Pedagogy, the Body and Christian Identity

Abstract

The body is integral to the discourses of health and physical education just as it is to the discourses of religion. When teachers of health and physical education hold particular religious views, there are implications for how the body is positioned in concert with questions of identity and lifestyle. This paper draws on interviews with health and physical education teacher education students, who self‐identify as Christians, to explore a range of beliefs and tensions with respect to their personal and professional lives. The growing visibility of the students’ religious beliefs in their engagements with professional and curriculum issues has in tum presented new challenges to our critical pedagogies.