Fear or freedom? Visually impaired students’ ambivalent perspectives on physical education

With a growing interest in sport, fitness, and a healthy lifestyle, bodily practices are increasing in importance in our society. In the school context, physical education (PE) is the subject where these practices play a central role. But, the German language discourse shows in an exemplary manner that inherent body-related social normality requirements are articulated in didactic traditions and curricular requirements, and that these normality requirements have exclusionary potential for those students who do not fit into the norms. Against this background, this article seeks to understand children with visual impairments’ (CWVI’s) individual constructions of PE in a school specialized for CWVI in Germany. This interview study with eight CWVI focused on individual opportunities and challenges concerning central aspects in PE. The findings show that the CWVI draw ambivalent perspectives on PE that range from existential fears (e.g., fears of heights) to feeling free in working off energy. These aspects especially gain importance in connection to the body, when the general wish to learn and experience with the body seems to be disturbed by normality requirements – like doing certain movements in a pre-defined way – which lead to existential challenges for the CWVI. Further, the relationship between blind and visually impaired students in PE seems ambivalent. Within this special school setting, the segregation according to the external differentiation in “handicapped” and “non-handicapped” somehow leads to a kind of subsegregation at the blind and visually impaired school.Peer Reviewe

Fear or Freedom? Visually Impaired Students\u27 Ambivalent Perspectives on Physical Education

With a growing interest in sport, fitness, and a healthy lifestyle, bodily practices are increasing in importance in our society. In the school context, physical education (PE) is the subject where these practices play a central role. But, the German language discourse shows in an exemplary manner that inherent body-related social normality requirements are articulated in didactic traditions and curricular requirements, and that these normality requirements have exclusionary potential for those students who do not fit into the norms. Against this background, this article seeks to understand children with visual impairments’ (CWVI’s) individual constructions of PE in a school specialized for CWVI in Germany. This interview study with eight CWVI focused on individual opportunities and challenges concerning central aspects in PE. The findings show that the CWVI draw ambivalent perspectives on PE that range from existential fears (e.g., fears of heights) to feeling free in working off energy. These aspects especially gain importance in connection to the body, when the general wish to learn and experience with the body seems to be disturbed by normality requirements – like doing certain movements in a pre-defined way – which lead to existential challenges for the CWVI. Further, the relationship between blind and visually impaired students in PE seems ambivalent. Within this special school setting, the segregation according to the external differentiation in “handicapped” and “non-handicapped” somehow leads to a kind of subsegregation at the blind and visually impaired school

Kategorien als Ausdruck einer ausgewiesenen Beobachter_innenperspektive? Ein Vorschlag für eine qualitativere qualitative Inhaltsanalyse

Qualitative content analysis (QCA) is an established method in different fields of social and educational sciences. It can be located at the intersection of quantitative and qualitative research approaches. Although generally oriented towards hermeneutic-interpretive text comprehension, its categorical logic sometimes seems to follow a quantitative research logic. Against this background, and in order to better meet the criteria of qualitative research, I make a proposal for a more qualitative QCA. Specifically, I introduce a technique for the systematic explication of the prior knowledge relevant to the research and the construction of categories. The categories developed with this procedure can be seen as an expression of an identified observer perspective. This makes reconstructions of social constructions intersubjectively comprehensible.Als etabliertes Verfahren in verschiedenen sozial- und erziehungswissenschaftlichen Forschungsrichtungen lässt sich die qualitative Inhaltsanalyse an der Schnittstelle zwischen quantitativen und qualitativen Forschungszugängen verorten. Wenngleich vielfach auf hermeneutisch-interpretatives Textverstehen ausgerichtet, scheint die mit dem Verfahren verknüpfte kategoriale Logik mitunter dem quantitativen Forschungsparadigma zu entspringen. Um vor diesem Hintergrund den begründeten Anforderungen an qualitative Sozialforschung in höherem Maße gerecht zu werden, formuliere ich mit diesem Beitrag einen Vorschlag für eine qualitativere qualitative Inhaltsanalyse. Konkret wird ein Verfahren vorgestellt, mit dem das für die Forschung relevante Vorwissen systematisch expliziert und anschließend zur Kategorienbildung nutzbar gemacht werden kann. Die so gebildeten Kategorien können als Ausdruck einer ausgewiesenen Beobachter_innenperspektive gelten, was einen intersubjektiv nachvollziehbaren Zugang zu vorgenommenen Rekonstruktionen sozialer Konstruktionen verspricht

Mårten Björk, The Politics of Immortality in Rosenzweig, Barth and Goldberg: Theology and Resistance between 1914–1945

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Barriers and Challenges for Visually Impaired Students in PE - An Interview Study With Students in Austria, Germany, and the USA

Physical education (PE) is an important part of school education worldwide, and at the same time, almost the only subject that explicitly deals with body and movement. PE is therefore of elementary importance in the upbringing of young people. This also applies to children with visual impairments. However, existing findings on participation and belonging in PE as well as on physical and motor development reveal that this group of children and adolescents is noticeably disadvantaged in this respect. Against this background, this paper aims to explore fundamental barriers and challenges across different types of schools, types of schooling, and countries from the perspective of visually impaired children. The qualitative interview study with 22 children with visual impairments at different types of schools in three countries (Austria, Germany, USA) reveals that none of the respondents could escape the power of social distinctions and related problematic and existing hierarchies. Hence, ideas of normality and associated values remain the main challenge for all of them. However, the type-forming analysis provides important insight across settings on how visually impaired children differ on this, allowing for greater sensitivity to the concerns of children with visual impairments

...And After That Came Me . Subjective Constructions of Social Hierarchy in Physical Education Classes Among Youth with Visual Impairments in Germany

The aim of this study was to reconstruct subjective constructions of experiences in PE and feelings of being valued within PE classes in Germany by students with visual impairment (VI). Two female and two male students (average age: 19.25 years) participated in the study from the upper level. For the reconstruction of experiences of feeling valued, episodic interviews with a semi-structured interview guide were used. The data analysis was conducted with MAXQDA 2020 based on content-related structuring of qualitative text analysis with deductive-inductive category formation. To structure the analysis, the main category, feelings of being valued, was defined by two poles (positive feelings of being valued as opposed to bullying). As a main finding, respondents primarily reported negative feelings and experiences characterized by instances of bullying, discrimination, and physical and social isolation, perpetuated by both their peers and teachers. In search of a deeper understanding, we identified social hierarchy as an underlying structure determining the students\u27 perceived positioning within the social context and thus directing their feelings of being (de-)valued. It became evident that it is not the setting per se that determined social hierarchy, but that it is more about the concrete manifestation of social hierarchy

Körperbilder in Schulsportkonzepten. Eine körpersoziologische Untersuchung

Zusammenfassung Der Umgang mit dem Körper kann immer auch als Ausdruck der kulturellen Existenz des Menschen und damit seines Verhältnisses zur Natur angesehen werden. Historisch betrachtet haben gesellschaftliche Veränderungen und wissenschaftlicher Fortschritt in dieser Beziehung jedoch zahlreiche Verände-rungen bewirkt (vgl. z. B. Elias, 1976; Foucault, 1977). So rückt der Körper seit dem ausgehenden 20. Jahrhundert in unseren westlichen Gesellschaften auf neue, besondere Weisen in den Fokus (vgl. Gugutzer, 2004). Sichtbar wird dies z. B. im Fitnessboom, in groß angelegten öffentlichen Gesundheitskampagnen, der Organspendediskussion, in immensen medialen Inszenierungen von Sportereignissen oder auch in Trends, wie Human-Enhancement. Wenngleich sich solche Veränderungen auf diversen Feldern in vielen Le-bensbereichen auswirken, kommt dem Sport in diesem Kontext sicherlich eine besondere Bedeutung zu. Hier werden Körper z. B. in performativen Akten zur Aufführung gebracht und der Umgang mit dem Körper somit für jeden sichtbar; Inszenierungen denen seit Ende des 20. Jahrhunderts zudem eine besondere Aufmerksamkeit geschenkt wird (vgl. z. B. Alkemeyer & Schmidt, 2003). Der Schulsport – als Vermittlungsinstanz körperbezogener Kulturpraktiken – nimmt dabei vermutlich eine wichtige Rolle ein. In einem ansonsten stark rati-onal geprägten Schulsystem wird die Leiblichkeit des Menschen (und damit sein Körper) nahezu ausschließlich im Fach Sport zum Unterrichtsinhalt. Einerseits kommt dem Schulsport so die Vermittlung des vielfach als zweckfrei be-zeichneten Kulturguts Sport – und damit verbunden die sinnhafte Erfahrung der eigenen Leiblichkeit – zu (vgl. u.a. Grupe, 1984), andererseits ist er entstanden aus einer Tradition instrumenteller Vereinnahmung von Körpern, nicht selten auch für militärische Zwecke (vgl. z. B. Krüger, 1996). Somit bewegt sich der Schulsport im historischen Verlauf zwischen einer Instrumentalisierung des Körpers und einem entdeckenden Erfahren der eigenen Leiblichkeit. In der Untersuchung wird auf Grundlage körpersoziologischer Theorien (z. B. Bourdieu, 1989; Foucault, 1977; Goffman,1971) der Frage nachgegangen, wo der Schulsport in dem aufgezeigten Spannungsverhältnis von Instrumentalisie-ren und Entdecken aktuell verortet werden kann. Ausgehend von körpersozio-logischen Kategorien werden die gängigen sportpädagogischen Positionen der letzten Jahrzehnte hinsichtlich der in ihnen transportierten Körperbilder befragt. In einem weiteren Schritt wird auf der programmatischen Ebene von Sportlehrplänen eine diachrone Analyse der Körperbilder in den Lehrplänen der letzten zwei Dekaden vorgenommen. Die Ergebnisse zeigen einerseits äußerst divergierende Körperbilder in den verschiedenen sportpädagogischen Ansätzen. Andererseits werden auf curri-cularer Ebene in den 1990er Jahren Öffnungsprozesse erkennbar, die ein stärkeren Erfahren der eigenen Leiblichkeit in den Fokus rücken. Mit den ak-tuellen kompetenzorientierten Lehrplänen unterliegen diese Öffnungsprozesse jedoch wieder einer Verengung. Hier wird vielmehr eine Tendenz erkennbar, die Körper der Schülerinnen und Schüler an der Norm eines fitten und gesunden Körpers auszurichten. Summary Dealing with the body can always be seen as an expression of man’s cultural existence and therefore his relationship to nature. Historically however, social changes and scientific progress have effected numerous changes in this respect (cf. e.g. Elias, 1976. Foucault, 1977). From the late 20th century, the body has therefore come into focus in our Western societies in new and special ways (cf. Gugutzer, 2004). This can be seen, for example, in the fitness boom, in large-scale public health campaigns, the organ-donor discussion, in the immense media presentations of sporting events or in trends such as human enhancement. Although such changes affect various fields in many areas of life, sport certainly has a special importance in this context. Here, the body is visible, for example in performative acts and the handling of the body is thus there for everyone to see; performances that have also received particular attention since the end of the 20th century (cf. e.g. Alkemeyer & Schmidt, 2003). School sport – as a mediator of body-related cultural practices – supposedly takes on an important role. In an otherwise heavily rationally dominated school system, the physical nature of man (and thus his body) is almost exclusively dealt with during sports teaching. On the one hand, school sport therefore be-comes an agent for what is often called the meaningless cultural asset of sport – and the associated meaningful experience of one’s own corporeality – (cf., inter alia Grupe, 1984), while on the other hand it has grown out of a tradition of instrumental appropriation of the body, often for military purposes (cf. e.g. Krüger, 1996). In the course of history, school sport has thus moved between an instrumentalisation of the body and a discovering experience of one’s own physicality. On the basis of body-sociological theories (e.g. Bourdieu, 1989; Foucault, 1977; Goffman, 1971), this study examines the question of where school sport can currently be placed in the identified tense relationship between instrumen-talisation and discovery. Starting from body-sociological categories, the popular sport-pedagogical positions of recent decades are scrutinised in terms of the images of the body they convey. In a further step, at the programmatic level of sports teaching plans, a diachronic analysis is made of body images in the curricula of the past two decades. The results show extremely divergent body images in the various sports pedagogies on the one hand, while on the other hand opening processes towards greater experience of one’s own physicality can be seen at curricular level in the 1990s, which are again subject to constriction under the current competency-based curricula. Here, in fact, a tendency of aligning the pupils’ body with the standard of a fit and healthy body can be recognised

De talipede varo et equino tendinis Achillis sectione sanandis : dissertatio inauguralis

http://tartu.ester.ee/record=b2499425~S1*es