The DOI matches its Crossref record; 52 of the 53 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
‘Can I do it in my pyjamas?’ Negotiating a physical education curriculum with teenage girls
Abstract
The data for this paper were generated during a three-year, Participatory Action Research project, with 41 15—19-year-old female co-researchers and activists, within and beyond the walls of a secondary school. The purpose of the larger study was to work with these students to understand and transform their self-identified barriers to physical education (PE) engagement and physical activity participation. The focus of this paper is on one of the transformation sites, the students’ formal PE curriculum. Participatory Action Research (PAR) constituted the theoretical, pedagogical and methodological framework for this study. The specific questions we seek to address in this paper are what does a negotiated PE curriculum process look like, and how does students’ increased involvement in curricular decision-making impact on their engagement with physical education. Data for this paper were generated through individual and group conversations with five student researchers and curriculum designers during the first year of the study. These conversations were guided by participatory research artefacts (e.g. photographs, posters). Findings suggest that participatory approaches to research and curriculum-making can serve to promote students’ meaningful engagement in the critique and the reimagining of their PE and physical activity experiences. The girls in this study, when provided with guidance and encouragement, rose to the challenge and took ownership of their learning, and doing so was a positive, energizing and exciting experience for them and one in which deep learning occurred and deep insights were produced. Negotiating the curriculum was not without challenge however, and both students and adult allies needed support in persevering beyond the transition and the novelty of initial excitement.
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“It is therefore concerning that Barnett [38], Eime [39], Eimear-Enright [40], Fisette [41], Holt [42], Oliver [43], Stanley [44] and Totaro-Garcia [45] do not clearly provide this information.”
From Barriers to voluntary participation in sport for children: a systematic review (2018) · cites this paper as [40]
In the citing paper
“Almost half of the qualitative studies focused on female experience of participation in sport only [37, 39–41, 43, 52, 53].”
From Barriers to voluntary participation in sport for children: a systematic review (2018) · cites this paper as [40]
In the citing paper
“Oliver [59] made use of a feminist active research approach finding that only females felt isolated and as though they lacked a voice in the school sporting context, so lost interest in participation [40].”
From Barriers to voluntary participation in sport for children: a systematic review (2018) · cites this paper as [40]
In the citing paper
“A significant portion of the qualitative studies scored a ‘No’ on the CASP appraisal for taking account of the relationship between researcher and participants [38, 40, 44, 45, 51–53, 55, 62, 63] whilst two were judged as cannot tell [36, 41].”
From Barriers to voluntary participation in sport for children: a systematic review (2018) · cites this paper as [40]
In the citing paper
“The negotiated curricula facilitated th in connecting PE to the sociocultural contexts of their lives and opened up opportunities for students to critically appraise their previous experiences of relation to their lives, backgrounds an values while engaging them in consid the possibilities for PE.”
From Pedagogies of embodiment in physical education – a literature review (2022) · cites this paper as Enright & O'Sullivan, 2010
Citations
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Cited by
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Items 201–212 of 212
Duncombe, S. L., Barker, A. R., Price, L. L., Walker, J. L., Liu, Y., Paris, D., & Stylianou, M. (2023) · Figshare · doi:10.6084/m9.figshare.24151334
Duncombe, S. L., Barker, A. R., Price, L. L., Walker, J. L., Liu, Y., Paris, D., & Stylianou, M. (2023) · Figshare · doi:10.6084/m9.figshare.24151340
Duncombe, S. L., Barker, A. R., Price, L. L., Walker, J. L., Liu, Y., Paris, D., & Stylianou, M. (2023) · Figshare · doi:10.6084/m9.figshare.24151337
Reforming Physical Education: Trends, Challenges, and Innovations Through Bibliometric Lenses
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What We Talk About When We Talk About Gender
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NEGOCIACIÓN CURRICULAR CON ALUMNADO CON DISCAPACIDAD INTELECTUAL EN EDUCACIÓN DEPORTIVA
Abellán, J., Reyes, L., & Palacios, N. M. (2026) · Ensayos: Revista de la Facultad de Educación de Albacete · doi:10.18239/ensayos.v41i2.3707
Vahdani, M., Karami, Z., & Cronin, L. (2026) · Journal of teaching in physical education · doi:10.1123/jtpe.2025-0603
Physical Education Curricula in Europe—The Dimensions of Goals and Contents
Salin, K., Vlček, P., Elsborg, P., D’Anna, C., Lundvall, S., ПАВЛОВА, Ю., Goss, H. R., Iconomescu, T. M., Algurén, B., Antala, B., et al. (2026) · Journal of Teaching in Physical Education · doi:10.1123/jtpe.2025-0234
Hovingh, E. R. (2013) · Memorial University Research Repository (Memorial University)
Metadata
- Authors
- Enright, E., & O'Sullivan, M.
- Affiliations
- University of Limerick (IE)
- University of Limerick, Ireland
- Corresponding author
- Enright, Eimear
- ORCID
- Enright, Eimear
- Venue
- European Physical Education Review
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2010-10
- Volume
- 16
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 203-222
- ISSN
- 1356-336X (ISSN-L)
- 1741-2749
- OpenAlex
- W1979518899
- Cited by
- 221
- References
- 53
- Citations by year
- 2026: 11 · 2025: 11 · 2024: 20 · 2023: 24 · 2022: 15 · 2021: 22 · 2020: 23 · 2019: 18 · 2018: 18 · 2017: 11 · 2016: 16 · 2015: 12 · 2014: 7 · 2013: 5 · 2012: 5
- FWCI
- 9.96
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- European Physical Education Review (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Education › Physical Education and Pedagogy
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Participatory Visual Research Methods
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Children's Rights and Participation
- Keywords
- physical education curriculum, adolescent girls, student participation in curriculum design, participatory action research, barriers to physical activity, student engagement, high school students, co-researchers, student ownership of learning, curriculum negotiation
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