TY - JOUR
T1 - ‘I’m nearly as active as the boys who play football’
T2 - A multiple-case study of social identification among least active pupils
AU - Bentholm, Anette
AU - Pawlowski, Charlotte
AU - Agergaard, Sine
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This study was funded by Network of the Aalborg Municipal Centre for Applied Health Care Research (CAKSA) and University College of Northern Denmark.
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2021.
PY - 2021/11
Y1 - 2021/11
N2 - Polarisation between the least and most active pupils is increasing both in Denmark and worldwide, and the least active pupils often have poorer mental health and low physical self-esteem. However, the least active pupils’ perspectives on physical activity in school are underrepresented in the research. This study explores how the least active pupils describe the purpose of physical activity at school and how active they consider themselves to be in relation to their classmates. To establish the above, we draw on Jenkins’ theory of social identity, which points to the dialectics between internal identification and external categorisation. Three schools were selected for a qualitative multiple-case study, focusing on the least active Year 3 pupils (aged 9–10). Thirty individual semi-structured interviews with these pupils were conducted, combined with 15 days of participant observations, at each school in 2018. Data were analysed using an abductive approach. The findings showed that the least active pupils’ descriptions of why they were active mainly referred to narrow understandings of physical health in line with broader societal explanations. Further, the pupils depicted a stigmatic categorisation of overweight and inactive pupils and described them as a group they did not belong to. Instead, they identified themselves with the active pupils, for example, in stating that they were almost as active as the ‘football boys’. To change pupils’ narrow identifications and stigmatic categorisations, school professionals should focus less on health as an argument for physical activity.
AB - Polarisation between the least and most active pupils is increasing both in Denmark and worldwide, and the least active pupils often have poorer mental health and low physical self-esteem. However, the least active pupils’ perspectives on physical activity in school are underrepresented in the research. This study explores how the least active pupils describe the purpose of physical activity at school and how active they consider themselves to be in relation to their classmates. To establish the above, we draw on Jenkins’ theory of social identity, which points to the dialectics between internal identification and external categorisation. Three schools were selected for a qualitative multiple-case study, focusing on the least active Year 3 pupils (aged 9–10). Thirty individual semi-structured interviews with these pupils were conducted, combined with 15 days of participant observations, at each school in 2018. Data were analysed using an abductive approach. The findings showed that the least active pupils’ descriptions of why they were active mainly referred to narrow understandings of physical health in line with broader societal explanations. Further, the pupils depicted a stigmatic categorisation of overweight and inactive pupils and described them as a group they did not belong to. Instead, they identified themselves with the active pupils, for example, in stating that they were almost as active as the ‘football boys’. To change pupils’ narrow identifications and stigmatic categorisations, school professionals should focus less on health as an argument for physical activity.
KW - health
KW - Physical inactivity
KW - policy
KW - pupils
KW - social identity
KW - state schools
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85104612716&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/1356336X211002854
DO - 10.1177/1356336X211002854
M3 - Journal article
AN - SCOPUS:85104612716
SN - 1356-336X
VL - 27
SP - 908
EP - 926
JO - European Physical Education Review
JF - European Physical Education Review
IS - 4
ER -