"Permission to Speak": A Postcolonial View on Racialized Bodies and PE in the Current Context of Globalization. Issue 2 (2nd April 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Azzarito, Laura
• Is Part Of: Research quarterly for exercise and sport. Volume 87:Issue 2(2016)
• Page Start: 141
• Page End: 150
• Publication Date: 2016-04-02
• Subjects: Intersectionality -- physical education -- postcolonialism -- social justice; Physical education and training -- Periodicals; Health education -- Periodicals; Recreation -- Periodicals; Physical Education and Training -- Periodicals; Sports -- Periodicals; Exercise -- Periodicals; Education -- Periodicals; Lichamelijke opvoeding; Sport; Exercice -- Périodiques; Sports -- Périodiques; 613.7105
• DOI: 10.1080/02701367.2016.1166474
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0270-1367

Abstract

Abstract : The current neoliberal context of schools presents difficult challenges in addressing persistent issues of social inequalities. In this article, first, I argue that because of today's market-driven education, the rise of fitness testing in school physical education (PE) can be seriously detrimental to young people in general and to ethnic-minority young people's embodied identity in particular. Second, I explain how the racialization process circulated by the body-at-risk discourse, sustained by the media, and reproduced by high-stakes testing in PE forces ethnic-minority young people to construct their identities through White eyes, which alienates them from a consciousness of their own identity. Third, I explore the possible uses and pitfalls of Spivak's theoretical notion of "strategic essentialism" to put forward strategies to build a positive image of the "other" while attempting to avoid the erasure of difference. Fourth, I conclude the article by suggesting how Spivak's notion of strategic essentialism can be useful in rethinking current PE fitness practices.