Educating boys in sport and physical education: using narrative methods to develop pedagogies of responsibility

There is unequivocal prima-facie evidence that males are far more likely to engage in violence and crime than their female counterparts. As a social phenomenon this may not be a new thing. However, the post-modern manifestation of this phenomenon is causing substantial social concern and anxiety. This paper focuses on the challenges physical educators' face in trying to facilitate new and/or different forms of masculinity. Drawing on established connections between sport and dominant masculinity (Connell, 1995; Mackay, 1993; Miedzian, 1992) the paper acknowledges the powerful inductive forces that exist within the context of sport to reproduce and normalize particular (hegemonic) forms of masculinity. Given the prominence of sport in most physical education curricula, it is inevitable that the dominant cultural messages associated with masculinity will infiltrate teaching and learning in this arena. Recognizing an increasing need for alternative forms of masculinity to be nurtured, the paper explores the use of narrative as a pedagogical pathway through which boys can be made more accountable for their actions and decisions. The narrative approach to pedagogy (see Fitzclarence & Hickey, 1998) is predicated on the use of personal and/or collective stories as a means of contextualizing, deconstructing and reconstructing dominant ways of knowing and being.