‘Go for it Girl’adolescent girls’ responses to the implementation of an activist approach in a core physical education programme

Abstract

This paper reports on the responses from adolescent girls to the use of an activist approach (Oliver and Kirk, 2015) by their teachers over the course of one school year during their core physical education lessons. The study took place in four secondary schools in different areas of Glasgow city. Approximately 110 girls aged 13-14 participated in this study as part of their regular physical education classes. The themes arising from the data were: 1) through variety and choice the girls were opened up to a wider range of possibilities in physical education; 2) relationships between peers (pupil-pupil) and teachers-pupils were central to the girls' engagement. We conclude that through the use of an activist approach, and in contrast to their experience of traditional, multi-activity physical education, girls responded positively to variety and choice as they co-constructed their physical education programme with their teachers, and the development of better relationships with their teacher and among themselves created a supportive learning environment.

Pupils’ Motivational and Emotional Responses to Pedagogies of Affect in Physical Education in Scottish Secondary Schools

“…By intentionally listening and responding, a critical element of an activist approach, the teachers learned that to better facilitate student interest, motivation, and learning, they needed to consistently embed choice within their lessons, and that novelty and variety were not only enjoyable, but necessary. This is consistent with other findings from activist studies [ 20 , 24 ]). Additionally, as the girls from the focus group were so vocal about these factors being part of their PE experience during the fieldwork, we might assume that they are not regular features in the more traditional form of PE that they had normally experienced, i.e., the multi-activity short block program.…”

“…As the girls were experiencing learning in a ‘new’ way (i.e., through an activist approach), they found more enjoyment in their PE lessons. One reason was that they were offered choices during the sampling lessons that were a feature of the Building the Foundation (Btf) phase of the approach (see [ 20 ] for an overview of this). When asked about what was different about PE, choice was given as a common factor in the girls’ enjoyment of PE.…”

Using discussion to inform action: Formative research on nature-based physical activity as a means of fostering relatedness for girls in physical and health education

“…Then they choose if they want to run or walk, and they set their own goal to achieve.' Providing girls with choice, a sense of autonomy, has been found to increase participation and motivation in PHE (Lamb et al, 2018;Mitchell et al, 2013). The teachers also spoke of the girls' appreciation of doing yoga in nature.…”

Boys’ Experience of Physical Education When Their Gender Is in a Strong Minority

“…A literature search indicates that gender-related research in PE is most often concerned with girls’ well-being, inclusion, and engagement ( Garrett, 2004 ; Oliver and Lalik, 2004 ; Oliver et al, 2009 ; Hill, 2015a ; Oliver and Kirk, 2016 ; Lamb et al, 2018 ) even if there are studies focused upon boys’ relation to PE ( Davison, 2000 ; Drummond, 2003 ; Tischler and McCaughtry, 2011 , 2014 ; Hill, 2015b ; Gerdin, 2017 ; Gerdin and Larsson, 2018 ; Monney and Gerdin, 2018 ). Benefits of single-sex vs. mixed sex PE has been studied in a few studies concerning, for instance, students’ activity levels or heart rate in single-sex or mixed groups (e.g., Mutz and Burrmann, 2014 ; Póvoas et al, 2018 ; Wallace et al, 2020 ).…”