Laura Azzarito - Böcker

In today’s neoliberal times, thinking about fitness and health is dominated by the media’s narratives of "fit bodies," which are presented and circulated in society as "valued bodies." Outside that mainstream view, however, there are many people labeled "bodies-at-risk": those who deviate from perceived norms of size, shape, race, social class, and gender. Social Justice in Globalized Fitness and Health draws attention to how neoliberal ideologies impacting the body overlook the intersection of class, gender/sex, and race that informs how young, ethnic minoritized people embody and negotiate normative discourses of fitness and health. Indeed, through the lens of critical race theory (CRT), post-feminism, and postcolonialism, Azzarito highlights young, ethnic minoritized people’s struggles to find a culturally relevant sense of self.Arguing for the need to found educational spaces where young, ethnic minoritized people can recognize themselves, resist and counter-narrate negative stereotypes, and self-represent to the public in affirmative ways, Social Justice in Globalized Fitness and Health will appeal to students and researchers interested in fields such as physical culture, education, sport sociology, qualitative methods, and cultural and visual studies, as well as scholars and practitioners of physical education and health in schools.

‘Race’, Youth Sport, Physical Activity and Health provides a resource that addresses ‘race’ and racism in an accessible way by contextualizing theory with practical evidence-based examples drawn from global geographical and cultural settings. This is the first book to focus on issues of ‘race’ and racism in youth sport, physical activity and health. Drawing on critical race theory, intersectionality and post-feminism, and presenting a range of international empirical case studies, it explores racialization processes in pedagogical and non-pedagogical settings. The book examines how ‘race’ and racism in pedagogical settings shape young peoples’ dispositions towards participation in sport and physical activity, and how identity discourses are being shaped in contemporary sport, physical activity and health. Essential reading for anybody working in sport and exercise studies, physical education, sociology or health studies.

To understand and more creatively capture the social world, visual methods have increasingly become used by researchers in the social sciences and education. However, despite the rapid development of visual-based knowledge, and despite the obvious links between human movement and visual forms of understanding, visual research has been scarce in the fields of physical culture and physical education pedagogy. This groundbreaking book is the first to mark a "visual turn" in understanding and researching physical culture and pedagogies, offering innovative, image-based research that reveals key issues in the domains of sport, health, and physical education studies. Integrating visual research into physical culture and pedagogy studies, the book provides the reader with different ways of "seeing", looking at, and critically engaging with physical culture. Since human movement is increasingly created, established, and pedagogized beyond traditional educational sites such as schools, sport clubs, and fitness gyms, the book also explores the notion of visual pedagogy in wider physical culture, helping the reader to understand how visual-based technologies such as television, the internet, and mobile phones are central to people’s engagement with physical culture today. The book demonstrates how the visual creates dynamic pedagogical tools for revealing playful forms of embodiment, and offers the reader a range of visual methods, from researcher-produced photo analysis to participatory-centred visual approaches, that will enhance their own study of physical culture. Pedagogies, Physical Culture and Visual Methods is important reading for all advanced students and researchers with an interest in human movement, physical education, physical culture, sport studies, and research methods in education.

To understand and more creatively capture the social world, visual methods have increasingly become used by researchers in the social sciences and education. However, despite the rapid development of visual-based knowledge, and despite the obvious links between human movement and visual forms of understanding, visual research has been scarce in the fields of physical culture and physical education pedagogy. This groundbreaking book is the first to mark a "visual turn" in understanding and researching physical culture and pedagogies, offering innovative, image-based research that reveals key issues in the domains of sport, health, and physical education studies. Integrating visual research into physical culture and pedagogy studies, the book provides the reader with different ways of "seeing", looking at, and critically engaging with physical culture. Since human movement is increasingly created, established, and pedagogized beyond traditional educational sites such as schools, sport clubs, and fitness gyms, the book also explores the notion of visual pedagogy in wider physical culture, helping the reader to understand how visual-based technologies such as television, the internet, and mobile phones are central to people’s engagement with physical culture today. The book demonstrates how the visual creates dynamic pedagogical tools for revealing playful forms of embodiment, and offers the reader a range of visual methods, from researcher-produced photo analysis to participatory-centred visual approaches, that will enhance their own study of physical culture. Pedagogies, Physical Culture and Visual Methods is important reading for all advanced students and researchers with an interest in human movement, physical education, physical culture, sport studies, and research methods in education.

‘Race’, Youth Sport, Physical Activity and Health provides a resource that addresses ‘race’ and racism in an accessible way by contextualizing theory with practical evidence-based examples drawn from global geographical and cultural settings.This is the first book to focus on issues of ‘race’ and racism in youth sport, physical activity and health. Drawing on critical race theory, intersectionality and post-feminism, and presenting a range of international empirical case studies, it explores racialization processes in pedagogical and non-pedagogical settings. The book examines how ‘race’ and racism in pedagogical settings shape young peoples’ dispositions towards participation in sport and physical activity, and how identity discourses are being shaped in contemporary sport, physical activity and health.Essential reading for anybody working in sport and exercise studies, physical education, sociology or health studies.

In today’s neoliberal times, thinking about fitness and health is dominated by the media’s narratives of "fit bodies," which are presented and circulated in society as "valued bodies." Outside that mainstream view, however, there are many people labeled "bodies-at-risk": those who deviate from perceived norms of size, shape, race, social class, and gender. Social Justice in Globalized Fitness and Health draws attention to how neoliberal ideologies impacting the body overlook the intersection of class, gender/sex, and race that informs how young, ethnic minoritized people embody and negotiate normative discourses of fitness and health. Indeed, through the lens of critical race theory (CRT), post-feminism, and postcolonialism, Azzarito highlights young, ethnic minoritized people’s struggles to find a culturally relevant sense of self.Arguing for the need to found educational spaces where young, ethnic minoritized people can recognize themselves, resist and counter-narrate negative stereotypes, and self-represent to the public in affirmative ways, Social Justice in Globalized Fitness and Health will appeal to students and researchers interested in fields such as physical culture, education, sport sociology, qualitative methods, and cultural and visual studies, as well as scholars and practitioners of physical education and health in schools.

Racial segregation and desegregation practices have deeply impacted the teacher pipeline, contributing to historical assumptions of teaching as a white profession. The Brown vs Board of Education rulings, while couched within a narrative of social progress, have instead been a step backwards for racial equity in schools. The authors use Critical Race Theory and Critical Whiteness Studies to demonstrate how teachers of color are racialized through the centering of whiteness in schools, minoritized in contrast to their white counterparts, and de-centered through performativities of race and whiteness as ideologies. The authors share “small teaching episodes” from eight Black, Latina, and Asian female teachers who all work in predominantly white schools, illuminating the ways the teachers resisted discourses of whiteness by enacting agency within their teaching contexts. From the historical backdrop of racism and segregation to theoretical underpinnings, the counterstories of the teachers presented in this book indicate how teachers might utilize their personal experiences of marginalization to problematize invisible racism, colorblindness, and white neutrality, moving towards an empowered sense of self. The collective narrative highlights the potential for culturally relevant and sustaining pedagogies to support teachers of color in negotiating whiteness and working for social justice.

This book makes a case for the usefulness of visual research methods for advancing a social justice agenda in education.