Stop playing up!: Physical education, racialization and resistance

Abstract

Situated in the southern suburbs of New Zealand’s largest city, South Auckland is known for poverty, crime and cultural diversity. It is home to large numbers of indig- enous Maori and migrant Pasifika (Pacific Island) youth. Based on a year-long critical ethnography of a multiethnic high school, this article explores the place of physical education in the lives of young people in one school. Both a source of concern and a space of hope for diverse youth, physical education holds a unique place in their lives. On the one hand, physical education is implicated with narrow body norms while on the other hand it provides a space for relationship building, play and critical resistance. This article explores the complex potential for physical education as both a key site of learning for Pasifika and Maori youth, and one also politically fraught, given its close association with racialized and gendered body discourses.