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This paper aims to explore young Chinese girls’ aspirations and ideal environments for engagement in Health and Physical Education (HPE) and physical activity (PA) in Greater Western Sydney. Interviews are used to elicit these girls’ perceptions of their future and ideal environments in relation to HPEPA. Their data offer insights into key influences regarding what is thinkable, desirable and achievable in their HPEPA environments. Results showed dimensions of environments, such as social and pedagogical aspects, that are conducive to these girls’ aspirations in HPEPA (e.g. social support from parents, and functional built environment for HPE). This paper aligns with a strengths-based approach to understanding and recognising young Chinese girls’ perceived aspirations within their socio-cultural environment. In doing so, we discuss how feminism and femininity are positioned from a Chinese perspective that may provide alternative views to a post-feminist panorama in promoting advancement of all young girls in HPEPA. Results invite us to take into account some of the girls’ ambivalence towards being an ‘autonomous’ and ‘dependent’ modern Chinese young girl. This paper calls for a rethinking of how aspirations that shape young people’s future in HPEPA in much of the contemporary Western world are conceptualised in academic research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Young people with English as an Additional Language/Dialect backgrounds are often identified in public health messages and popular media as ‘bodies at risk’ because they do not conform to the health regimens of contemporary Western societies. With increasing numbers of Chinese students in Australian schools, it is necessary to advance teachers' understandings of the ways in which these young people negotiate notions of ‘health’ and ‘(un)healthy bodies’. This paper explores the ways in which young Chinese Australians' understand health and (un)healthy bodies. The data upon which this paper focuses were drawn from a larger scale study underpinned by critical, interpretive, ethnographic methods. The participants in this study were 12 young Chinese Australians, aged 10–15 years, from two schools. Photographs of a variety of bodies were sourced from popular magazines and used as a means of interview elicitation. The young people were invited to comment on the photographs and discuss what ‘health’ and the notion of a ‘(un)healthy body’ meant to them. Foucault's concepts of discursive practice and normalisation are used alongside Chinese concepts of holistic paradigms and Wen–Wu to unpack the young people's subjectivities on health and (un)healthy bodies. The findings invite us to move beyond Western subjectivities of health and (un)healthy bodies and highlight the multidimensional and diverse perspectives espoused by some of the young Chinese Australians in this study. The research findings can inform future policy and practice relevant to the exploration of health and (un)healthy bodies in health and physical education and health and physical education teacher education. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Despite the increasing number of students from “Asian” backgrounds in Australian schools, little consideration has been given to the experiences of Health and Physical Education (HPE) teachers in teaching these students. This paper centres on the experiences of eight Anglo-Celtic Australian HPE teachers teaching mainly Chinese students in two schools in Queensland. In order to understand the nuanced diversity of their teaching experiences, three key theories were drawn on. They include: Bourdieu's concepts of capital and (mis)recognition, Chinese “complementary difference” and postcolonialism. Underpinned by critical and interpretive ethnographic methods, this paper also discussed key implications for promoting diversity in HPE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports how aspects of Chinese young people’s perceived identities can be viewed as resources in Australian schooling. The data in this article were taken from a larger scale study underpinned by a critical and interpretive ethnographic method conducted in two school sites. Qualitative methods elicited young people’s perspectives about their identities, ethnicity, and perceived strengths and weaknesses with regards to their daily lives, academic and school physical activity contexts. Based on Yosso’s notion of cultural wealth and its various forms of capital and operationalised by drawing on Bourdieu’s notions of how capital works to privilege and marginalise, we aim to problematise the often taken-for-granted, deficit discourses represented in the popular media, research and educational policy, and to promote a strengths-based approach to understand and recognise young Chinese Australians perceived resources within their socio-cultural environment. We conclude that these young people’s lives are constructed across transnational boundaries and they possess resources in dealing with challenges within and beyond schooling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]