(Dis)Abling the (health and) physical in education: ability, curriculum and pedagogy

Abstract

In this short discursive paper our aim is to introduce issues which have underpinned and are pursued in this special issue of Sport, Education and Society. In important respects the development of the special issue represented a challenge to make some inroads into the sustained silence surrounding ‘ability’ in physical education that Evans (2004) identified as having profound implications for teachers and learners in physical education. Evans (2004) brought to the fore the tendency for ‘ability’ ‘to be characterised as a one-dimensional, static entity’ , rather than ‘as a dynamic, sociocultural construct and process’ (p. 99, original emphasis) and prompted consideration of how to counter reductionist understandings and portrayals of ‘ability’ in physical education.