Sociology Of Sport

886 Words4 Pages
“The poverty of theory: class configurations in the discourse of Physical Education and Health (PEH)” Part 1: Summary of the Reading Today’s reading, ‘The poverty of theory’: class configurations in the discourse of Physical Education and Health (PEH), by John Evans and Brian Davies (2010), they view the fact that, “contemporary research in PE and Health (PEH) has largely overlooked one of the key determinants of social behavior, social class and its expression in and outside schools; an omission that ha quite serious consequences for how we (researchers and teachers) think about a conceptualize the purposes of PE in schools and what it can, and can not, achieve” (p.199). The article shows how, “in PEH we are unlikely to achieve either balanced or complex understandings of what PEH is for, what achievements and ‘abilities‘ are to be valued and what we as researchers and teachers can reasonably be expected to achieve” (p.199). The authors use a specific framework: they look at other peoples research through their books, conferences and films. The authors use the conflict theory as they look at how social class plays a role in athletics and sport. They, “talk about the sociology of education, physical education, comprehensive schooling, ‘the body’ and social class” and believe that, “social class is going to feature prominently for a number of reasons, not least because we’ve been preoccupied” (p. 199). Evans and Davies, “both remain convinced that class still matters and deeply curious as to how it is inscribed in formal education” (p.200). Within the article the authors point out that, “it is class that has long guided our views of ‘others’ as of more or less value.... yet for all its impact on our daily lives it has become something of a forbidden research area” (p.200). They believe the silence of social class, “arises partly because class had been
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