193252094120
Author(s):  
Anjali J. Forber-Pratt ◽  
Gabriel J. Merrin ◽  
Dorothy L. Espelage

This study explored the intersections of disability, race, sexual orientation, and gender on peer victimization, suicidal ideation, and school connectedness. Participants were 11,353 high school students aged 14 to 18 years ( MD =15.88, SD = 1.20). Of these individuals, 1,640 students self-identified as either having an Individualized Education Program (IEP) or as having a disability. Students completed online self-report measures. Results indicated that having a disability or identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or questioning (LGBQ) was associated with higher odds of suicidal ideation, higher levels of peer victimization, and lower levels of school connectedness across several racial categories. Moderation analyses examined the intersection of various identities. Findings indicate that differences exist among the intersection of disability, race, sexual orientation, and gender identities in relation to the outcomes of interest.


Author(s):  
Seungho Ryu ◽  
Paul Loprinzi ◽  
Heontae Kim ◽  
Minsoo Kang

The purpose of this study was to assess trends in physical education and physical activity among U.S. high school students from 2011 to 2017, respectively, and to evaluate temporal trends in the relationship between physical education class participation and physical activity levels. Data from a total of 51,616 high school students who participated in the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS) from 2011 to 2017 were analyzed for this study. Physical education was measured as follows: In an average week when you are in school, on how many days do you go to physical education classes? Physical activity was measured as follows: During the past 7 days, on how many days were you physically active for a total of at least 60 min per day? Meeting physical activity guideline was defined as engaging in 7 days per week of at least 60 min per day. Across the 2011–2017 YRBSS, there were no linear (p = 0.44)/quadratic trends (p = 0.37) in physical education and linear (p = 0.27)/quadratic trends (p = 0.25) in physical activity, respectively. Regarding the trends in the association between physical education and physical activity, there were no statistically significant linear (unstandardized regression coefficient (b) = 0.013, p = 0.43) or quadratic (p = 0.75) trends; however, at the sample level, there was a slight increase in the odds ratio effect sizes from 2011 to 2017 (ES = 1.80–1.98). The pooled association between physical education participation and physical activity was statistically significant, OR = 1.88, 95% CI = 1.75–2.03, p < 0.001. That is, on average across the four YRBSS cycles, students who participated in physical education had 1.88 times higher odds of meeting physical activity guideline when compared to students who did not participate in physical education. The trends of physical education and physical activity did not change between 2011 and 2017. Overall, we observed a significant relationship between participation in physical education and physical activity. There was a non-significant yet stable trend of association between participation in physical education and physical activity over time.


2009 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 272-292 ◽  
Author(s):  
Josh Trout ◽  
Kim C. Graber

The purpose of this investigation was to examine overweight students’ perceptions of and experiences in physical education. Specifically, the applicability of learned helplessness as a framework to understand their experiences was explored. Participants were seven female and five male high school students whose body mass index was at or higher than the gender- and age-specific 85th percentile based on Centers for Disease Control growth charts. Data collection included formal interviews with students and their parents. The primary findings indicate that students have mixed opinions concerning the benefits to be derived from physical education. Despite recognizing the relationship between lack of physical activity and obesity, many participants avoided participation because they had been traumatized to the extent of exhibiting symptoms consistent with learned helplessness. Participants demonstrated greater concern about visibility than they did about their performance, which suggests they might engage in physical activity if shielded from the view of peers.


2004 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 44-53 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bridgette E. Wilde ◽  
Charles B. Corbin ◽  
Guy C. Le Masurier

The purpose of this study was to examine the pedometer-measured physical activity levels of high school students (Grades 9–12). Comparisons were made between sexes, among grades, among groups based on level of participation in sport and physical education, and among groups based on levels of self-reported physical activity (based on questions from the National Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System). Participants wore sealed pedometers for 4 consecutive school days. Results indicated no differences among days of monitoring but did show significant differences in mean steps per day between sexes, among grades, and among activity levels. Males took more steps per day than females did, and 10th graders took more steps than 12th graders did. Teens involved in sport and physical education took more steps than did those not involved. Teens who reported meeting both moderate and vigorous activity recommendations were most active, followed by teens meeting recommendations for moderate activity.


Author(s):  
Maya Lorena Pérez Ruiz

In this article I propose to analyze the social construction of youth among the population of Yaxcabá, Yucatán, Mexico, using ethno-history, linguistics and anthropology. I demonstrate the continuity and differences of what it means to be young in Mayan culture, paying attention to the differences and inequalities between men and women, shown by Mayan language and certain social practices and beliefs. I finally analyze what high school students think about what it means to be Maya, to be young and whether or not they conceive themselves as Mayans.


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