Understanding the place and meaning of physical activity in young girls’ lives through participatory methods

Déirdre Ní Chróinín, Mary Immaculate College, University of Limerick

Eimear Enright, University of Queensland, Australia

Research Question

‘Can a one-off engagement with participatory methods produce different knowledge by

facilitating girls to share their understandings around the place and meaning of physical

activity, physical education and sport in their lives?’

Participatory methods are those that facilitate participants in…

“finding their own language to articulate what they know, and help them put words to their

ideas and feelings, and share understandings of their worlds, thereby giving participants more

control over the research process” (Enright & O’Sullivan, 2012, p.122).

Fielding (2004)

• Students as data source

• Students as active respondents

• Students as co-researchers

• Students as researchers

Data Collection

• 4 all-girls primary schools

• 102 girls age 11-13

• One-off data collection

– Individual letter– Group poster

102 individual

letters

Thematic Analysis(Braun and Clarke, 2006)

21 group posters

with accompanying written ‘art’ text

15 hours of voice recordings of the group poster task

Key Finding 1Intrinsic

Utilitarian

Personal experiences

DominantSocial Messages

Intrinsic – fun and friends

‘My favourite things to do is play basketball because its really fun just bouncing the ball around. I also like

football because its really fun kicking the football around. My other

favourite thing is running around the place I like this because it is just like

freedom and fun’ (LM MA).

‘I love swimming because its fun going under the water and

going down the slides’ (EOS MA)

Utilitarian – fit and healthy

‘people need sport to get fit and it is healthy. Sports is everywhere and it is very important because some people walk, run and they do

everything with movements…I like to be fit and healthy’ (PG SAM).

‘In this picture there’s a fat guy who joins a GAA club and with his hard work and dedication and some time he becomes healthy, skinny and handsome and all the girls like him’ (SAM3b).

Key Finding 2

’Don’t give up! Do what

you wanna do! Try at least 1 sport!!! Your spoilt for choice!!!’

(SBE 2).

‘The Main message of you poster is sports and activities

are fun and everyone should at least do one activity or sport’

(MA1).

Using Participatory methods

“I Keep Six Honest Serving Men ...”

I KEEP six honest serving-men(They taught me all I knew);Their names are What and Why and When And How and Where and Who.I send them over land and sea,I send them east and west;But after they have worked for me,I give them all a rest.

Rudyard Kipling

Using Participatory Methods

• Accessing ‘meaning’

• Recordings of ‘poster construction’

• When all you have is a parachute…

When all you have is a parachute:

• Drawing a tree's not a sports person

• It's not a sports person!• Jumping in puddles…• Yes, jumping in puddles, playing in

puddles• Wonderful! Fixed.• Ok then , then she's ice-skating…• Just change the wellie boot to like,

ice-skating…• And then the trees could be…Oh I

don’t know• So she could be like, an outdoor

skater• What d'ya mean a lake? • Yeah, a lake…really good for ice-

skating (SBE 5)

Conclusion

• ‘hold huge power and potential in helping us to communicate with and understand both the young people we work with as well as how the world is interpreted through their eyes’ (Pope, 2010: 205).

• Importance of ‘place and meaning’ - Help design experiences that are oriented towards positive outcomes for the participants.

Further Information

Deirdre.NiChroinin@mic.ul.ie