Performing Identities in Physical Education

Abstract

This paper shows how a group of young people and researchers, through their reading of images, performed “identity work” within discourses of the body and gender in physical education. To explore young people's identity narratives and physicality, the researchers used an ethnographic method using photo-elicitation. Findings in this study showed the complex ways girls and boys, picked up, resisted, and negotiated male and female body signifiers by “doing girl” and “doing boy” in the school context. Given these results, the researchers discuss several implications for educators and scholars to consider in working toward the new gender agenda in physical education.