Sportunterricht im Kontext von Flucht und Migration: Empirische Analysen zur sozialen Konstruktion von geflüchteten Schüler*innen durch Sportlehrkräfte

Translated title of the contribution: Physical education in the context of flight and migration: empirical analyses on the social construction of students from refugee backgrounds by physical education teachers

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Abstract

Social reality in Germany is currently strongly influenced by flight and migration phenomena. Schools are significantly involved in shaping this reality of migration society as a central context of mediation and socialisation. The way in which refugees’ movements are mediated in schools and addressed by teachers shapes the collective knowledge of people from refugee backgrounds and their place in society. Therefore, empirical indications that teachers tend to have a deficit-oriented perspective of students from refugee backgrounds based on monolingual or monocultural expectations of normality should be taken seriously. Furthermore, it can be assumed that teachers adjust their ideas to images of people from refugee backgrounds circulating in the media, which often emphasise negative aspects and convey ethnicised gender stereotypes. For physical education (PE) teachers, it is also the case that, due to their socialisation, they have probably internalised a more performance-oriented interpretation of school and sport, which students from refugee backgrounds are sometimes not always able to fulfil due to their biographies. This break with the institutionalised expectations of the school and sports culture in Germany may irritate the established pedagogical interpretation routines of PE teachers, which are also framed by other factors (e.g. the gender and migration experiences of the teachers). This raises the fundamental question of how teachers socially construct students from refugee backgrounds in PE and what patterns of interpretation they have in relation to this group of students.
To find a substantial answer to this overarching question, the four publications of this cumulative dissertation pursue differentiating sub-questions that result from the outlined backgrounds as well as constructivist, gender-sensitive, postcolonial and intersectional theoretical approaches. The focus lies on the following research questions: 1) Which patterns of interpretation are expressed when PE teachers talk about students from refugee backgrounds, and how can these patterns be interpreted against the background of the theoretical frame of reference?; 2) To what extent do the patterns of interpretation and social constructions of PE teachers differ with regard to various socio-structural aspects of the actors and the institution of school? To adequately address these research questions, data from a qualitative interview study and a questionnaire survey with PE teachers are used. The empirical access in the interviews takes place through analysis of patterns of interpretation, which is supported by a discourse-analytical procedure. The quantitative data are analysed by means of exploratory factor analysis and mean value comparisons.
The empirical findings reveal that PE teachers‘ patterns of interpretation contain hegemonic notions of normality and otherness and sometimes convey postcolonial ideas in relation to students from refugee backgrounds. It also becomes apparent that the patterns of interpretation are characterised by a close intertwining of gender and migration/refugee-related constructions, which go hand in hand with culturalisations and religionisations. These patterns of interpretation are probably actualised by the physical references of PE and the utensils used there (e.g. balls, rackets). Furthermore, it is important to note that the patterns of interpretation and social constructions that have been identified are not expressed in a general way, but must be considered in a differentiated manner. Ultimately, it appears that the teachers‘ gender, the type of school in which they work and the form in which students from refugee backgrounds are educated (international class vs. regular class) frame the patterns of interpretation. The analyses underline the valuable potential of the postcolonial perspective, which has brought forth new and hitherto neglected insights and which should therefore be deepened. Furthermore, the results point to the necessity of making racism, postcolonial inscriptions and the intertwining of migration- and gender-related attributions a stronger topic in the education and training of PE teachers.
Translated title of the contributionPhysical education in the context of flight and migration: empirical analyses on the social construction of students from refugee backgrounds by physical education teachers
Original languageGerman
Place of PublicationKöln
PublisherDeutsche Sporthochschule Köln
Number of pages111
Publication statusPublished - 2021

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