The reproduction of biological ‘race’ through physical education textbooks and curriculum

Abstract

This paper examines the usage of ‘race’ in high school physical education textbooks in Australia. In particular, it examines the concept of biological ‘race’ in connection with human performance in sport. DNA studies do not indicate that separate classifiable subspecies (races) exist within modern humans. A content analysis of physical education textbooks in Australia suggests that they are sites that continue to perpetuate myths of ‘race’ and the ‘science’ related to it. As such the utilization of biological ‘race’ as a variable for athletic performance naturalizes embedded biases, is anti-scientific and is potentially indicative of other racist practices within education. Further this commonsense understanding of biological ‘race’ continues to develop uncritically and unchecked. University students in the fields of exercise science and physical education generally develop from students who excelled in high school physical education (PE). The power of curriculum and pedagogy result in the reproduction of biological ‘race’ that has become reified in the field of physical education.

Racial Representation in Physical Education Textbooks for Secondary Schools

“…The concept of race is still built on erroneous biological considerations that are used to transmit expectations on the performance of individuals that are based on a supposedly collective potential, a message that responds to racist biopolitics and corporal differentiation (McDonald, 2013). This research project aims to identify the level of racial diversity with regard to the people represented in the images contained in Spanish physical education textbooks.…”

‘Race’ talk! Tensions and contradictions in sport and PE

“…It is clear from the most cursory interest in sport, PE and society that the lived reality is quite different and ambiguous (Spracklen 2008;Hylton 2009Hylton , 2013Fitzpatrick 2013;McDonald 2013 wide; yet from research into racism in sport the public awareness of these issues is widespread, where many know that racism takes place, though it is always 'over there' (Hylton, 2009;Long & McNamee, 2004). For many this racism is part of the game and something that enables an advantage to be stolen.…”

“…The students initially exchange uncritical 'race' talk, without anxiety… because often the first time white students get the opportunity to problematise 'race' is in discrete moments in their academic careers such as in a classroom like mine (Sailes 1993;Essed 2002 a, b;McDonald 2013;Douglas and Halas 2013). A student's ability to transform from complicit to resistive can emerge when they challenge taken for granted constructions of 'them' and as a result 'us'.…”

“…Critical race scholarship has been used in sport and PE by Singer (2005), Burdsey (2007, Hylton (2009Hylton ( , 2010, Spracklen (2008), Long andSpracklen (2011), Harrison et al (2004), Douglas and Halas (2013), Fitzpatrick (2013) and McDonald (2013) to articulate a political application of 'race' as a starting point for critical activism, to disrupt whiteness, and to explore the implications of 'race' and racism for PE and sport. CRT has been used to centre 'race' and racialised relations in analyses of social issues and to focus critical lenses where disciplines have consciously or otherwise excluded them.…”

Born this Way?: U.S. College Students Make Sense of the Biosocial Underpinnings of Race and Other Identities

“…Many higher education scholars and practitioners have aligned with the first camp in their promotion of identity as a socially constructed concept (Adams, Bell, & Griffin, 2007; Torres, Jones, & Renn, 2009), while biological explanations of identity have largely been rejected (McDonald, 2013;Tawa & Kim, 2011). College students are likely to be educated about race, gender, sexual orientation, and other identities through the paradigm of "social identities" (Jones & Abes, 2013) and social constructionism (Khanna & Harris, 2009;Morning, 2009).…”