The social construction of gender in physical education

This paper presents some findings from a case study of the social reproduction of gender in one university physical education programme. It explores how knowledge about gender is organized in courses in the programme and examines students' interpretations of and reactions to this knowledge. The curriculum in this programme is organized around a distinction between biological and behavioural courses on the one hand and socio-cultural courses on the other. Each type of course provides students with alternative views of gender. When gender is taught in biological and behavioural courses it is examined as a personal attribute and the focus of attention is on how differences between males and females explain the gap in their performance levels. When gender is taught in socio-cultural courses it is viewed as a social issue, and the focus of attention is upon analyses of the ways in which play, games, and sport have been socially constructed to produce and legitimize male hegemony. Despite this diversity in the curriculum students' definitions of important knowledge lead them to view knowledge from biological and behavioural courses as “really useful” and knowledge from socio-cultural courses as peripheral. Students see biological and behavioural explanations of sex differences in performance capabilities as information they can use to improve performance. Information about the social construction of gender issues is seen as peripheral as it does not help them to function within the existing social frameworks.