BODY PEDAGOGIES – AN INVESTIGATION OF THE WAYS IN
WHICH CHILDREN COME TO UNDERSTAND THEIR BODIES.
Denise ATKINS 1
Lynn Kidman 1
Dawn Penney 2
1. AUT University
2. University of Waikato
This presentation will report some preliminary findings arising from an ethnographic study that
has explored how primary school aged children come to understand and see their bodies. The
study adopted an interpretive epistemology which enabled me to capture children’s voices
through an ethnographic methodology where I spent time in a New Zealand classroom and within
the broader school context over a two year period.
Body pedagogies refer to any conscious activity taken by people, organisations or government
agencies that are designed to enhance individuals’ understandings of their own and others
corporeality (Evans, Rich, Davies & Allwood, 2008). I use the term body pedagogies as a
concept to understand how the discourses communicated in and through some health
intervention programmes in schools are shaping children’s understanding of their bodies and their
health (Burrows, 2010; Burrows & Wright, 2004; Cliff & Wright, 2010; Gard, 2008; Penny &
Harris, 2004; Shilling, 2010). Bernstein (1970; 2000) suggests that society’s values are promoted
through the three message systems that underpin a school culture. These primary message
systems (curriculum, pedagogy and assessment) work to make education an arena of
socialisation and allocation (Bernstein, 1970).
I will consider the influence these message systems have had on how children understand and
see their bodies, through two perspectives – considering performance and perfection codes
(Shilling, 2004). Analysis of the ‘body in schooling’ will be discussed with particular reference to
bodily perfection - characterised in terms of expected image, weight, shape, composition and
control - and bodily performance - perceived ability through conforming and performing (Evans et
al., 2008).
Bernstein, B. (1970). Class, Codes and Control. Vol 1. London:RKP.
Bernstein, B. (2000). Official Knowledge and Pedagogic Identities: The Politics of
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Routledge.
Burrows, L. (2010). “Kiwi kids are Weet-Bix kids’ – body matters in childhood. Sport, Education
and Society. 15(2), pp. 235-251.
Burrows, L., & Wright J. (2004). The Good Life: New Zealand Children’s Perspectives on Health
and Self. Health Education Journal, 9(2),193-205
Cliff, K., & Wright, J. (2010). Confusing and contradictory: considering obesity discourse and
eating disorders as they shape body pedagogies in HPE. Sport, Education and Society, 15(2),
221-233.
Evans, J., Rich, E., Davies, D., & Allwood, R. (2008). Education, disordered eating and obesity
discourse. Fat fabrications. London: Routledge.
Gard, M. (2008). Producing little Decision Makers and Goal Setters in the Age of the Obesity
Crisis. Quest, 60, 488-502
Penney, D., & Harris, J. (2004). The body and health in policy. In Evans, J., Davies, B., &
Wright, J. (Eds). Body Knowledge and Control: Studies in the Sociology of Physical Education
and Health. London: Routledge
Shilling, C. (2004). Educating Bodies: Schooling and the Constitution of Society, in J. Evans, B
Davies and J. Wright (Eds) Body Knowledge and Control: Studies in the Sociology of Physical
Education and Health. London: Routledge
Shilling, C. (2010). Exploring the society-body-school nexus: theoretical and methodology issues
in the study of body pedagogics. Sport, Education and Society, 15(2), 151-167
Denise Atkins – denise.atkins@aut.ac.nz
Word count 250 + references