Inactive student thinking on their negative experiences in physical education: discourses of performance, healthism and hegemonic masculinity

The purpose of this study is to analyze the thinking of inactive students about their negative experiences in physical education and the social discourses associated with them. Seven high school students, four boys and three girls, classified as inactive in a previous quantitative research phase, participated in semi-structured interviews. Four themes resulted from the thematic analysis of the negative experiences told by the students. The first showed how inactive students suffer the consequences of some classes and teacher-oriented assessment towards physical performance, especially obese boys and girls with low competence. The second one reflected the penetration of masculinity and healthism discourses in the teachers' expectations and valuations towards their students, mediated by possible body prejudices. The third topic dealt with the feelings of discomfort and shame experienced by the girls to expose their body and poor ability or performance under the gaze of their teachers and fellow boys. The fourth showed the contempt, the marginalization and the mockery experienced by the obese and low competence students on the part of their classmates. This set of negative experiences of inactive students, increases the disaffection towards physical activity and the subject, precisely among those who need them most. It is, therefore, imperative a depth reflection on the part of teachers in order to face the hegemonic discourses that may appear in their classes with negative consequences for their students.