Sport, Health & Wellbeing
Figurational Sociology is changing the face of Health and Physical Education
School Physical Education (PE) is a subject all of us know – but each person’s experience with it will differ. While sporty kids might have loved this subject, for others, it may well have triggered feelings of anxiety.
Activities like the ‘beep test’, or laps of the oval and dodgeball – common to the ‘skills and drills' approach many remember from primary or high school – are outdated and potentially detrimental to students, yet are still being used in many PE lessons today.
As a figurational sociologist and teacher educator, Dr John Williams has cultivated an evidence-based HPE teaching program at the University of Canberra where figurational sociology underpins many core units – and it’s having a major impact.
“Norbert Elias’s figurational sociology can make a massive contribution to helping us understand PE; with Elias widely regarded as one of the most important sociologists of the twentieth century. His work provides a broad framework with which to make sense of people – for example PE teachers and their interactions with students, caregivers and other teachers - with PE being a particularly relational subject” says John.
The term ‘figuration’ is central to this branch of sociology and means networks of interdependent people who share differing amounts of social power. While figurational sociology has been used extensively in understanding the social significance of sport, its use in PE remains largely undiscovered, with John being the leading scholar internationally using a figurational lens in his research.
“A lot of what has traditionally been done in PE can be quite damaging for students. You get kids to highlight their inabilities in front of the whole class. That tends not to happen in other subject areas,” John says.
“Dodgeball for example can be very humiliating – kids are basically struck with balls and rules such as no throws above shoulder-height are ineffective.”
“Allowing students to pick their teams is also very ‘old school’ with the last student chosen often feeling inadequate.”
From a figurational sociology perspective, such activities lack “reality congruence”. In other words, they are not aligned with contemporary ideas about learning and teaching.
What’s more, marginalised groups including First Nations, and gender diverse students, and those with movement impairments, are at particular risk of alienation through bad PE, with damaging long-term effects.
“These students can be seen as ‘outsiders’, who typically have less social power compared to their PE teachers, who in Australia and elsewhere tend to be white, middle-class and relatively privileged,” John says.
So, what should high quality, contemporary PE look like?
“The goal should be to teach students knowledge, skills, and attitudes they need to be physically active throughout their lives,” John says.
“This includes providing opportunities to foster social responsibility, teamwork and positive values.”
As a former PE teacher, and active researcher in the field, when he took over the HPE units in the specialist primary and secondary teaching degrees, John realised figurational sociology could be used to help his students understand the current status of the profession, what to expect when they graduate and how they can positively influence the profession.
John’s passion for teaching, his unique application of figurational sociology and incorporation of student feedback into his practice, have led to well above average unit student satisfaction ratings over many years.
John recently organised a student awards event, hosted by Emma Potter, Head of Primary School Physical Education and her staff at Canberra Grammar School, with help from his UC HPE teaching colleagues that incorporated a unique “speed friending” component.
The event served as an opportunity to acknowledge 18 high performing final year HPE students who have embraced figurational sociology, and to connect them with in-service teachers through a local community of practice.
“Figurational sociology makes a useful and missing contribution in preparing the next generation of teachers. The awards were to recognise those really exceptional students who recognised the value of figurational sociology,” John says.
“With the networking, students could begin building their professional networks. The students and teachers both shared their top tips, privileging the idea that both groups have really valuable knowledge to share.”
Story by Kelly White, photos by Tyler Cherry and supplied