Biological Differences or Social Constructions? The Entanglement of Sex and Gender in Health and Physical Education
Year: 2018
Type: dissertation
Abstract: Increasing concern over the wellness of young people has placed an increased emphasis on health and physical education as part of the schooling process for young men and women (13–18 years). An increasing number of policies have been implemented in schools in a consorted effort to address student wellbeing. This dissertation explores the discourses that shape the experiences of young men and women in secondary school. Specifically, I explore biological assumptions and social behaviours of young people which influence their eating behaviours and physical activities. Using a biopedagogical theoretical perspective combined with a sex and gender framework, this analysis engages with the complex relationships between biological understandings and resulting social behaviours with the intention of determining whether or not one is a predictor or resistor of the other. Data collection occurred in three phases (interviews with participants in policy implementation and dissemination, focus groups with secondary students, and policy analysis) and was conducted in a public school board in the Greater Toronto Area. I demonstrate that young people’s own understandings of about natural biological differences between young men and women are reinforced and (re)produced in social behaviours. Dominant discourses and constructions about sex and gender create binary categories and give rise to behaviours which impede the experiences and expressions of some young men and women. This research demonstrates the need to understand sex and gender as a continuum instead of binary categories. This would broaden the expressions of eating behaviours and physical activities for both young men and women.
Source: TSpace (University of Toronto)
Author: Sarah Gray
Language: English
Subfield: Education
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2919635357