disadvantaging others. In exploring the interface of Islam and PE, her work highlights how a monocultural curriculum fails to consider Muslim girls’ religious requirements, often causing Muslim girls to disengage from the subject; a situation that ultimately reinforces stereotypical beliefs about their disinterest and inability in the subject. More recently, PE and physical activity research has begun to consider individual experiences, rather than those of groups. In exploring individual difference, attention is drawn to the importance of discourse, in particular, how discourses are embodied by individuals in diverse ways, leading to multiple and fluid identities (Garrett, 2004a). This theoretical shift moves away from exploring structural oppression and inequalities to acknowledging girls’ agency in drawing on alternative discourses in the constitution of their identities and negotiating power relations. For example, the young Muslim women in Jiwani and Rail’s research (2010) demonstrate an ability to be strategic and resourceful in meeting their multiple needs whilst operating in a complex network of competing and conflicting discourses. Drawing on discourses of health, obesity, and femininity, they express a desire to be physically active to achieve the ideal body shape; they recite interpretations of the Koran that encourage a healthy lifestyle in articulating their right to exercise, and seek settings that consider their religious identity. Whilst focusing on individual experiences can contribute to dispelling stereotypes, Hargreaves (2004) notes that attention is drawn away from group experiences that underline the enduring nature of discrimination. In acknowledging these concerns, the importance of adopting a ‘middle ground’ approach (Archer et al., 2001) to develop more sophisticated understandings is recognised. To help encapsulate and organise some key features of middle ground thinking, the paper draws upon Hill Collins’ (2000) matrix of domination as a conceptual framework and intersectionality as a process.
competency as influencing their experiences of PE, whereas religious and cultural discourses are more prominent in their tales away from school. Additionally, whilst the girls are not subject to teachers and peers imposing power over them outside school, in some cases these are enacted by parents, extended family, neighbours and wider community members. Despite being positioned within these discursive relations of power, the girls continue to exert their agency. For example, outside school they create their own practices of physical activity to meet their individual needs. Indeed, their silence on key problematic issues associated with PE in their physical activity stories demonstrates their ability to address these concerns in their out of school spaces. However, whilst the girls appear to have more autonomy away from school regarding with whom they undertake physical activity, what they do, and how they choose to undertake it, these experiences are still enacted within fluid and multiple relations of power. Similar to others (Kay, 2006, Knez et al., 2012), the girls’ narratives reflect the significance of their families in relation to broader physical activity opportunities. Many of the girls’ stories uncover the different ways in which their family supports their involvement. For Borat, her aunt provides weekly transport to her break dance club; Rihanna discusses how her siblings provide someone to play with, and Messa and Noreen have taken part in activities with their mothers. Some girls also note new activities they have been introduced to by their family, including those traditionally viewed as non-feminine in this Westernised context. For example, Borat, Mariya and Sam discuss playing and football with different family members: I play rounders sometimes with my and nephews and nieces, and then we go to the fields by my gran in the summer and play football (Sam).