Issues and Perspectives on Gender in Physical Education

Abstract

The passage of Title IX in 1972 in the United States marked the initiation of research agendas, development of curricular programs, creation of pedagogy, and development of environments that address the needs of both women and men equally in educational settings. The purpose of this research was to determine how gender has been studied in extant literature in physical education. In particular, the intent of this research examination was to analyze the extent to which the concept of gender has been addressed in mainstream United States-based (US-based) journals in physical education. The liberal feministic theory guided this research investigation. Data collection involved the selection of five research, theory, and practice-based journals in physical education. Constant comparison method was used to analysis the data for the purpose of determining the themes that emerged from the literature (Goetz & LeCompte, 1984). The findings of the study revealed several perspectives related to gender in physical education. Three major themes emerged from examining the literature and they include program-centered, participation-based, and workplace-connected perspectives as related to occurrences in physical education environments.