'The battle in belonging': pedagogies, practice and hypermasculinity in boys' physical education

Battle Ball is a game that often features in the everyday practices of school physical education (PE). We offer a micro-analysis of the pedagogic encounter (Youdell 2010) of battle ball in one all-boys PE class to show how the encounter (re) shapes the sense of belonging and not-belonging for the female teacher and one of her students. Our analysis reveals that not all feelings of belonging/non-belonging are agentically sought or controlled and belonging/non-belonging can be ‘done to you’ by institutional policies and pedagogic practices. Yet, as we reveal, the boundaries of belonging/non-belonging are not fixed but permeable and changeable for both teacher and students. Thus, we propose that belonging and not belonging can best be understood as a dynamic process of desire and experience.


regularly featuring in everyday practices of schools’ physical education (PE) classes. We offer a micro-analysis of the pedagogic encounter (Youdell 2010) of battle ball in one all-boys PE class to show how the encounter shapes and reshapes the sense of belonging and not-belonging for the teacher and one of her students. Our analysis reveals that not all feelings of belonging/non-belonging are agentically sought or controlled and belonging/non-belonging can be ‘done to you’ by institutional policies and pedagogic practices. Yet, as we reveal, the boundaries of belonging/non-belonging are not fixed and static but permeable and changeable for both teacher and students. Thus, we propose that belonging and not belonging can best be understood as a dynamic process of desire and experience.