Inclusion and exclusion in multi-ethnic physical education: an intersectional perspective

Abstract

ABSTRACTCurrent educational policies on inclusion emphasise viewing ethnically diverse populations as a resource, yet scholars have pointed out that the Norwegian school system seems to value diversity to an only limited extent. This critique applies to physical education (PE) in Western countries. In this article, based on students’ stories from a multi-ethnic PE context, an intersectional perspective is used to investigate how processes of inclusion and exclusion are revealed. Data consist of semi-structured interviews with 17 students of diverse backgrounds and fieldnotes from observation in 56 PE lessons. Three questions are addressed: How are students’ cultural backgrounds acknowledged by teachers and students in a PE class? How are aspects of culture and ethnicity present in the activities being taught? How are aspects of race, ethnicity, and culture reflected in the communication in two multi-ethnic PE classes? The findings indicate that knowledge of students’ cultural backgrounds is not considered important for PE and that taught activities silently reflect a taken-for-granted majority culture. This paper makes some reflections on the implications of those findings.