Changing Gendered Practices in Physi Education: Working with Teachers

Abstract

This paper examines new possibilities for gender reform in physical education in the context of what has gone before. The first section of the paper reviews the ways in which gender reform in physical education has been theorized and implemented in the United Kingdom and Australia, and the second reports on an Australian professional development and evaluation project which has been informed by a position which understands gender as socially constructed. While this is not a new position in terms of academic writing about gender in physical education, there have been few reports of physical education initiatives in schools or educational systems which have been specifically informed by such an approach. Finally, this paper will report on how successful, at this stage of the project, professional development workshops have been in motivating initiatives in schools.