ERIC Number: EJ1109475
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2016
Pages: 18
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1357-3322
EISSN: N/A
Abjection and Alterity in the Imagining of Transgender in Physical Education and Sport: A Pedagogical Approach in Higher Education
Pérez-Samaniego, Víctor; Fuentes-Miguel, Jorge; Pereira-García, Sofía; Devís-Devís, José
Sport, Education and Society, v21 n7 p985-1002 2016
In physical education (PE) and sports there is little theoretical and empirical knowledge about transgender people, and particularly, on how they are and can be imagined within this context. In this paper, we present and analyze a pedagogical activity based on the reading and discussion of a fictional representation of a transgender person within a group of undergraduate students of Sport Sciences. Our theoretical frame situates "abjection" and "alterity" as opposing concepts on a continuum. Results show several ways in which a transgender person is imagined by students, as well as constraints and possibilities for the pedagogical proposal to promote moral imagining of transgender. Students situated in abjection justify their rejection of transgender persons, bringing up compassion (such as pity), "genitalization," symbolic violence and stigmatization of transgender persons. The realm between abjection and alterity is characterized by tolerance of different normalities, as well as linguistic constraints hindering the acceptance of transgender people. In alterity, students acknowledge their limited ability to "totally" imagine what it is like to be transgender, and also, their will to encounter transgender persons "face-to-face." Although results of this experience should not be interpreted in a prescriptive way, they show different ways to imagine transgender people in the domain of PE and sports, as well as the importance of considering the ethics of alterity as a means to advance in the moral imagining of transgender persons and, in general, of the distant Other.
Descriptors: Physical Education, Sexual Identity, Athletics, Teaching Methods, Higher Education, Social Attitudes, Student Attitudes, Moral Values, Imagination, Foreign Countries, Gender Issues, Fiction, Story Telling, Group Discussion, College Students
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Spain (Valencia)
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A