Pathologizing Billy: Enabling and Constraining the Body of the Condemned

Abstract

The following discussion and narrative are based on the past experiences of a white, middle class physical education teacher working with a Native Canadian student who was diagnosed as having severe emotional and behavior disorders. In presenting the evolving relationship of a teacher and her student as a form of “evocative representation” (Richardson, 2000), we attempt to locate examples of how young bodies are enabled and constrained through physical activity. In so doing, we also identify some of the tensions that accompany cross-cultural work with oppressed children and youth in schools as a means to illustrate how cycles of oppression are sustained through discourse and discursive practices.