Still feeling like a spare piece of luggage? Embodied experiences of (dis)ability in physical education and school sport

Abstract

This paper addresses an increasing concern within physical education and sports research to engage with young people to find out more about their experiences of physical education and school sport. In particular, I centre my concerns on the experiences of five young disabled pupils. I use the conceptual tools offered by Bourdieu to extend understandings of disability beyond those typically associated with medical and social model perceptives and in so doing explore the notion of the embodied identities of the disabled pupils in this study. In this paper, I also develop Evans' (2004 Evans, J. (2004). Making a difference? Education and ‘ability’ in physical education. European Physical Education Review, 10(1): 95–108. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]) recent discussion focusing on ‘ability’ and particularly his concern for ability to be conceptualised as a sociocultural and dynamic entity. The data generated reveals that a paradigm of normativity prevails in physical education. It would seem the physical education habitus serves to affirm a normative presence in physical education and school sport and is manifest through conceptions of ability that recognise and value a mesomorphic ideal, masculinity and high levels of motoric competence. I conclude by suggesting that articulations of ability need to be recast and understood in ways that extend beyond narrowly defined measures of performance and normative conceptions of what is it to have a sporting body.