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Alienation in physical education from the perspectives of children

The purpose of this exploratory research study was to examine the phenomenon of alienation in physical education from the perspectives of children. Of particular interest were children’s perspectives about the three constructs of alienation: powerlessness, meaninglessness and social isolation as defined by Carlson (1995a). A case study methodology was employed with a class of grade 6 children (ages 10 and 11) with a total of 14 participants forming the unit of analysis. Observations, field notes, semi-structured interviews and drawings were used to triangulate the data. The data were analyzed by employing a continuum of inductive and deductive analysis (Patton, 2002). Three themes were identified as representative of the children’s perspectives: degree of control, meaning, and social factors. The results are discussed in relation to their potential to contribute to the understanding of the phenomenon of alienation.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:AEU.10048/518
Date11 1900
CreatorsRintoul, Mary Ann R
ContributorsDr. Nancy Spencer-Cavaliere (Faculty of Physical Education and Recreation), Dr. Brian Nielsen (Faculty of Physical Education and Recreation), Dr. Nancy Melnychuk (Faculty of Education)
Source SetsLibrary and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis
Format703334 bytes, application/pdf

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