title: Body pedagogies, coaching and culture: three Australian swimmers’ lived experiences

authors: McMahon, Jennifer Ann

subjects: swimming

abstract: Background: This paper reports doctoral research that explored body pedagogies in sport coaching and culture. Few studies have focused on body pedagogies as an integral dimension of sport coaching and on the experience of being coached and a member of a particular sporting culture. Even less is known about the long-term impact that particular body pedagogies may have on athletes’ lives, health and well-being.
Purpose: This paper seeks to contribute to a growing literature that acknowledges coaching as a complex pedagogical and social process. It reports on research aimed at providing new insights into the expression and lived experiences of body pedagogies in the context of elite and sub-elite swimming. A particular aim of the research was to address the impact, if any, of body pedagogies on swimmers’ lives, health and well-being – first, at the time when the participants were adolescent elite and sub-elite swimmers, and second, some 10–30 years later.
Methods: The research utilised narrative ethnography and autoethnography to explore the experiences of three female participants as adolescents participating at sub-elite and elite levels in Australian swimming, and as adults. Semi-structured interviews and collaborative development of narrative accounts were used to generate stories of experiences as adolescent swimmers and as adults in the present day.
Findings: The experiences of these three swimmers suggest that body pedagogies focused on weight, shape, body fat and performance permeated Australian competitive swimming culture. These body pedagogies formed prominent aspects of the discourse of the participants’ coaches and their practice within this study. Furthermore, body pedagogies were shown to have powerful and long-standing influence upon the participants’ feelings about their bodies and themselves. This research also suggests, however, elements of mediation of and resistance to dominant ideas and established pedagogical practices.
Conclusion: The research provides vivid insights into the subtle yet extremely powerful ways in which particular ideas ‘operate’ and become integral to ways of ‘being’ and ‘acting’ through body pedagogies within but also beyond both the sub-elite and elite contexts of Australian swimming sporting culture. Docility was shown by the three swimmers as they internalised body pedagogies and control, until they became their own ‘controller or overseer’ of their swimmer bodies. This points to a need for more research that focuses on the experiences and impact of body pedagogies in sport coaching.

text: Body pedagogies, coaching and culture: three Australian swimmers’ lived experiences Background: This paper reports doctoral research that explored body pedagogies in sport coaching and culture. Few studies have focused on body pedagogies as an integral dimension of sport coaching and on the experience of being coached and a member of a particular sporting culture. Even less is known about the long-term impact that particular body pedagogies may have on athletes’ lives, health and well-being.
Purpose: This paper seeks to contribute to a growing literature that acknowledges coaching as a complex pedagogical and social process. It reports on research aimed at providing new insights into the expression and lived experiences of body pedagogies in the context of elite and sub-elite swimming. A particular aim of the research was to address the impact, if any, of body pedagogies on swimmers’ lives, health and well-being – first, at the time when the participants were adolescent elite and sub-elite swimmers, and second, some 10–30 years later.
Methods: The research utilised narrative ethnography and autoethnography to explore the experiences of three female participants as adolescents participating at sub-elite and elite levels in Australian swimming, and as adults. Semi-structured interviews and collaborative development of narrative accounts were used to generate stories of experiences as adolescent swimmers and as adults in the present day.
Findings: The experiences of these three swimmers suggest that body pedagogies focused on weight, shape, body fat and performance permeated Australian competitive swimming culture. These body pedagogies formed prominent aspects of the discourse of the participants’ coaches and their practice within this study. Furthermore, body pedagogies were shown to have powerful and long-standing influence upon the participants’ feelings about their bodies and themselves. This research also suggests, however, elements of mediation of and resistance to dominant ideas and established pedagogical practices.
Conclusion: The research provides vivid insights into the subtle yet extremely powerful ways in which particular ideas ‘operate’ and become integral to ways of ‘being’ and ‘acting’ through body pedagogies within but also beyond both the sub-elite and elite contexts of Australian swimming sporting culture. Docility was shown by the three swimmers as they internalised body pedagogies and control, until they became their own ‘controller or overseer’ of their swimmer bodies. This points to a need for more research that focuses on the experiences and impact of body pedagogies in sport coaching.

year: 2013

title: ‘Shoot for the moon!’ Students' identities as writers in the context of the classroom

authors: Wearmouth, Janice

subjects: student writing identities

abstract: A study of students' identities as writers was carried out in the classroom of a New Zealand primary teacher who had been formally identified by a national body of teachers as having excellent practice in supporting literacy acquisition. The researchers, Professor Janice Wearmouth, from the University of Bedfordshire, Mere Berryman, from the University of Waikato, New Zealand, and Lisa Whittle, from the Department of Conservation, Wellington, New Zealand, aimed to compare high and low literacy achievers' identities as writers within the context of this teacher's pedagogy and the learning environment of her classroom. The researchers concluded that all students, both high and low achievers, were developing very positive writing identities in a context where the teacher's method of supporting her students' writing was very well planned through a process-writing approach. This teacher had a very high degree of subject and pedagogical content knowledge and an acute awareness of her students' literacy learning needs. Her approach had an immediacy of responsiveness in relation to every student's learning and, above all, had recognition of the overwhelming importance of positive relationships in the classroom, teacher to student and peer to peer.

text: ‘Shoot for the moon!’ Students' identities as writers in the context of the classroom A study of students' identities as writers was carried out in the classroom of a New Zealand primary teacher who had been formally identified by a national body of teachers as having excellent practice in supporting literacy acquisition. The researchers, Professor Janice Wearmouth, from the University of Bedfordshire, Mere Berryman, from the University of Waikato, New Zealand, and Lisa Whittle, from the Department of Conservation, Wellington, New Zealand, aimed to compare high and low literacy achievers' identities as writers within the context of this teacher's pedagogy and the learning environment of her classroom. The researchers concluded that all students, both high and low achievers, were developing very positive writing identities in a context where the teacher's method of supporting her students' writing was very well planned through a process-writing approach. This teacher had a very high degree of subject and pedagogical content knowledge and an acute awareness of her students' literacy learning needs. Her approach had an immediacy of responsiveness in relation to every student's learning and, above all, had recognition of the overwhelming importance of positive relationships in the classroom, teacher to student and peer to peer.

year: 2011-06

title: The display and conservation of taonga Māori - establishing culturally appropriate dislay and conversation facilities: Mahi Māreikura - a work in progress

authors: Whaanga, Hēmi

subjects: Māori art objects

abstract: This paper examines issues relating to the appropriate display and conservation of taonga Māori in the context of a discussion of the establishment of Mahi Māreikura, a room in the University of Waikato library that is dedicated primarily to the display and conservation of the collected taonga and works of the late Dr. Pei te Hurinui Jones and a collection of the work of his colleague and close relative, Professor Bruce Biggs.

text: The display and conservation of taonga Māori - establishing culturally appropriate dislay and conversation facilities: Mahi Māreikura - a work in progress This paper examines issues relating to the appropriate display and conservation of taonga Māori in the context of a discussion of the establishment of Mahi Māreikura, a room in the University of Waikato library that is dedicated primarily to the display and conservation of the collected taonga and works of the late Dr. Pei te Hurinui Jones and a collection of the work of his colleague and close relative, Professor Bruce Biggs.

year: 2006