Exploring the (Ex/In)clusion of Disability Within Social Justice Physical Education Research

Purpose : The purpose of this study was to explore what trends exist in the identification, description, and inclusion of disability within social justice focused physical education scholarship. Method : Using a documentary analysis approach, this study employed a systematic coding procedure to analyze 140 journal publications from six leading physical education journals using six categories of analysis. Results : Among the 140 analyzed papers, disability was not mentioned in more than half ( n = 71). Among the 69 that did mention disability, many ( n = 32) only used the term in a list as one of several marginalized groups. Among empirical studies, only five included disability as a demographic variable. Four of these papers were focused specifically on disabled people. Discussion/Conclusion : These findings demonstrate a general lack of disability within social justice physical education scholarship, which may be a result of varying perspectives about what social justice scholarship is and who social justice research should be for.