Abstract
The aim of this study was to explore physical education teacher education students’ meaning-making of participating in lessons – in this case gymnastics and basketball – based on their aesthetic judgements, expressed in written stories. A transactional approach, drawing on the work of John Dewey, was used in the study and the empirical data was generated through observations and collection of students’ written stories. A practical epistemology analysis was used in order to explore the students’ meaning-making in-depth. The purposes that the students ascribed to participating in the lessons were to develop both as athletes and as teachers. When analysing the stories, the importance of being a competent athlete emerged as the main purpose of participating in the lessons, and the majority of the students never included the purpose of developing as a teacher in their stories at all. By making the competent athlete the centre of their participation, other positions of participation were excluded or marginalized. However, even if all the students’ stories contribute to the collective appropriation of the type, the majority did not include the projected, ideal type in all respects. In their stories, it was clear that many of the students expressed a tension between doing gymnastics or basketball within the context of competitive sport and doing the same activities within the context of physical education teacher education. Even if the students did not fulfil this awareness of contrasting ideals by undoing ‘the competent athlete’ completely, many of them did highlight the conflict.
Keywords
Introduction
The aim of this study was to explore, from a pragmatic starting point, physical education teacher education (PETE) students’ meaning-making of participating in lessons – in this case gymnastics and basketball – based on their aesthetic judgements expressed in written stories. Aesthetic judgements are operationally identified in our analyses ‘as utterances or expressions that either deal with feelings or emotions related to experiences of pleasure or displeasure, or that deal with qualities of things, events or actions that cannot be defined as qualities of the object themselves, but rather are evaluations of taste, for example about what is beautiful or ugly’ (Wickman, 2006: 9). A number of studies have used aesthetic judgements in order to examine people’s meaning-making in different educational contexts (see, for example, Jakobson and Wickman, 2008; Maivorsdotter and Quennerstedt, 2012; Maivorsdotter and Wickman, 2011).
Previous studies of PETE and PETE students reveal that there is a prioritizing of physically talented performing teacher ego, leaving no room for other ways of seeing or experiencing the given social contexts, in this case the local PE cultures (Dowling, 2006, 2011). This raises questions about the nature of professionalism within PETE programmes and tends to contribute to views of elitism giving priority to strong subject-orientated identities, where the ‘everyday PE ideologies’ are related to subject matter itself, rather than to more general educational visions (Chambers and Armour, 2012; Dowling, 2011). Dowling (2011) confirms earlier research in this topic in her study of Norwegian PE teacher students and their emerging professional identities. She writes ‘PETE represented a journey of self realization and a consolidation of one’s own physically performing self’ (p.211). A ‘good’ PE teacher is still centred on the competent performer instead of challenging regulatory discourses imbued with power of what can be said, thought and done within the PE culture (Dowling, 2011; Sachs, 2001). These students’ notion of what it means to be or become a good physical educationalist has been stable during the last three decades despite the surrounding changes in society and countries in the western world (cf. Dowling, 2011; Hargreaves, 1986; Larsson, 2009; O’Sullivan, 2003; Swan, 1995). As has been noted in studies of PE teacher educators, there are also taken-for-granted socio-historic subject traditions within PETE nurturing the image or discourse of the competent performer, leaving out other aspects and conceptual tools to envisage alternative professional identities (Brown and Evans, 2004; Flintoff and Webb, 2012; Wright, 2002). This embodied agency is not only merely ‘meaning-making’ but also ‘institution-making’ where the social structure has to be seen as both a medium and an outcome of embodied practices and body techniques (Dowling, 2011). In the study of Norwegian PE teacher educators Dowling (2011) explores the hegemonic ‘feeling rules’ in PETE regarding gender relations and concludes that the perpetuation of discriminatory practice on the basis of gender has both intellectual and emotional dimensions (Dowling, 2008). As this represents a powerful mechanism she, like Hargreaves (2000), argues for a critical engagement with our feelings as a potential means for enhancing educational practice.
Drawing on this backdrop of research, we are, in this study, interested in how different ways to participate in PETE are created and how this affects the PETE students’ meaning-making of participating in practical lessons in a PETE programme. By using a practical epistemology analysis (PEA) to explore PETE students’ aesthetic experience of PETE, new findings can be made that clarify how different ways to participate are valued and marginalized in PETE.
The aim of this study was to explore, from a pragmatic starting point, PETE students’ meaning-making of participating in lessons – in this case gymnastics and basketball – based on their aesthetic judgements expressed in written stories. On the basis of this aim, the intention was to examine:
What is included and excluded in PETE students’ meaning-making in gymnastics and basketball, as it appears in their stories?
What is valued in gymnastics and basketball as it appears in the PETE students’ stories?
Which positions expressed by students or group of students are at risk of being marginalized as they appear in the PETE students’ stories?
Theoretical framework
One way of exploring meaning-making in different educational settings in PE is expressed by the methodology formulated by John Dewey (cf. Maivorsdotter and Quennerstedt, 2012; Maivorsdotter and Wickman, 2011; Quennerstedt et al., 2011). In contrast to constructivist perspectives on meaning-making and knowledge construction where cognition and mental processes often are in focus, Dewey’s approach to meaning-making can, as Altman and Rogoff (1987) suggest, be used in the understanding of how people create meaning through their actions in specific situations. According to Dewey (1938), making meaning is the making of connections and relations by interweaving thoughts, words and actions in relation to a purpose or end-in-view. In this way, meaning is constructed by searching for or creating various kinds of relationships in proceeding with activities as part of life. Meaning also changes over time and is situated in interactions and communication in social practice. Dewey and Bentley (1949) call this process ‘transaction’. Transaction makes it possible for people to continually make new meaning, which in turn makes it possible to explore meaning-making through Dewey’s (1938) principle of continuity. This principle involves prior experiences being made use of in current experiences. That these are made continuous can be understood through their consequences, since people proceed with their doings towards a purpose and fulfilment. As Dewey argues, it is about doing and undergoing the consequences of our actions. In this way, every experience, in different ways, influences the future experiences we have. The study of these decisions and how they afford certain meanings amounts to an analysis of practical epistemologies (Wickman and Östman, 2002a, 2002b).
The significance of aesthetic experience for meaning-making
Dewey (1934) does not seem to make any significant difference between aesthetic experience and any other kind of experience. Instead, he stresses that every experience has aesthetic qualities that are perceived as moving towards or away from consummation and fulfilment; that is, whether divergent parts tend to become one whole or not. Although we are connected to the world through experience, Dewey does not call every experience an experience (1934: Chapter 3). An experience has a clear start, middle and ending, which separates an experience from the flow of experiences in people’s lives. An experience is one that runs its course to fulfilment and is savoured as a whole. Many experiences cannot be savoured in this immediate way, but are paths where aesthetic judgements are used to communicate whether and in what ways different courses of action lead to fulfilment (or not). In this process, people make meaning of whether and how they belong in the activity that makes up the experience. These processes of relating and differentiating are emotional and hence aesthetic experiences (Jakobson and Wickman, 2008; Wickman, 2006). For example, when a PETE student writes about what she discerned when training to do cartwheels, aesthetic judgements regarding her emotions and feelings are used not only to share what cartwheeling meant to her at the time, but also its significance to her as a former gymnast trying to make sense of cartwheeling in a PETE context.
In this study we conduct our research of PETE students’ meaning-making through the aesthetic judgements included by the students in written stories. It is in this connection to language that Wittgenstein functions as an addition to Dewey’s principle of continuity. Wittgenstein (1967) stresses that the meaning of a word or an utterance is related to its use in a language game that is the activity into which language is woven. Therefore, if we want to explore the meaning of experience, we can look at how aesthetic judgements are actually used (Wittgenstein, 1966). Wittgenstein (1966: 2–6) asked us not to concentrate on what aesthetic words like ‘beautiful’ or ‘fine’ represent to understand their meaning, but rather how people use them as judgements of taste and what they want.
Methodology
Data collection
The empirical data was generated through two sources. The first consisted of observations of two gymnastics and basketball lessons, and the second consisted of stories written by PETE students in connection with the lesson.
The sampling strategy used in the study was based on the principles of purposeful and criterion-based sampling (Patton, 2002). As previous research has shown, PETE students share a common interest in sporting activities (Dowling, 2011; Hargreaves, 1986; Larsson, 2009; Swan, 1995), and exploring lessons in which sporting activities formed the main subject content, and asking the studentsto write stories of experiences that were important to them, was regarded as appropriate when investigating PETE students’ meaning-making.
During the observations of the gymnastics and basketball lessons, the researcher assumed the role of spectator. Notes were taken with focus drawing from the theoretical backdrop of the study. Both lecturers and two of the students read the notes and confirmed their validity. The aim of this part of the study was to acquire a deeper understanding of the educational setting.
The next part of the study included the collection of stories written by the students. In line with research undertaken by Bamberg (2004) and Georgakopoulou (2008) we define these stories as small stories in order to highlight the planned, imminent kind of narrative that renders them distinct in relation to the lengthy, monologic narrative accounts elicited in social science research interviews. In order to allow the students to capture their experiences of the gymnastics or basketball lesson in the shortest possible time after the event, arrangements were made for them to write their stories in the gym in which the lesson had taken place. The students were asked to: Write about the lesson you have just experienced: try to pay attention to what you have learned and how it felt. If you like you can write using your body as a starting point. You can either write about the lesson as a whole or concentrate on a particular part or aspect of it.
The writing task was formulated in order to facilitate a quick start of writing and also to avoid misunderstandings of the task, despite that it should make it possible to answer the research questions (Czarniawski, 2004). The students wrote one-half to one handwritten page in a time-frame ranging from five to 30 minutes. None of the students asked for any explanation of the task and the stories were well-formulated, to the point and rich in information.
After the stories had been subjected to a first level of analysis, where the purpose of the activity was identified, the results were presented to the lecturers and to one of the students. They confirmed that the analysis was relevant and valid, and that the stories written by the students described experiences recognizable to them.
Participants
Forty PETE students took part in the study. All of the students taking part in the gymnastics or the basketball lesson also took part in writing a story. Approximately half of the group (22 students) participated in gymnastics and the other half (18 students) in basketball. The two groups were similar in terms of gender (mixed-gender groups), age, country of birth and parents’ education. The participants were 22 male students and 18 female students aged between 19 and 35 years. The majority of the participants (31) were between 19 and 25 years of age. The majority of the participants (33) had been born and brought up in Sweden and had Swedish-born parents. A minority (two) of the participants had not been born in Sweden and neither had their parents. Another minority (five) had been born in Sweden and had either one or two immigrant parents. The majority (23) of the participants had one or two parents educated in college or university. A minority (14) of the participants had one or two parents with only upper secondary school education. A minority (three) of the participants had parents with no higher education background. The students were at the end of their first year. The two male lecturers conducting the gymnastics or the basketball lesson also took part in the study. The lecturers were middle-aged men with long experience of teaching gymnastics or basketball.
Data analysis
The data consisted of stories written by the students. Drawing on the work of John Dewey, the later works of Ludwig Wittgenstein and sociocultural approaches, PEA (Wickman and Östman, 2002a, 2002b), in this case with a focus on aesthetic judgements, has been developed for the purpose of analysing meaning-making processes (Jakobson and Wickman, 2008; Maivorsdotter and Wickman, 2011; Wickman, 2006). PEA is designed to explore the direction that meaning-making takes as a result of situated transactions occurring in educational situations. In this study, three PEA analytical concepts were used, namely: (i) gaps, (ii) relations and (iii) encounters. The analysis was conducted in the following way:
First step
PEA starts by trying to identify the purposes of the activity to be explored. In this analysis, the first step included discovering the purposes for the students’ participation in the particular activity.
Second step
After having identified the purposes for the students’ participation, the next step in the analysis was to identify (i) gaps that emerged from these purposes. For example, if a student’s purpose was to become a better athlete, this purpose could be said to open up a gap in the storytelling between him as an athlete and the better athlete that he hoped to become.
Third step
In order to continue the story, the student has to fill the gap between being an athlete and becoming a better athlete with relations. Accordingly, the next step in the analysis was to identify the various kinds of relations that the students used to fill the identified gaps. Several studies (Jakobson and Wickman, 2008; Maivorsdotter and Quennerstedt, 2012; Maivorsdotter and Wickman, 2001; Wickman, 2006) show that people use aesthetic judgements when making meaning of an experience as a move towards fulfilment (having a positive aesthetic experience) or a move away from fulfilment (having a negative aesthetic experience). For example, if the student used the aesthetic judgement ‘feeling great’, we can see that the student experienced the lesson as moving towards fulfilment of his purpose of becoming a better athlete. On the other hand, if the student used the aesthetic judgement ‘I was chicken’, we can see that he experienced the lesson as moving away from fulfilment of his purpose of becoming a better athlete. Aesthetic judgements thus provide us with information about how the student judged his possibility to participate successfully in the lesson.
In this analytical context, a (ii) relation is a statement or utterance that construes a connection between the entities of experience. A relation concerns what the case is or how certain things are valued. Values are often aesthetic judgements about desires or taste. For example, if the student used positive aesthetic judgements about having the courage to do all the exercises during the gymnastic lesson, this relation shows what kind of behaviour the student valued in this situation. Finally the identified relations were sorted into themes.
Fourth step
In constructing relations, the students also described some of the things that were encountered in these experiences. For example, these (iii) encounters can involve fellow students, the equipment and the students’ previous experiences. The relations that are construed when the students described different encounters illuminate the connection between the student and the situation as a whole.
Limitations of the study
In this study, the researchers did not have the opportunity to ask questions of the storyteller, a fact that adds some limitations to the study. We cannot tell whether there is any more information of importance and we were not able to clarify things by asking attendant questions. In order to address these limitations, we presented the stories to two lecturers and one of the students and they confirmed that the described experiences were recognizable to them. There is therefore reason to believe that the students were engaged in their writing and were able to put their experiences into words. It is also important to consider that people can tell only stories that are relevant to them (Czarniawski, 2004). The stories are therefore not to be regarded as blank sheets, but as meaning-making influenced by a certain historical, cultural and sociological context. That the findings are context-dependent, however, is not regarded as a limitation. Previous research shows the need for disciplines to develop on the basis of systematic production of exemplars and good exemplars are by nature context-dependent (Flyvbjerg, 2006).
Ethics
The participants were formally informed of the purpose and methodology of the study, as well as the nature and extent of their possible participation. It was made clear that they were free to withdraw from the project at any time without having to provide a reason for doing so. The participants were informed that confidentiality and anonymity procedures would be established in the study. Also, informed written consent forms were obtained from the participants.
Findings
This section consists of two parts. In the first part a PEA of the PETE students’ stated purposes for participating in the lessons is presented. In the second part, the analysis of how PEA was used to explore the students’ meaning-making is accounted for with a focus on gaps, relations and encounters and also the identified relations by means of a categorical content analysis.
The educational setting and the students’ purposes for participating
All PETE students at this PETE programme have lessons in gymnastics and basketball in the gym at the end of their first year. Although the lessons are quite different, there are some similarities with regard to the organization of the sporting activities and the dialogue between the lecturer and the students. In the main the lessons consist of sporting activities.
On analysing the stories, two purposes emerged as to why the students had taken part in the lesson: (1) the possibility of developing as an athlete, and (2) the possibility of developing as a teacher. The majority of the students aligned with the first purpose (34 out of 40) and a minority with the second (six out of 40). In the stories it was clear that the students were similar in relation to gender, country of birth, age and parents’ education. Their purpose for participating in gymnastics or basketball was also similar. There were differences in the material as to whether the students described themselves as being familiar or not familiar with the sport, and the consequences of their familiarity. Most of the students (five out of six) whose main purpose in participating was to develop as teachers explicitly referred to their previous experience as a gymnast or basketball player as an explanation of why they did not have much to learn as athletes but that they had nevertheless gained useful experience for their development as teachers. For example, as one of the students wrote, ‘I have played basketball on a high level for many years so there wasn’t that much that was new, but I have learned pretty much about how to explain the movements to beginners’. Some of the students (three out of 34) who indicated the purpose of developing as athletes also referred to former experiences of the sport in terms of being familiar, although none of these students said that their participation in the lesson would not develop them as athletes. It was apparent that almost all students (39 out of 40) felt that they had to fulfil the requirement of being good athletes in gymnastics or basketball before they could get involved in their development as teachers.
A PEA of stories written by PETE students
In relation to the purposes of participating in basketball and gymnastics in PETE with the ends-in-view of developing as an athlete, and developing as a teacher, three major themes emerged when the relations that the students made in their stories were analysed in-depth regarding meaning-making in terms of aesthetic judgements. The results show that all three themes were interwoven in the students’ meaning-making; however, the results are presented with these themes as starting points. The themes are not to be regarded as final categories with clear limits, but as themes that interface in the students’ stories. The identified themes are (i) participation as competition, (ii) participation as developing technique and (iii) participation as development.
Participation as competition
In this study, participation as competition is understood as students making meaning of different levels of performance in gymnastics or basketball in ways that can be understood as competitive, hierarchical or positional (cf. Brown and Evans, 2004). The students seemed to be aware of the competitive dimension of gymnastics or basketball in sport in relation to gymnastics or basketball in PETE and tried to make sense of a tension between the different ways of acting in their stories. One way of making meaning of this conflict is illustrated by the following quotation: (1) You should never be afraid of anything. That’s my attitude when I go into the gym and (2) that was my attitude today as well. I begin with the hardest exercise in order to (3) challenge myself and my body. If I fail I try again. Knowing that you’ve pushed (4) yourself to the limit is always a satisfying feeling. Then it doesn’t matter if others are (5) much better than you. It was also great that there were different levels to try, and that (6) you could set your own goals about what or what not to do. Jacob, 21 years old.
The purpose for which Jacob participated in the gymnastics lesson was to develop as an athlete. In order to fulfil that purpose Jacob put his heart and soul into the task and began with the most difficult exercises. At the beginning of his story Jacob made sense of his experience by using a number of aesthetic judgements, such as ‘never be afraid’ (1), ‘hardest exercise’ (2) and ‘satisfying feeling’ (4), showing that if he were going to participate in the gymnastics lesson and develop as an athlete he had to control his fear and enjoy hard exercise.
Even though the students were able to choose which exercises to do, by using the aesthetic judgement ‘hardest exercise’ (2), Jacob shows that there is a hierarchical aspect of which certain exercises are valued with prestige. The relations that Jacob makes can be understood as a way to participate, or a position, where the possibility of feelings of uncertainty or weakness is excluded from the ideal configuration of a competent athlete. The position Jacob values in this situation is one of being a fearless and physical athlete. The gap between Jacob as an athlete and the developed athlete he would like to become is filled with relations about being brave and pushing himself to the limit. This way of making sense of gymnastics would also fit very well in a sports club, where one of the goals is to compete with others in order to select a winner. However, in that Jacob is writing his story in a PETE context, he is aware of the tension between the hierarchical and positional aspect of wanting to be as good a gymnast as possible in relation to PETE, and competition not being an explicit goal. At the end of his story Jacob uses a number of positive aesthetic judgements like ‘much better’ (5) and ‘great’ (5), which tone down the hierarchical and positional aspect of the activity. This involves an idea that if you have done your best you can be proud of yourself even if others are better than you. Jacob’s meaning-making can also be reasonable in a sports competition context, although here the last two lines about having the possibility of working at different levels could be understood as Jacob’s trying to deal with the tension between being a competitive athlete and a student in a PETE programme. The encounter with PETE created relations, such as it being important for everyone to have the possibility of working at different levels, something that is not usually promoted in competitive sport.
The students’ stories show that the position of being a competent athlete can be understood as promoting braveness and physicality as described by Skelton (1993) as hegemonic masculinity. The consequences that this masculine order can have for students’ meaning-making are illustrated by the following quotation from Lisa: (7) Even though I could do cartwheels before the lesson started I began with the ‘hardest’ (8) exercises as a challenge. It was fun but I felt highly frustrated by the fact that I didn’t (9) dare to do everything. I was too scared to cartwheel on an upside-down bench and to (10) cartwheel on a floor horizontal bar. I felt pressured, although I know that the others (11) think I’m good. Tried the more methodical basic exercises later on in the lesson. They (12) were fun but nevertheless pretty hard when you can already do them. Above all I have (13) learned how difficult it can be to explain an exercise that’s ‘in’ your body. I don’t think (14) about how to cartwheel but just do it, the movement is ‘in’ my body. It was also very (15) useful to see myself doing a cartwheel on film. Even though you can do an exercise you (16) don’t always know what it looks like. Lisa, 23 years old.
Lisa had done gymnastics at a high level until she was 12 and at the beginning of her story used the aesthetic judgements ‘hardest exercises’ (7–8) followed by the judgement ‘fun’ (8), which showed that she experienced the hardest exercises as something pleasant. In a way, Lisa’s former experience helped her to attempt the harder exercises – something that is valued in a competitive and hierarchical context – but at the same time, knowing that the other students thought that she was good at gymnastics made her aware of her capacity in a negative way. This can be seen in the subsequent lines where Lisa uses the aesthetic judgements ‘highly frustrated’ (8) and ‘pressured’ (10). However, as Lisa could not simply try out the exercises and make meaning of them as a future teacher, but also had to make meaning of her position as an athlete, the expectations of her fellow students made her feel pressured and uncertain. Despite being a competent athlete, there is always the risk of being valued as not being competent enough. In her meaning-making we can see that she included the competitive, hierarchical and positional aspects of doing gymnastics. The competent athlete that emerged in Lisa’s story can be understood as stereotypically masculine (cf. Brown and Evans, 2004; Skelton 1993). By using the negative aesthetic judgements ‘didn’t dare to do everything’ (8–9) and ‘scared’ (9), Lisa interpreted her feelings of uncertainness and weakness as something that should be excluded in the bodily movement practice in PETE. Lisa began her story by making meaning of the situation as an athlete. She then continued the story by making sense of gymnastics as a teacher, even though her focus on being an athlete influenced her teaching role. When following the direction of her meaning-making it is clear that Lisa tried to make sense of teaching by using the aesthetic judgements ‘fun but nevertheless pretty hard’ (12) and ‘difficult’ (13) about teaching movements with which she was already familiar. Lisa also used the judgements ‘useful’ (15) and ‘don’t always know what it looks like’ (16) and indicated the importance of visual feedback on her movement performance. As a role model, a teacher should be able to perform gymnastics movements to a reasonable degree without showing fear or hesitation. In this way, the purpose of being a competent athlete appeared to influence Lisa’s approach to teaching as excluding a more child-centred pedagogy.
Participation as developing technique
All stories included the importance of training techniques in order to develop as an athlete in their meaning-making. In the study, participation as improving technique is understood as bodily movement practices that are reasonable in gymnastics or basketball. This way of making meaning can be illustrated by Alex: (17) Even though I could already do cartwheels it all felt like an awakening, because I (18) haven’t done them for a long time. Last time I did that was in high school. So the (19) memory wasn’t the freshest and neither were the movements. It was a clever thought (20) that you should begin with handstands and then develop from there. It was a great (21) start. A good beginning considering it was long time since I’d done movements like (22) that. When things got more difficult it all got a bit more scary but then when I’d done (23) it everything was OK. The easiest part for me was doing it all on the flat, which felt good. (24) The exercise was well planned in order to develop technique. Alex, 20 years old.
Alex’s purpose for participating in the lesson was to develop as an athlete. The relations he made to fill the gap between the athlete he was and the competent athlete he wanted to become are concerned with the training of technical skills. His encounter with cartwheels was ‘an awakening’ (17) and, according to him, the design of the lesson was ‘clever’ (19). The positive aesthetic judgements ‘great start’ (20–21) and ‘good beginning’ (21) show that these entities of his experience contribute to the fulfilment of his purpose of participation. However, in Alex’s story we can see that an entity of experience seems to threaten the fulfilment in some way. The encounter with a difference in levels is valued as being ‘scary’ (22). Nevertheless, when following the direction of Alex’s meaning-making, ‘scary’ (22) then becomes ‘everything was OK’ (23). By using positive aesthetic judgements, Alex made sense of the action of doing something scary as a reasonable way of fulfilling the purpose of becoming a better athlete. This way of making sense of gymnastics can be understood with masculine connotations (Brown and Evans, 2004) in terms of not being afraid of getting hurt; instead ‘scary’ becomes transformed to something challenging. This is also reasonable in a context in which the PETE lecturer does all the exercises himself without problems or hesitation. Still, the aesthetic judgements ‘the easiest part’ (23) and ‘felt good’ (23) indicate a tension in the story. Although Alex was aware of the importance of overcoming feelings of uncertainty, he was also conscious of his personal feelings in a way that creates other possibilities. Alex made no fuss about the appropriateness of doing exercises that might prove difficult, but made his own choice about the best exercises for him.
But what happens when you are unable to overcome feelings of uncertainty? The following story is an example of how feelings of uncertainty interplay with the action of training technique: (25) I don’t think I learned that much, but it was fun watching myself in the film recording (26) and seeing that I was doing well. I didn’t dare to do the hard exercises even though I (27) could cartwheel on level ground. I was chicken and being scared was no fun. Ellen, 20 years old.
By following the direction of Ellen’s meaning-making, we can see that her story begins with an aesthetic judgement about her learning in terms of not learning ‘that much’ (25). In the rest of her story she explains why she made that particular judgement. By making the aesthetic judgement ‘fun’ (25) it is clear that she valued the possibility of seeing that she was doing cartwheels in the correct way. Doing movements correctly is valued as a positive sign of moving in the right direction towards becoming a good athlete. However, being a competent athlete also includes the expectation of daring to do all the exercises in order to improve technique. In the subsequent lines we can see that Ellen did not overcome her feeling of uncertainty and therefore did not do some of the exercises. Ellen made a relation between the athlete she was at present and the athlete she wanted to become by judging herself as ‘chicken’ (27). She valued the situation as negative by using the aesthetic judgement ‘being scared was no fun’ (27). In Ellen’s meaning-making, not being able to overcome feelings of uncertainty meant that she could not participate in the lesson in terms of learning much. In her meaning-making, the competent athlete emerged as a position of summoning up enough courage to perform difficult exercises. This way of making sense of her participation in the situation can be understood as a masculine stereotype (cf. Skelton, 1993) marginalizing Ellen’s possibility to participate and leads to a feeling of exclusion in this specific situation. Even though the students could choose which exercises to do, it is clear that doing ‘hard exercises’ was highly valued and closely linked to competency as an athlete.
Participation as development
In this study, participation as development is understood as students making sense of what they have achieved during the lessons in terms of improved or deteriorated performance. The following quotation is an example of which achievements can be regarded as leading to fulfilment and how they can be understood as gendered: (28) I felt that I wasn’t all that familiar with doing cartwheels and therefore did (29) handstands right from the beginning so that I could practise and be sure that I could (30) do them. I felt pretty worried at the beginning, because you are examined on some (31) parts and you are supposed to be good at them. Now that I’m confident about doing (32) handstands I’m really pleased and want to try more. However, my wrists feel a bit (33) sore but I guess that’s how it should be. Carl, 19 years old.
Carl’s purpose for participating in the lesson was to develop as an athlete. This purpose opened up a gap between the athlete he was at the beginning of the lesson and the athlete he wanted to be at the end. In his story, Carl filled this gap with relations about what he wanted to achieve in order to make sense of his experience. As Carl did not feel confident about his gymnastic ability he therefore focused on one exercise. By using the aesthetic judgement ‘worried’ (30), a feeling that later on in the story became ‘really pleased’ (32), Carl made sense of his new ability to stand on his hands as an achievement leading to the fulfilment of the lesson. The purpose of becoming a better athlete also enabled Carl to express pain (32–33) as something positive. The pain he felt and valued was a positive feedback of having done his job well. This way of making sense of pain has masculine connotations (cf. Brown and Evans, 2004; Skelton, 1993), in the social practice of sports, where the ability to withstand pain is valued as a sign of a certain masculine stereotype.
The students who made sense of the lesson in terms of developing as teachers also made relations about improving what they achieve during the lesson. This way of making sense is illustrated in the following story: (34) I have learned new ways of teaching basketball. Even though I have played basketball (35) at a high level none of the movements were totally new, but it was fun to think about (36) how you could do the movements in different ways. To me it is so very obvious but (37) even so you see it from another perspective at this level. Susan, 19 years old.
Susan was confident about her own capacity. She had played basketball at a high level (34–35) and was certain that she could play basketball well. As Susan had fulfilled the purpose of being a competent athlete in basketball before the lesson, the meaning-making in her story was about her future role as a PE teacher. The encounter between her previous and present experience of basketball did not lead to conflict or exclusion. Susan could participate in the lesson without feeling any tension between the different values in basketball as a competitive sport and basketball as a practice in PETE, because the activities during the PETE lesson were familiar to her and her way of understanding basketball. Susan filled the gap between the teacher she is at the moment and the developed teacher she wanted to become with a relation about how it was fun (35) to analyse elements of basketball movements in different ways. The development as a teacher in her story related to the different ways of teaching pupils to make movements reasonable within the activity of basketball. By using the aesthetic judgement ‘fun’ (35) Susan made sense of this achievement by showing that she valued being part of the situation and that she felt that she belonged there. Interestingly, that she had fulfilled the purpose of being a competent athlete before the lesson did not exclude Susan from participating successfully in the lesson. She could make use of being a competent athlete.
Discussion and conclusions
The aim of the study was to explore PETE students’ meaning-making of participating in gymnastics and basketball lessons using the aesthetic judgements that the students themselves used in stories written in connection with the lessons. The purposes that the students ascribed to participating in the lesson were to develop both as athletes and as teachers. However, the importance of being a competent athlete emerged as the main component of how the students made sense of their experience. In the stories there was a definite tendency for the students to value that they had to fulfil the purpose of being a highly competent athlete before they could make sense of the purpose of developing as a teacher, and that the majority of the students (34 out of 40) never included the purpose of developing as a teacher in their stories at all. By making the competent athlete the centre of their participation, other positions of participation were excluded or marginalized. Skelton (1993) shows how the small number of male students who were not part of the dominant group of male PETE students found it difficult to articulate their educational ideas and values. In much the same way, 20 years later, the present study indicates that different educational approaches are marginalized in the students’ stories when male and female students express their purpose of participation.
In the study, the purpose of developing as a competent athlete can further be clarified in three minor themes: participation as competition, participation as developing technique and participation as development. Participation as competition was made sense of in the way that all the students were aware of the competitive aspects of gymnastics and basketball outside PETE (such as in sports clubs), in contrast to gymnastics or basketball inside PETE; an awareness that added tension to their stories. Skelton (1993) discusses this tension in terms of male students finding it hard to embrace new educational ideas that are emphasized by the institution. The present study also showed that female students had difficulties in adopting educational ideas in their way of making sense of PETE. All the students made sense of participation as technique as something that was valued as necessary and positive, which is in line with the research conducted by Skelton (1993), Brown and Evans (2004) and Dowling (2011) that shows that physical prowess is highly valued in a sport. Few other dimensions or educational values are articulated (cf. Gard, 2006). In the students’ stories, participation as development was mainly made sense of in terms of whether they had improved as an athlete or not. The tension in the students’ stories relating to development concerned the level at which they were expected to perform. In line with a culture that promotes the pride of physical prowess (cf. Skelton, 1993; Brown and Evans, 2004; Dowling, 2011), many of the students had high expectations. Being a competent athlete meant performing gymnastics or basketball at an appropriate level in relation to competitive sport. Some of the students solved this conflict by fulfilling that level and others by telling themselves that they had done their best and that this was acceptable. Some of the students were left with the conflict, however, and therefore made sense of their participation as not being good enough, that is, not being competent enough as athletes, or not being able to fully participate in the social practice.
These results resonate with scholarly debates in PE and PETE around embodied performativity cultures with a focus on judgements and comparisons as well as an audit culture in which teachers as well as PETE students feel they need to perform in measurable ways (cf. Armour, 2010; Dowling, 2006; Webb and Quennerstedt, 2010). In PETE, the physical context also brings its own unique forms of additional performativity pressures since the students often are assessed on their physical performances. As Evans and Penney (2008: 43) argue: ‘In this context the “able” teacher […] is one who can speak, enact and embody the language of performativity and can meet its demands’.
If we summarize the results with a focus on the possibility of participating, we can see that Lisa and Ellen expressed problems with participating successfully in the lessons, and were consequently at risk of being marginalized. Their difficulties in being able to do the ‘hardest exercises’ led them to experience their participation as less successful, which is a reasonable way of making sense in a sport and/or educational culture that promotes braveness and physical prowess (Brown and Evans, 2004; Dowling, 2011; Flintoff and Webb, 2012; Skelton, 1993). However, it was not only the female students who were in danger of being marginalized by this order. Both Alex and Carl also avoided doing the ‘hardest exercises’, although they solved this ‘dilemma’ by making sense of scary exercises as something pleasant or challenging and pain as something positive, and in that way re-established their position in their stories. It is also important to note that not all the female students were marginalized by these orders. As Susan had fulfilled the demand of being a very competent athlete in basketball before the lesson started she could therefore participate with a strong position from the beginning as she belonged to the legitimate sphere. Her position was not bound to her sex, but to her being a competent athlete, which means that she fulfilled the ideal norm in terms of physical prowess.
As we can see, our study also shows that being a competent athlete had masculine connotations and confirms the research undertaken by Skelton (1993), Brown and Evans (2004), Dowling (2006, 2008) and others, which shows that PETE can be seen as an enterprise of masculinity. However, in line with research made by Connell and Messerschmidt (2005) the study also shows that there is a plurality of ways of being masculine in the stories and that the students’ meaning-making of gymnastics and basketball includes hegemonic masculinity as well as non-hegemonic masculinities.
By way of conclusion, in this study we have explored how meaning-making of participating in PETE is expressed in students’ stories by analysing what is being valued in the students’ meaning-making of gymnastics and basketball. The analysis shows how the competent athlete emerging in the students’ meaning-making has masculine connotations and how this way of valuing sport activities in PETE marginalizes alternative educational positions like the developing of professional identities (Dowling, 2011). However, even if all the students’ stories contribute to the collective appropriation of the type, the majority of the male and female stories do not include the projected, ideal type in all respects. In most of the stories, doing your best and not being a highly competent gymnast or basketball player are possible actions. When analysing the students’ way of making sense of their experiences, a flourish of small ruptures in the reconstruction of a position to be a competent athlete could be identified. In their stories, it was clear that many of the students expressed a tension between doing gymnastics or basketball within the context of competitive sport and doing the same activities within the context of PETE. Even if the students did not fulfil this awareness of contrasting ideals by undoing ‘the competent athlete’ completely, many of them did highlight the conflict. In further research it would be interesting to follow these ruptures and explore them in more depth.
Footnotes
Funding
This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.