Listening to the Body in Physical Education and Sport

Abstract

Purpose: Within physical education (PE) and sport, the body is constituted by ideas and discourses that legitimize certain forms of truth about image, health, and competence. This study used the Listening Guide method to explore voices in undergraduate students’ experiences of the body in relation to dominant PE and sport discourses. Method: Participants were four undergraduate third-year students (2 male, 2 female, aged 20–25 years) attending a 4-year 240 European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System Bachelor program in PE and sport science. Interviews were analyzed using a Foucauldian perspective on the working of discourses and power, via the four steps of the Listening Guide. Results: We identified joy of life (body as nature) and guiding (living norms) voices when participants referred to PE and struggle (body as machine) and questioning (functionality norms) voices when they talked about sport. Discussion/Conclusion: Voices spoke while moving between a “pull to train” paradigm and a “push back and think” perspective, aligning with the discursive logic of participants’ social context. This discursive logic transmitted ways of constituting knowledge about the body, together with social practices, or forms of subjectivity that perpetuated dominant understandings. We propose that the Listening Guide method can peel away layers of consciousness related to dominant discourses in PE and sport.