Gender knowledge and gender relations on higher education sport and physical education courses

This chapter is a reflection of our combined experience of over twenty years teaching gender relations as part of modules on social issues and the sociology of sport and our concerns about the marginalisation of gender knowledge on higher education (HE) sport and physical education (PE) courses. This marginalisation, alongside the way that gender knowledge is taught, challenged, and resisted by colleagues and students may partially explain the ongoing gender essentialist policies and practices in PE and school sport. We apply concepts from Elias’ figurational sociology focusing on power, interdependence, and the social construction of knowledge to consider the ways in which curricula content reflects dominant ideas about gender essentialism. Drawing on data from colleagues across the sector teaching sport and PE courses, alongside students studying on these degrees, we firstly explore higher education sport and PE curricula and gender knowledge, and secondly, we consider experiences of teaching and being taught gender knowledge to highlight the interdependency between curricula content, pedagogy, and power.