Inclusive physical education may paradoxically contribute to exclusion

Physical education teachers in secondary schools do their utmost best every day to be as inclusive as possible. In doing so, they are guided by what they believe should be, or is expected of them as professionals. These expectations play an important role in the way they, for example, create groups, choose activities or react to pupil behavior.

In her dissertation Corina van Doodewaard reveals that the attempts of teachers to involve pupils in their lesson, simultaneously contributed to social inequality between them. Pupils who complied with what teachers consider appropriate, for example with regard to participation, performance, body standards and/or behavior, were labelled as normal. Pupils who did not conform to standards were objectified and classified as “different”. Thus, paradoxically, inclusive practices simultaneously contributed to exclusion.

Van Doodewaard’s research reveals several of such paradoxes in educational practices where inclusion was taken “for granted” for pupils who met the norm. Students who did not meet the norm were often implicitly made responsible for their own inclusion. This meant, for example, that they were expected to be (more) active, motivated, skilled, enthusiastic, slim, healthy, resilient, white, boyish, and obedient.

Van Doodewaard argues that we should stop looking for ways to overcome differences and escape from inclusion paradoxes. She suggests that education be conceived as an unpredictable event. This gives space for teachers and pupils to create education practices deeply rooted in human needs in which interaction is central. This view offers the possibility of embracing the ambiguity and unpredictability of education and of cherishing the professional dilemmas that arise as opportunities.