Embedding a critical inquiry approach across the AC:HPE to support adolescent girls in participating in traditionally masculinised sport

Comparison rates between adolescent boys’ and girls’ sport involvement highlights the significant rate of adolescent girls’ cessation of sport participation during their high school years. Despite adolescent girls’ lower rates of participation in sport, Traditionally Masculinised Sports (TMS) have witnessed the highest uptake of female sport participation in comparison with traditionally feminised sports and gender neutral sports. With TMS becoming an increasingly popular option for women and girls’ sport participation, the expansion of opportunities for women and girls to participate in TMS may offer new avenues for increasing the rate of female sport participation during adolescence. As schools are a setting in which adolescents spend a significant amount of their time, and whose curricular mandate is to engage young people in sport and physical activity, investigation into high school settings and their impact on female sport participation in TMS is timely. This paper explores the role in which embedding a critical inquiry approach to sport and the gendered nature of sport participation across the national Australian Curriculum Health and Physical Education (AC:HPE) (Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority, 2013) learning area may support girls’ continued sport participation throughout their high school years. It reports on a study which investigated adolescent girls’ (n=34) experiences of participation in the TMS of soccer, cricket, and Australian Football. Thematic analysis of the data uncovered key themes relating to the role of schools in enabling or creating barriers for female sport participation. Key themes evident within the data, such as gendered norms and expectations, opportunities for participation, and the under representation of women in TMS are discussed in relation to key ideas embedded in the AC:HPE curriculum (Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority, 2013). The findings suggest ways in which barriers to female sport participation can be challenged using critical inquiry approaches embedded in the AC:HPE curriculum (Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority, 2013) and the school and learning environment. Introduction Adolescence is a time when a significant amount of girls drop out of sports or discontinue physical activity (Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), 2011; Gavin, Mcbrearty & Harvey, 2013). Schools play a critical role in enabling or disabling children and youth’s sport participation 139 Learning Communities | Special Issue: 2017 30th AChPER International Conference | Number 21 – November 2017 through both the culture of the school and in the choices offered for male and female sport participation (Mitchell, Gray & Inchley, 2015). While women and girls participate in a range of physical activity and sports, the rates of uptake for female adolescents into Traditionally Masculinised Sports (TMS) in Australia has currently overtaken the rates of uptake of female adolescents in physical activities and sports considered traditionally feminine and/or gender neutral (ABS, 2011). As such, TMS may offer a vehicle to continue or increase adolescent females’ sport participation at a time where their participation continues to be significantly lower than that of their male peers. Offering choices for girls to participate in TMS in schools and community athletic/sporting clubs is a key factor for supporting female adolescent sport participation (Craike, Symons & Zimmermann, 2009; Mitchell, et al., 2015). Less attention has been given to how breaking down social and cultural barriers, both real and perceived, towards girls’ participation in TMS may support its continued and increased uptake. This paper reports on a study that investigated the experience of 34 adolescent females who were current participants in a TMS to better understand mechanisms and factors that were supportive, or unsupportive, of their sporting participation. The data highlighted that the role of schools and teachers featured prominently in participants’ experiences, though frequently as a barrier or unsupportive factor. Despite that, while similar findings have been found in previous Australian and international studies (Eime et al., 2013; Flintoff & Scraton, 2001; Garrett, 2010), scant attention has been given to how the curriculum itself may be a tool in supporting girls in the uptake and continuation of sport and physical activity both within and outside school contexts. A prominent feature of the national Australian Curriculum Health and Physical Education (AC:HPE) (Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority, 2013) learning area is the inclusion of a critical inquiry approach as a key idea, an approach which seeks to give students opportunities to “critically analyse and critically evaluate contextual factors that influence decision-making, behaviours and actions, and explore inclusiveness, power inequalities, assumptions, diversity and social justice” (Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority, 2013, retreived from: http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/ health-and-physical-education/key-ideas). While the importance of embedding critical inquiry approaches in physical and sport education is far from new (Laker, 2002; Siedentop, 1994; Tinning, 2002), the continuation of higher rates of attrition from physical education, physical activity and sport of female adolescents in comparison with their male peers reinforces the need for critical inquiry approaches to be a key strategy for student engagement within the new AC:HPE curriculum (Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority, 2013). As the literature has identified that cultural and social factors impact significantly on adolescent sport participation (see for example Hively & El-Alayli, 2014; Slater & Tiggemann, 2010; Slater & Tiggemann, 2011), critical inquiry approaches may offer a vehicle for engaging students in critically analysing their own and other’s beliefs, behaviours, and practices in relation to the ways in which sport and physical activity participation is highly gendered. The findings of the study are discussed in relation to the rationale, aim, and key ideas of the AC:HPE (Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority, 2013) and how critical inquiry approaches may offer avenues for challenging real and perceived barriers to female participation in TMS, both within schools and wider social settings. Challenging social and cultural norms which negatively impact on the sport and physical activity participation of children and youth is a shared aim of both the national curriculum and national/international guidelines, frameworks, and organisations relating to and involving sport. As such, capitalising on opportunities to interrupt and dismantle barriers and challenge harmful gendered social norms is essential to the work of HPE teachers and schools. 140 Embedding a critical inquiry approach across the AC:HPE to support adolescent girls in participating in traditionally masculinised sport Nadia Bevan & Jennifer Fane Literature review While the increase in female participation over the past decade has been statistically significant; males are consistently more likely to play soccer, cricket and football (ABS, 2011). There are a multitude of reasons for this discrepancy including physical, psychological, environmental, time-based, inter-personal, programming, access and opportunity barriers (Johnstone & Millar, 2012). Another important reason for this gendered discrepancy in sport participation is the way in which sport is typically embedded within the development of, and current social constructions of masculinity (Craike et al., 2009; Klomsten Marsh & Skaalvik, 2005; Velija & Malcolm, 2009). Conversely, sport, and specifically traditionally non-feminised sport, does not conform to the gender ideology of femininity, which in many ways opposes participation in sports, specifically TMS (Dodge & Lambert, 2009; Gavin et al., 2013; Leavy, Gnong & Ross, 2009). A substantial amount of research (see Alley & Hicks, 2005; Berger, O’Reilly, Parent, Seguin & Hernandez, 2008; Cooky, 2009), has demonstrated that social constructs significantly impact the activities boys and girls and women and men choose or are able to play, and more specifically, which sports fall within the socially constructed acceptability of feminine and masculine. Leavy, Gnong and Ross argue that “women have been taught that there are social rewards for conformity to the cultural standard of femininity” (2009, p. 280). Once women conform to these social norms, the fear of non-conformity and consequences of nonconforming continues, with women and girls still living in heavily socially constructed systems (Leavy et al., 2009). Sport participation, especially in TMS, opposes the association between femininity and athleticism, and instead produces dominant understandings of these constructs as oppositional (Cronan & Scott, 2008; Ho, 2014). Shakib and Dunbar’s (2002) exploration of high school basketball displayed that girls sporting teams are viewed as ‘less than’ boys, regardless of success. This reinforces traditional gendered ideology that masculinity and athleticism are naturally embedded within males, in ways in which femininity has multiple resistances (Cooky, 2009; Shakib & Dunbar, 2002). Therefore this acts as a limiting factor in female participation and continuation of sport. The construction of femininity and athleticism, specifically in TMS, is exceptionally problematic for adolescent females as they are at a particularly vulnerable age in relation to body image, self-esteem, physical appearance and pressure to conform to gender ideologies (Bowker, Gadbois & Cornock, 2003; Russell, 2004). Self-esteem, self-efficacy and body image are related strongly to whether females feel they are conforming to their gender roles as based on gender role expectations (Horn, Newton & Evers, 2011). The int