Exploring how girls navigate their embodied identities in physical education

Abstract

Background: Educating adolescent girls about their bodies provides girls with the opportunity to make meaning of their embodied identities for themselves. Knowledge of, and understanding of, embodiment has the potential for adolescent girls to be empowered within the physical education context. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore how adolescent girls articulate their embodiment and navigate their embodied identities within the public and private physical education context. Two research questions were addressed: (1) how do adolescent girls articulate their embodiment within the physical education context?; and (2) how do adolescent girls navigate and negotiate their socially constructed embodied identities within the public and private physical education context? Participants and setting: Participants were eight seventh grade girls in a same-gender and coeducational physical education class in a suburban middle school located in the Northeast, United States. Multiple data sources were used to explore adolescent girls' embodiment in physical education. Data collection: Data sources included: (1) critical incidents forms; (2) formal interviews with the adolescent girls; (3) journals; and (4) descriptive field notes of the girls' physical education classes. Data analysis: Data analysis was ongoing throughout the data collection process. Field notes were word-processed into narratives and interviews were transcribed verbatim. Critical incidents forms, transcriptions,…