IDEALS AND REALITIES - ARTICULATING FEMINIST PERSPECTIVES IN PHYSICAL-EDUCATION

Using on information gathered from five female feminist physical educa tion teachers in Brisbane, Australia, this paper examines the relation ship between theoretical debates in feminism and feminist practice in secondary schools. Specifically, this paper is concerned with the ongo ing debate in feminism over the notion of equality. It is problematic that calls for equality for women are currently understood as calls fo r sameness to men, leaving men and their life experience as the only s tandard of analysis. In this paper, how this theoretical struggle betw een feminists is dealt with in sport and physical education is explore d. The teachers articulated various feminist perspectives, but placed their feminism on the physical education agenda piecemeal. Moreover, t hey failed to challenge the notion of an equality for women based on t heir sameness to men. Given the duress under which these women articul ate their feminism, notions of sameness may be all that is achievable in the current physical education curriculum.