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Enacting critical pedagogies within physical education (PE) contexts have been found to increase critical consciousness and disrupt hegemonic taken-for-granted assumptions about ability and the body. As an under-researched area, the aim of our research was to explore the extent to which a critical pedagogical approach in PE can disrupt normative ableist notions of disability through a disability-specific, critically orientated, tennis class. Six students from a large southeastern US university chose to participate and student video narratives and reflective essays were collated as data sources. Through inductive and deductive data analysis, the key themes constructed were: (1) 'the learning journey in critical education', underpinned by the following subthemes: (i) 'initial shock', (ii) 'new experiences', and (iii) 'humbling encounters'; and (2) 'consequences of critical pedagogy', supported by (a) 'building a community through meaningful relationships', and (b) 'change in perspective'. We conclude by discussing the pedagogical potential of our critical approach.

Background: PE curricula and pedagogy maintain dominant discourses of whiteness as normalized, lacking in cultural relevancy and disregarding racially minoritized students' cultural knowledges (Azzarito 2019, "'Look to the Bottom': Re-Writing the Body Curriculum Through Storylines." "Sport, Education and Society" 24 (6): 638-650; Clark 2020, "Toward a Critical Race Pedagogy of Physical Education." "Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy" 25 (4): 439-450; Culp 2020, "Thirdspace Investigations: Geography, Dehumanization, and Seeking Spatial Justice in Kinesiology: National Association for Kinesiology in Higher Education 39th Dudley Allen Sargent Commemorative Lecture 2020." "Quest (Grand Rapids, Mich)" 72 (2): 153-166; Flintoff and Dowling 2019, "'I Just Treat Them all the Same, Really': Teachers, Whiteness and (Anti) Racism in Physical Education." "Sport, Education and Society" 24 (2): 121-133). Both preservice and in-service PE teachers of color often experience marginalization, hypervisiblity, exclusion, racism, and must consistently negotiate an additional emotional 'load' when located within white educational spaces (Flintoff 2014, "Tales from the Playing Field: Black and Minority Ethnic Students' Experiences of Physical Education Teacher Education." "Race, Ethnicity and Education" 17 (3): 346-366, 2015, "Playing the 'Race' Card? Black and Minority Ethnic Students' Experiences of Physical Education Teacher Education." "Sport, Education and Society" 20: 190-211; Simon and Azzarito 2019a, "'Singled out Because of Skin Color … ': Exploring Ethnic Minority Female Teachers' Embodiment in Physical Education." "Sport, Education and Society" 24 (2): 105-120, 2019b, ""Putting Blinders on": Ethnic Minority Female PE Teachers' Identity Struggles Negotiating Racialized Discourses." "Journal of Teaching in Physical Education" 38 (4): 367-376.). Purpose: This study aimed to understand Black and Latinx pre-service PE teachers' negotiations of whiteness, and the accompanying emotional 'load,' at predominantly white institutions (PWIs). We utilized Critical Race Theory, Critical Whiteness Studies, and emotionality to establish a framework that included interrogating normalized discourses of whiteness through counternarratives (Milner and Howard 2013, "Counter-narrative as Method: Race, Policy and Research for Teacher Education." "Race, Ethnicity and Education" 16 (4): 536-561), destabilizing a white/'other' dichotomy, and validating emotions connected to racialized identities (Ahmed 2014, "Cultural Politics of Emotions." Edinburgh University Press). Method: This qualitative study employed visual narrative methods, extricating, via counternarratives to whiteness (Miller, Liu, and Ball 2020, "Critical Counter-Narrative as Transformative Methodology for Educational Equity." "Review of Research in Education" 44 (1): 269-300), the racialized experiential knowledge of 10 Black and Latinx pre-service PE teachers enrolled in predominantly white PE teacher education (PETE) programs. The researchers collected data through interviews, written reflections, and visual texts. Data, including interview transcriptions, participant-generated images, and researcher reflections, were analyzed both inductively and deductively. Results: The results of this study demonstrated how participants first presented emotionally distanced negotiations of overwhelming whiteness in their PETE programs, engaging in a self-preservation response to inherent 'othering' and hypervisibility (Evans-Winters and Esposito 2010). With time and developed rapport with the researchers, 'cracks' in their positive narratives appeared as more details emerged about the pain caused by consistent experiences of racism in their PWIs. It was clear that participants' racialization through dominant whiteness presented a multi-layered emotionality that had to be masked in order to be accepted within their white educational communities (Kohli 2018, "Behind School Doors: The Impact of Hostile Racial Climates on Urban Teachers of Color." "Urban Education" 53 (3): 307-333). Conclusion: Participants' emotional responses to racially 'othered' hypervisibility provided insights to program attrition by students of color, and how teacher education maintains racialized discourses of whiteness. The results of this research support the idea that PE teacher educators need to demonstrate an outright and long-standing commitment to racial equity and to minoritized students' emotional well-being before students of color may open up and share what's 'really going on,' thus furthering emotional connections and understandings that can prevent pre-service teacher of color attrition. In the case of the Black and Latinx teachers in this study, the norms of whiteness which underpinned their educational context denied them their humanity regarding their potentially strong emotions towards their experiences of racism, prejudice, discrimination, biases, and stereotypes, placing them as 'outsiders' within predominantly white 'collective bodies' (their PETE programs and institutions).

Introduction: Physical education (PE) and physical education teacher education (PETE) are informed by whiteness, resulting in marginalization and forced hypervisibility for community members of color. Culturally relevant and sustaining pedagogies (CRSP) facilitate "within group . . . [and] across-group cultural practices" for students and teachers of color to thrive. Purpose: This study highlights CRSP grounded in the experiences of Black and Latinx preservice PE teachers enrolled in predominantly White PETE programs. Methods: For this qualitative visual inquiry, 10 Black and Latinx PETE students each completed three interviews, coupled with participant-generated imagery. Data were analyzed inductively and deductively. Results: Students' narratives included "othering" and hypervisibility. Participants' understandings of CRSP illustrated the meaning-making they associated with CRSP. Participants identified co-conspirators, sources of support, and PETE pedagogies within a CRSP framework. Conclusion: The narratives support the call to embed CRSP within PETE programs to center students' diverse cultural and ethnic identities.

Purpose: To understand where and how Latina girls are physically active outside of the Reflective Educational Approach to Character and Health program and the impact of female role models on participation in the program. Methods: The authors implemented a yearlong after-school physical activity and literacy program for fifth and sixth grade girls (N = 22 girls) in a low-income, urban community. Four university students/coaches delivered all sessions. Data were triangulated through 10 Latina girls' interviews, student journals, coaches' journals, researcher journals, and field notes, and analyzed using constant comparison. Results: Girls participated in leisure-time physical activities with family in community spaces, in spite of social and cultural barriers. Female coaches facilitated girls' increased engagement by acting as strong role models and fostering caring relationships. Conclusion: After-school programs, community spaces, and strong connections with coaches play a critical role in students' engagement in physical activity.

Gender in physical education (PE) traditionally enacts discourses of hegemonic masculinities where girls are frequently positioned as the 'problem' regarding their disengagement. The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine the experiences of mostly ethnic minority and low-socioeconomic status elementary school girls enrolled in an urban physical activity (PA) and literacy afterschool program, known as REACH. This case study purposefully sampled 12 female participants and data were triangulated through interviews, journals, and field notes. Data were analyzed using constant comparison and open/axial coding. Both school and school PE were conceptualized by the girls as marginalizing, as they regularly disengaged. Further, the girls received implicit messages related to what it means to be a girl in both school and PE contexts. The gendered meanings idealized by participants represent constraining discourses and stereotypes regarding embedded femininities. However, participants were able to reject some gender stereotypes, reflecting a sense of autonomy in their lived experiences from the REACH program. The implications of this study represent the need for research which constructs gendered experiences as fluid, along with the potential importance of afterschool programs in empowering marginalized students.

The physical education teacher education (PETE) pipeline makes it clear to historically racially minoritized pre-service teachers the value of White norms and experiences while simultaneously "othering" their cultural knowledge. Using Critical Race Theory, Critical Whiteness Studies, and emotionality as theoretical frameworks, this visual narrative inquiry explored self-identified Black and Latinx pre-service physical education teachers' (n = 10) stories of a racialized identity within predominantly White PETE programs as well as the emotionality of whiteness for myself as a White researcher and teacher educator. I utilized narrative-based semi-structured and conversational interviews, along with photo-elicitation, as methods of data collection. The results contrast participants' experiences of normalized racism with my heightened emotions of shock and dismay, shedding light on my own white emotionality toward racism. The critical examination of the emotions of whiteness demonstrated the potential to lead PETE faculty toward deeper reflection as to how whiteness is upheld, but also how they might further work to de-center whiteness within their pedagogies, curricula, and programs.

Background: Ethnic minority physical education teachers who work in predominantly White schools may face multiple forms of marginalization due to racialized discourses of White normativity. In addition, the intersection of whiteness and hegemonic masculinity embedded within physical education may result in an "othering" of teachers who are located outside the accepted norms of their schools. Purpose: The authors examined the embodied identities of ethnic minority female physical education teachers who work in predominantly White schools to identify how whiteness informs their sense of self. Methods: This study utilized narrative-based semistructured and conversational interviews and photo elicitation as the methods for visual narrative inquiry. Results: Participants not only enacted colorblind discourses to make their racialized identities invisible, but also experienced identity struggles in their effort to negotiate hypervisibility as minorities within their schools. Discussion: The identity struggle of racialized self-representations in White schools represents how multiple marginalizing factors prevent ethnic minorities from overtly expressing their authentic selves.

There is a significant lack of diversity within the teaching population nationwide that reflects historical, political, and institutional racialized inequality. In the context of physical education, ethnic minority teachers often report feeling 'different,' marginalized, and struggle to negotiate the dominant school culture they feel they do not belong to. Purpose: To explore how race and gender intersect in the lived experiences of ethnic minority female PE teachers in predominantly white schools in the United States. Methods: This study used narrative and visual research methods. Results: Participants often felt isolated and uncomfortable in their educational contexts, actively seeking out other ethnic minorities to make meaningful connections and validate their lived experiences. Discussion: The intersection of race and gender in participants' embodied identities reflects sexist and racist systems in which white privilege is positioned as normal or universal. PE and PE teacher education programs must actively work to disrupt and destabilize these norms.

While ethnic-minority young people are increasingly defined as bodies "at disadvantage," marked as less fit or less healthy than the White "norm," the ways young people construct meanings around their bodies as a result of global health imperatives have received scant attention. The purpose of this participatory visual research was to incorporate an interactive, multimedia "Body Curriculum" into two fitness units in secondary urban schools to assist ethnic-minority young people in critically responding to pervasive media monocultural representations of fit bodies. Students' engagement with Glogster (a creative visual learning platform) not only enabled them to criticize fitness as a "White thing," but also offered them a pedagogical space to challenge such racialized and gendered media narratives with self-representations.

This paper presents the experiences of a racially integrated research team – two Black male scholars and one white female scholar – drawn from a series of recorded conversations and journal entries as part of weekly research meetings while engaging in race research across more than a year's time. While our work inherently centered race by nature of the topics we researched, we chose to also critically reflect on what it means to do research together as Black and white scholars, and how kinesiology might benefit from our model of working together. Through thoughtful reflection linked to scholarship, we aimed to answer the questions of how our work yielded new understandings of the data we were collecting and analyzing, and how the field might utilize our collective research team experience. Using Critical Race Theory, Critical Whiteness Studies, and intersectionality, we situated our experiences of working together within the existing literature on race dynamics in higher education to illustrate how our processes disrupted whiteness and furthered a justice-oriented approach to conducting race research. First, we highlight the status of race in higher education and kinesiology, with a specific focus on PE teacher education (PETE), since that is our field of study. From there, we outline the theoretical frameworks that informed the research project and our approach to working together. Next, we use the meeting recordings and transcriptions to analyze how the research team functioned, highlighting Korey Boyd's and Cory Dixon's experiences of engaging in race-related research and then turning to Mara Simon's reflexive attempts to disrupt whiteness even as she embodied it within the group dynamics. Finally, we conclude by addressing negotiations and tensions of this process, along with implications and recommendations for future race research in kinesiology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In today's school climate of accountability, researchers in Physical Education (PE) pedagogy have contested current fitness curricula that aim to manage, control, and normalize young people's bodies. This participatory visual research incorporated a Body Curriculum into a fitness unit in a secondary school (a) to assist young people critically deal with the media narratives of perfect bodies they consume in their daily lives, and (b) to examine how participants responded to a Body Curriculum. It was found that while participants rejected media fabrications of the "ideal body" and the "unhealthy" ideals they circulate in society, they recognized the difficulty of not being "caught up" in media storytelling. Participants' views of their own bodies, however, were not malleable, but rooted in narrow, fixed heteronormative white ideals of "looking a certain way" to "fit" society norms of physical appearance and attractiveness. The benefits and limitations of implementing a Body Curriculum are recognized.

This paper advances a socio-educational and critical orientation for the study of human movement to valorize and recenter voicelessness. Representing the subjugation of marginalized people can open up possibilities for transformative research projects invested in the reimagining of equitable and inclusive studies of human movement and education. First, the authors suggest that ongoing intellectual tensions in the field are unproductive; instead, the authors advance a social justice agenda, advocating for an educational, sociocultural, and critical orientation toward human movement. Second, the authors argue for moving beyond the "exercise is medicine" mantra as a dominant, normative framing of kinesiology. Third, drawing from a socio-educational perspective, the authors propose intersectionality as a crucial component of critical race theory to explore and center the significance of health, physical activity, and movement in the lives of Black, Latinx, Native, LGBQ, and transgender groups, people with disabilities, and those who face body weight stigma, from their own viewpoints. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Disproportionate rates of poverty among Black and Latine populations in the United States exemplify material consequences and ideological meritocracies of systemic racism. While education is often touted as a way to escape poverty, legacies of racism, classism, and ableism embedded within higher education and physical education teacher education (PETE) confront Black and Latine undergraduates directly, forcing them to navigate additional emotional and social barriers. We examined how Black and Latine pre-service physical education (PE) teachers enrolled in predominantly white institutions faced specific hurdles and/or barriers to teacher licensure along with material consequences of classism and ableism. We used qualitative visual inquiry, including narrative-based, semi-structured, and conversational interviews, and photo elicitation. We analyzed data deductively using intersectional Critical Race Theory. The first theme highlights a collective narrative of socioeconomic status’ bounding role in participants’ PETE stories, evidencing potential disruptions to successful teacher licensure. We then shift focus to share the stories of four Black and Latine pre-service PE teachers with learning disabilities. Participants highlighted a discourse of meritocracy, where academic accommodations were perceived as “advantages,” overlapping with institutional neoliberalism that ignores systemic oppression for poor and working-class pre-service PE teachers with and without learning disabilities. Participants’ narratives highlight systematic patterns of marginalization related directly to socioeconomic status and learning ability that PETE faculty and administrators are responsible for addressing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relevance of ascriptive characteristics in defining national identity—i.e. attributes that categorically exclude certain groups from national identity—depends on an individual's perception of immigration-related diversity. Increasing diversity can stand for both a growing threat as well as growing familiarity. In contrast to many other studies, we conceptualize increasing diversity as a factor of growing familiarity, reducing the relevance of ascriptive attributes. We tested this familiarization thesis using multilevel models based on ISSP data of 21 countries and 28 West German districts surveyed in 2003/4 and 2013/14. We exploit cross-sectional and longitudinal effects. Our findings reveal that increasing diversity reduces the relevance of ascriptive characteristics in defining national identity. At the country level, this relationship relies on longitudinal effects and at the district level, on an interaction of cross-sectional and longitudinal effects. We discuss the results and make suggestions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers the author's insights on the relation of culturally relevant pedagogy (CRP) in physical education curricula. Topics discussed by the author include the engagement of students in sports to promote positive attitudes, promotion of sustainable physical activity that reflects on health and fitness perspective, and the tenets of CRP which include academic success, cultural competence, and critical consciousness.