Abstract:

School settings are a vital place for physical activity (PA) to occur, and physical education (PE) classes should provide students positive experiences that will help them engage in lifelong PA (Gibbons & Humbert, 2008; Spencer-Cavalier & Rintoul, 2012; Woodson-Smith et al., 2015). In reality, too many students disengage from PE class, especially when they feel it is unsafe. Since PE is a highly public, social, and emotional environment (Halas, 2002), students are vulnerable to experiencing alienation in this complex space. Alienation has been defined as a sense of meaninglessness, powerlessness, and isolation (Carlson, 1995). When students feel like they have no purpose, control, or sense of belonging in PE class, they easily withdraw (Carlson, 1995; Halas, 2002). Many factors contribute, including fear of failure and public embarrassment; repetitive and irrelevant curriculum; unfair and arbitrary rules; lack of choice; feeling of no hope to improve or succeed; feeling rejected and excluded by peers, etc. (Carlson, 1999; Halas, 2002; Spencer-Cavalier & Rintoul, 2012). When students feel alienated, they develop various avoidance strategies, such as becoming spectators, blending into the background, faking participation, pretending to be sick or have an injury, or simply not attending class (Carlson, 1995; Halas, 2002; Olafson, 2002; Spencer-Cavalier & Rintoul, 2012). Consequently, student lose out on opportunities to improve their skills and interact with others, which alienates them further (Halas, 2002). This presentation addresses this concern by looking closely at alienation and students’ avoidance strategies so that physical educators can disrupt alienation to promote greater PA engagement.

Keywords:

Alienation, physical education, physical activity.