Background: Pleasure is often a key feature of school physical education (PE) and, indeed, a lot of students find pleasure in and through PE while others do not. However, pleasure is rarely considered to be of educational value in the subject [Pringle, R. (2010). "Finding Pleasure in Physical Education: A Critical Examination of the Educative…

This paper examines the relationship between 'aspiration' and identity as rendered within discourses of power. Focusing on the deeply ingrained values of a group of 23 white working-class boys from South London (aged 14-16), the research critically considers the conception of power within a neoliberal era which produces both new subjectivities and…

Drawing on interpretations of Foucault's techniques of power, we explored the discourses and power relations operative between groups of girls that appeared to influence their participation in Physical Education (PE) and outside of school in sport and physical activity (PA) in rural and regional communities. Interviews and focus groups were…

This paper explores the physical education (PE) and physical activity experiences of a group of South Asian, Muslim girls, a group typically marginalised in PE and physical activity research. The study responds to ongoing calls for research to explore across different spaces in young people's lives. Specifically, I draw on a…

Public relations educators are frequently challenged by students' flawed perceptions of public relations. Two contrasting case studies are presented in this paper to illustrate how socially-oriented paradigms may be applied to a real-client project to deliver a transformative learning experience. A discourse-analytic approach is applied within the…

International environmental education policy discourses have influenced policy construction in Botswana and how teachers conduct themselves and teaching in environmental learning. The researcher uses Foucault's notion of governmentality to understand the effects of power/knowledge relations in policy. The analysis is taken further through a…

Background: Limited research has been conducted on student voice with students in physical education. Accessing and responding to student voice are relevant for researchers and physical education teachers to develop physical education programs that are meaningful and have a sense of purpose to the students themselves. It is through listening to…

This study investigated the ways a diverse group of university women in the USA utilised racialised and classed discourses of femininity in the creation of subjectivities. Interview and focus group data were collected over a two-year time period and focused on how women navigated the higher education setting. Two forms of femininity, "Hill girl"…

Research on teaching, and research about secondary English teachers in particular, has focused on classroom practice. This focus implicitly devalues knowledges beyond those related to classroom practice, and re/produces a public/private divide in the subjectivities of teachers in which "teacher identity" and "teacher knowledge"…

This article explores the potential for critical discourse analysis to provide insight into the language principals use to describe the adult relationships within schools. Unpacking the discourses of leadership may shed some light on how language strategically shapes the thoughts and actions of principals. In particular, the invoking of "family"…

This paper presents a study from the Scottish Independent School Project (SISP). The first part of the paper provides an overview of the characteristics of Scottish independent schools (e.g. location, structure, fees) with the aim of distinguishing the different orientations of schools in the sector. The second and main part of the paper is a…