Matthew James Green

The Reframing Sport for Teenage Girls: Tackling Teenage Disengagement report presented survey data from 2291 girls and 2024 boys aged 11–18 (Women in Sport, 2022). Teenage girls reported lower leve...

Whilst not a statutory component, swimming can be taught during physical education (PE) lessons in secondary schools in England. Therefore, this article presents ethnographic accounts of pupils’ and teachers’ perceptions and experiences of swimming in PE in one state-funded secondary school in northern England. Drawing on participant observations, 14 focus groups with 49 pupils, and interviews with nine PE teachers, this article details how pupils navigated the embodied, relational and emotional dimensions of swimming lessons, and the extent to which these differed between boys and girls. Empirical findings included pupils’ heightened feelings of embarrassment when changing into swimming attire, intensified social awkwardness through peer gaze when walking to the swimming pool, and participation avoidance strategies, particularly amongst girls. The way teachers accommodated, regulated and disciplined boys’ and girls’ feelings, preferences and behaviours differed. Pupils’ and teachers’ perceptions, experiences and behaviours, and gendered differences within these, are indicative of Elias’s (2012) conceptions of (gendered) civilised bodies in relation to the schooling of pupils’ bodies through structural, behavioural and relational social constraints. By examining data concerning pupils’ and teachers’ perceptions, experiences and behaviours, this article highlights the importance of PE teachers being alert to and accommodating cultural and gendered sensitivities associated with nakedness to mitigate boys’ and girls’ displeasure, fears, and avoidance of swimming.

This article provides a figurational analysis of extra-curricular sport within one secondary school in England. Viewing physical education (PE) as involving gendered and age-based networks of interdependencies, we examine how extra-curricular sport was provided, how pupils’ behaviour was enabled and constrained, and how teacher–pupil relations became closer and more informal with age. Generated through participant observations, pupil focus groups and teacher interviews, ethnographic data is thematically analysed and interpreted through Elias’s ( 1978) concepts of figuration, power and habitus. Despite no differences in boys’ and girls’ rates of engagement, the provision of extra-curricular sport reflected PE's long-standing traditions concerning gender appropriateness. Whilst attendance at lunchtime sport clubs and afterschool sport practices reduced with age, opportunities for and engagement in inter-school sport fixtures became more frequent with age. Particularly evident within minibus journeys, such opportunities heightened pupils’ expressions of their sporting and gendered habitus, and degrees of informality within teacher–pupil relations. Such relations were partly enabled by the temporary removal of constraining PE policy and teachers’ coaching pedagogy. However, one unintended consequence of more informal teacher–pupil relations was some pupils’ perceptions of teacher favouritism, heightening power imbalances between sporty and less sporty pupils. As such, we recommend that the Department for Education’s (2024) vision of extra-curricular sport being tailored towards a culture of participation, targeting less active pupils, is at the forefront of PE teachers’ planning and delivery of extra-curricular sport.

This article examines pupils’ and teachers’ perceptions of blurred boundaries between banter and bullying in secondary physical education (PE) in England. Focus on this topic is timely amid policymaker concerns regarding young people's banter escalating into bullying, or bullying being downplayed as banter within educational and sporting environments. Perceptions were gained through 14 focus groups with 49 pupils and nine interviews with PE teachers, which were thematically analysed using the concepts of figuration and power relations ( Elias, 1978 ). Whilst pupils conceptually distinguished banter from bullying, differentiating between the two in practice proved difficult during PE lessons. Difficulty was premised on subjective evaluations of performance-related comments concerning who was involved, the intention behind comments and how they were received, and if comments were considered humorous or harmful. Within the PE figuration, sporting competence proved a key power resource, resulting in humorously framed performance-related comments illuminating and heightening power imbalances between sporty and less sporty pupils. Given these pupil power dynamics and how performance-related comments were construed by some as banter and others as bullying, PE teachers should regularly remind pupils of conceptual differences between banter and bullying, set clear behavioural expectations, and consistently regulate borderline banter.

This paper explores teachers', parents' and pupils' perceptions and described experiences of school toilet policies, provisions and practices within state‐funded primary (5–11 years) and secondary (11–16 years) schools in England. In doing so, this research critically examines how school‐specific policies and toilet provisions influence children's and young people's use of toilets at school and identifies issues which pupils must navigate within this heavily tabooed space. Seeking to portray a range of perspectives, we present data generated through three mixed‐method surveys completed by 96 schoolteachers, 158 parents and 198 secondary school pupils. Adopting an overarching wide‐angled lens, we combine descriptive statistics with thematic analysis to detail similarities and nuances of parents', teachers' and pupils' perceptions around (a) accessibility of school toilets, (b) problematic pupil behaviour and (c) provision quality. The different perspectives offered provide a wide‐angled lens which allows for a wider dialogue between pupils, parents and teachers. Our key findings underscore the need for standardised, equity‐focused guidelines that address both infrastructural inadequacies and behavioural dynamics.

Despite growing research concerning banter in educational settings, this article is the first to examine how primary‐school aged children conceptualise, engage in, and navigate banter in England. This focus is important given this impressionable phase of childhood development and teachers and policymakers concerns regarding possible links between banter and bullying. Key findings from eight focus groups with 32 children (aged 9–10 years) are thematically analysed using theoretical concepts of individual civilising process, habitus, and figuration. Whilst being able to differentiate ‘good’ from ‘bad’ banter, pupils conceptualised banter in a prosocial manner, reported regularly engaging in banter for enjoyment and social bonding purposes. Furthermore, pupils navigated banter by appraising content, relationships between those involved, and how comments were received. The figurational dynamics within the school day meant that banter most often took place within breaktimes, whereby pupils mostly engaged with like‐minded same‐sex peers. To differentiate good from bad banter and navigate such banter, pupils had to exhibit relatively sophisticated cognitive, emotional, and social intelligence. To substantiate and develop our findings, ethnographic research is needed to gather observations of pupils' (and possibly teachers') engagement in banter and the extent that banter is self‐regulated and/or socially constrained by peers and teachers.

This article provides ethnographic insights from one state-funded secondary school in the north of England detailing gendered differences within changing room procedures and practices when changing attire for physical education (PE). Attained through participant observations, focus groups with pupils and individual interviews with PE teachers, the school's changing rooms were found to encompass multiple spaces, which served dual intended and unintended functions and social consequences. Applying the concepts of figuration ( Elias, 1978 ), [gendered] civilised bodies ( Elias, 2012 ), habitus ( Elias, 1978 ) and emotions ( Elias, 2001 ) as theoretical prisms revealed how PE teacher-informed procedures and expectations were gendered. Furthermore, with age, boys’ and girls’ diverging changing room behaviours and emotional navigations became increasingly gendered. This article demonstrates how changing rooms not only serve practical functions, but also evoke social and emotional processes which impact peer-group dynamics and pupils’ experiences of PE. Given this, participatory action research could be undertaken aimed at creating more equitable, inclusive and effective localised changing room policies, procedures and practices. This study could also be expanded into investigating policies, practices and experiences within other similar spaces, such as toilets and swimming pools.

This article provides a figurational sociological analysis of how secondary school pupils and teachers perceived, manifested and determined (in)appropriate banter in Physical Education (PE). Generated through lesson observations, pupil focus groups and teacher interviews, ethnographic data is thematically analysed and interpreted through Elias's concepts of figuration and individual civilising process. Banter was increasingly normalised and legitimised amongst most older pupils, who often enjoyed banter's motivating and competitive functions. Such productive functions were deemed appropriate, whilst judgements on inappropriate banter were fluid, relationally dependent and emotion-laden. Within a PE figuration centred on sociality, competitiveness and performance-related commentary, to successfully understand, engage in and navigate (in)appropriate banter, older pupils embodied cognitive foresight, social awareness and emotional intelligence. Given these qualities, social constructions of appropriateness and policy-based concerns regarding inappropriateness, we recommend educators/pupils and coaches/players develop a localised shared understanding of appropriate banter and an agreed mechanism to report inappropriate banter.

This paper critically reflects upon the experiences of three student researchers during a participatory research project conducted in an English sixth-form academy. Discussion is centred upon a research conversation involving three student researchers (aged 17 years) and two postgraduate researchers, from York St John University, UK. Collectively, critical insights are offered into the process of conducting education-based participatory research; leading to the identification of situations in which ethical challenges, tensions and power imbalances arose. Through reflection, attention is paid to how researchers can disrupt neoliberal educational agendas and create opportunities for democratic research. The narratives presented in this paper offer recommendations for facilitating more democratic research relationships, that centralise the valuing of all voices and promote collaborative approaches to research. Envisioning this ‘space’ for future research through adaptation of Freire's ‘culture circles’, the article concludes with suggestions of how researchers may work to humanise research relationships.