Bodies, Meanings and Movement: A Comparison of the Language of a Physical Education Lesson and a Feldenkrais Movement Class

“If, as Armour (1999) argues, body-work is the primary rationale for physical education’s place in the school curriculum, then it seems essential that, as physical educators, we should pay close attention to the kinds of body-work that we foster and the forms of embodiment we produce.”

“Alternatively, the point here is to become aware of the relativity of what we hold true and how we express it, and to promote questioning about the consequences of these truths and practices before progressing to examine ways of improving (Wright 2000).”

“Indeed, within contemporary society youthful, slim, toned and sensual bodies are held with the highest regard (Shilling, 1996; Wright, 2000; Oliver, 2001).”

“We, like Wright (2000), are not advocating the replacement of one regime of truth by another.”

“…aspects of the role of coaches’ discourse in athlete development have received little attention, although that discourse continues to emphasize the rationalistic concepts of productivity, efficiency and conformity as keys for athletic success (Wright, 2000; Cassidy et al., 2004).”

“Issues related to identity (Beckett, 2004 ), aesthetic abilities (Gard, 2006 ) or alternate movement practices (Wright, 2000 ; Tinning & Glasby, 2002 ) can also be considered with a salutogenic approach.”

“Giving pupils the opportunity to be selfdirected learners as collaborative problem-solvers may open up a wider range of movement possibilities and practices (Wright, 2000, p. 47).”

“More recently in Australia, Wright (1997, 2000), Wright, Macdonald, and Groom (2003) and Wright and Burrows (2006) have determined relationships between students’ experiences in physical activity settings and status factors such as gender, ability, race, and class.”

“…place in an improvised environment); whereas adolescents with high SES viewed the ‘body’ as an end in itself, maximizing acquisition of physical capital through maintaining ‘tone’ and ‘fitness’ by engaging in health enhancing, moderate to vigorous physical activities (Shilling, 1993; Wright, 2000).”

“I understand the theoretical arguments that have ltered through our literature for years on the ways in which our bodies are used as a means of regulating our behaviors (Bordo, 1989; Foucault, 1977, 1985; Shilling, 1993; Sparkes, 1996, 1997; Wright, 2000).”

“…which has been frequently expressed by other adolescent girls (Azzarito 2009; Azzarito and Solmon 2006; Azzarito, Solmon, and Harrison 2006; Derry 2002; Fisette 2011b; Garrett 2004; McCaughtry 2004; Oliver and Hamzeh 2010; Oliver, Hamzeh, and McCaughtry 2009; Ronholt 2002; Wright 1997, 2000).”

“Several classroom/gym studies have been carried out in PE research during the last two decades (see e.g. Evans & Clarke, 1988; Wright, 2000; Rønholt, 2002; Clarke & Quill, 2003).”

“However, questions were also asked about how particular interactions in physical education lessons fostered learning and the kinds of learning being fostered (Wright, 2000b).”

“…complementary exercise approaches may benefit people with dementia through systems of motor learning (Connors, Galea, Said, & Remedios, 2010; Wright, 2000) and implicit memory (Gallego et al., 2011; Yao et al., 2008), systems that allow people with dementia to learn new behaviors, even when…”

“Challenging traditional assumptions about the body as a “natural and biological object” ( Wright, 2000, p. 35 ) and foregrounding research on the social construction of the body has signifi cantly expanded our understanding of cultural infl uences on girlsʼ and boysʼ participation in physical education classes (Azzari…”

“Indeed, the research literature has rendered a picture of the HPE profession as steadfastly resistant to change away from dualistic and instrumental understandings of health and the body, and towards more humane, progressive and student-centred practices and pedagogies (for examples, see Garrett & Wrench, 2008; Pronge…”

“…Lupton, 1999; Macdonald & Kirk, 1996, 1999; Olafson, 2002; Wright, 1996); the second usually involves an analysis of texts derived from teacher pupil interactions in physical education lessons (e.g. Davies, 2001; Delamont, 1998; Gore, 1990; Prain & Hickey, 1995; Ronholt, 2002; Wright, 1997, 2000).”

“Some of the studies published focus on the processes alone (Wright, 2000; Rønholt, 2002; Wallian & Chang, 2007), but more recently both processes and subject content have been considered in the same study (Verscheure & Amade-Escot, 2007; Wright & Forrest, 2007).”

“Feminist research into young women’s earliest experiences of active leisure, play and physical education suggests that feminine inactivity is normalized through practices of self-surveillance that limits active physicality in public and private spaces (Scraton, 1987; Young, 1990; Davies, 1999; Thomsson, 1999; Wright,…”

“Wright ( 2000 ) adds that through these types of speech acts, educational institutions ‘(re)produce particular discourses which determine how bodies can be thought about and consequently how they can act in space and in relation to other bodies’ (40).”

“They interact more often with boys than girls, and the content and the language of their verbal interactions indicate stereotypical expectations (Griffin, 1985b; Macdonald, 1990; Wright, 1996, 1997, 2000).”

“…want to continue the argument that our traditional practices in physical education construct a body which is objectified and separated from the self; and to argue that we contribute to the notion of the productive body-one which must be worked for instrumental ends (Wright, 2000, p. 36).”

“Wright (2000a, 2000b) takes a starting point in Foucault’s concepts of discourse and power to analyse what kind of bodies and subjectivities are being constituted in PE lessons.”

“Closely related to this critique, other studies find that PE is dominated by a ‘performance discourse’ (Tinning, 1997, Wright, 2000).”

“Various reasons have been proposed for the school subject’s negative impact with explanations centring on dominant discourses related to health and fitness in PE (Rich et al., 2015; Wright, 2000a).”

“Even though there have been notable exceptions (e.g. Clarke & Quill, 2003; Evans & Clarke, 1988; Jones, 2011; Quennerstedt, Almqvist, & Öhman, 2011; Rønholt, 2002; Wright, 2000), these are somewhat sparse.”

“These discourses also permeate a contemporary rendition of an enduring narrative that celebrates the utilitarian value of PE for disciplining bodies and inculcating knowledge and behaviour for body maintenance (Paechter, 2003; Tinning, 2010; Wright, 2000a, 2000b).”

“However, with some notable exceptions (for example Kirk, 1993; Prain & Hickey, 1998; Wright, 2000), contemporary theories of the body and embodiment are yet to make a substantial impact on educational research and particularly physical education.”

“Thus the concept may be traced from thinking that emerged from and countered Descartes ’ dis-unity of mind – body to one generalisable as unity of mind – body, which is essential for existence and learning.”

“These studies focus mainly on curriculum issues (Johns, 2005; Kirk, 2001; Macdonald & Hunter, 2005; Penney & Jess, 2004), the physical education teachers (Chen, 2005; MacPhail & Halbert, 2005; McCaughtry, 2004; McCaughtry & Rovegno, 2003), the pupils (Chen & Ennis, 2004), or actions in the “gym” (Rønholt, 2002; Wright…”

“2012) and instrumental relationship to the body in PE and PETE (Wright 2000).”

“…Foucauldian tradition in physical education research concerned with corporeal knowledge, experience and institutional regulation (e.g. Webb and Quennerstedt, 2010; Wright, 2000), we feel that more can be done to theorise the privileging of fitness testing as a context for physical education.”

“Further, the positional elements of the body in motion negotiated the intersectionality of subjectivity and objectivity (Wright, 2000) by underscoring the physical and biological entities of an embodied space (Low & Lawrence-Zúñiga, 2003).”

“As a consequence certain types of bodies become desirable for particular sports, in particular, mesomorphic, powerful, slim and flexible bodies (Wright, 2000).”

“The exercises integrate body and mind, and involve both internal and external parts of the body, as well as body parts that are not usually acknowledged in physical education lessons (e.g., earlobes, underside of the arm; Wright, 2000).”

“…and Doreen Massey (2005) – and as articulated through sport, health and active body contexts in the work of John Bale (1994, 2003), Nick Crossley (2004), Arthur Frank (2010), Cathy van Ingen (2003), Patricia Vertinsky (1992), John Evans (2003), David Kirk (2010), Jan Wright (1996, 2000) and others.”

“In this way, we can identify how some ways of talking about the body have become acceptable and ‘normal’ within Australian society in general, and in HMS in particular, while some others perspectives of the body are not as commonly employed, and even questioned (see Tinning, 2010; Wright, 2000).”

“The primary reason for starting from this alternative PA form is that it visualizes important differences vis-à-vis the competitive sport logic which, in spite of what is stated in the curriculum, tends to form part of PEH (cf. Ekberg, 2016; Londos, 2010; Wright, 2000).”

“Other embodied explorations that might be attuned to affective and sensory care include feldenkrais (Wright, 2000), tai chi, yoga and surfing (lisahunter & Stoodley, 2020) and poetic inquiry in more-than-human health literacy (Lupton, 2021).”

“Health and performance become the quintessential influences, which in turn elucidate an explicit embodiment to match (Wright, 2000).”

“However, as stated by Wright (2000), Tinning (2011) and Tinning and Glasby (2002), social and cultural studies of the moving body are given insufficient focus in PE teacher educations, meaning that many PE teachers are not equipped with the skills of cultural critique.”

“According to Wright (2000), the teacher’s way of using the language has a great influence on the development of one’s relationship with one’s own body.”

“I argue (in support of others such as Kirk, 1993; Wright, 2000) that the way we think about the PE curriculum is largely a product of how we think about the body.”

“There are also scholars, thinkers, writers from many different disciplines and backgrounds calling for new ways to think about the body, health, education, and the world in general (see Heron, 1981; Chopra, 1993; Lupton, 1996; Wright, 2000).”

“Decades of previous research has addressed the need for changes in physical education where embodied experiences and embodied learning are emphasized (Kirk 2010; Kirk and Tinning 1994; Wrench and Garrett 2015; Wright 2000).”

“According to Wright (2000), physical educators, and I would add kinesiology professionals more generally, “should play close attention to the kinds of body-work that we foster and the forms of embodiment we produce” (p. 39) when we continue to privilege practices that are underpinned by the cult of…”

“When obligingly conforming to the practices described in the stories (Act one and Act two), our swimmer bodies were thus considered by coaches and team managers as biological objects to be unproblematically trained, manipulated and measured (Prain & Hickey, 1995; Wright, 2000).”

“In turn, this means that there is a focus on risk-behaviours (cf. Evans, 2003; Gard & Wright, 2001; Parkinson & Burrows, 2019; Webb & Quennerstedt, 2010; Wright et al., 2012).”

“This body of research captures how multiple and competing discourses are at play and subject to negotiation and (re)construction by different agents such as PETE teachers and PE teachers (Dowling and Kårhus, 2011; Garrett and Wrench, 2007; McEvilly et al., 2013, 2014, 2015; Olofsson, 2005; Rossi et al., 2009; Varea an…”

“Therefore, by breaking with the idea of the existence of a universal subject whose body is a ‘natural and biological object’ (Wright, 2000 , p.”

“As Wright (2000) noted over two decades ago, we need to extend and look beyond traditional forms of PE to a ‘wider range of movement practices which both assume and constitute different forms of embodiment, and which foster different ways of being’ (48).”

“Learning and thinking about movement are rare elements in PE teaching (Wright, 2000).”

“’ Wright (2000) argues that ‘ [A] close analysis of language of the physical education lesson illustrates those assumptions about the body, about physical activity and about bodies that are taken for granted, that is, that are dominant/hegemonic within the traditional practices of the fi eld ’ (p.…”

“In a detailed consideration of movement education in PE, Wright (2000) suggested that approaches to movement education tended to define the learner narrowly as ‘a biological object which can be studied, manipulated and its movements minutely measured’ (35).”

“As a consequence certain types of bodies become desirable for particular sports, in particular, mesomorphic, powerful, slim and flexible bodies (Wright, 2000).”

“Wright (2000) contests that health and performance are the quintessential influences in contemporary physical education, which in turn elucidates an explicit embodiment to match.”

“Wright (2000) argues that the objective body has traditionally been the focus of research and practice in health work.”

“Sudut pandang ilmiah menjadikan tubuh sebagai entitas seperti mesin (Tinning, 2010), memiliki konsekuensi mengasingkan diri (Wright, 2000).”

“…RACIONAL EMOTIVA T. COGNITIVASVERBALES MIND-BODY MEDITACIÓN HIPNOSIS PSICOLOGÍA SOMÁTICA Pensamiento Procesos fisiológicos Accion/ movimiento sensaciones SUJETO ACTIVO aprendizaje., si sobre él se aplican una serie de técnicas (Mercer, 2002; Liptak G., 2005, Wright, 2000; Targ E. et al 2009).”

“…is the inherent, physical form of the self that serves to inform and shape identity development through the engagement of cultural and societal values, norms and contexts, embodiment plays an important role in examining the lived experiences of female ethnic minority PE teachers (Wright, 2000).”