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At the beginning of 2013 two independent cases made the headlines of Japanese newspapers. The first case involved the suicide of a high school student that was allegedly triggered after he received several beatings from his basketball coach for failing to perform well enough. The second case involved fifteen female judoka, including competitors in the London Olympics, who filed a letter with the Japanese Olympic Committee complaining of violence by two coaches, including the head coach of the women's team. Both these cases caused a national debate about the practice oftaibatsu(corporal punishment) in sport in Japan. This article is based on the outcomes of focus groups that were conducted with students at ten universities from across Japan in 2013. In particular, we examine the ways in which students’ normalised acts of violence from coaches, accepting them as necessary forms of discipline and, in many cases interpreting such acts as indicative of caring coaching and kindness. Further, we consider the responses of students, which suggest that these forms of corporal punishment are necessary in producing a uniquely Japanese form of identity. The complex relationship between sport and education in Japan suggests that attempts to change the ways in whichbukatsudōoperate, including coach/athlete relationships, is problematic and may require major reconsideration of the role of sport in education. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The intersection of sport and education is a potentially powerful site for the production of class and gender. This paper examines how the relationship between sport and education can also serve to (re)produce ideas about ‘race’. Drawing on research conducted during my time as a coach of the first XV rugby team at an elite private school in Australia, I consider how whiteness creates the ‘other’. In particular I highlight how, despite their absence, the Pacific Island ‘other’ is (re)produced through stories that coaches share during training. These stories revolve around the themes of the ‘natural’, fear and violence and commodity. As themes they resonate with a larger meta-narrative that informs dominant ‘white’ culture on Pacific Islanders in Australia. Such stories have the power to shape students’ subjectivities, both of themselves and Pacific Islanders. Deconstructing the white-stream narrative identifies sport settings in education as important pedagogical sites where ‘race’, class and gender are learned. As such, there is a need to utilise critical pedagogical approaches in the education of sports coaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Australia and New Zealand recognition of Polynesians is almost exclusively defined by their physicality. Sought after for size and strength on the sporting field, excellence in sport is arguably regarded as a life goal in itself. This paper will examine how this situation arose and the implications for Polynesians living in Australia. For a working-class community struggling with rapidly diminishing job opportunities and a high cost of living, sport is increasingly regarded as the only avenue out of poverty. With comparatively low rates of educational achievement keeping many in 'blue collar' jobs, there are consequences for health and health literacy, particularly with regard to obesity-related illness and premature mortality from otherwise preventable diseases. This paper will discuss the findings of two studies: an ethnographic project exploring the rugby life histories of 15 Polynesian men in Melbourne and qualitative interviews with 67 Polynesians in Sydney and the Hunter region about their perceptions of health and lifestyle. It will argue success in sport is inextricably bound up with cultural pride and identity. The sporting domain therefore has the potential to allow a migrant minority a 'voice' in other areas of civic engagement. In this way, rather than a sporting career coming at the expense of an education, participation and achievement in sport should provide a background to improving culturally targetted programs around improving outcomes in education and health awareness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the usage of ‘race’ in high school physical education textbooks in Australia. In particular, it examines the concept of biological ‘race’ in connection with human performance in sport. DNA studies do not indicate that separate classifiable subspecies (races) exist within modern humans. A content analysis of physical education textbooks in Australia suggests that they are sites that continue to perpetuate myths of ‘race’ and the ‘science’ related to it. As such the utilization of biological ‘race’ as a variable for athletic performance naturalizes embedded biases, is anti-scientific and is potentially indicative of other racist practices within education. Further this commonsense understanding of biological ‘race’ continues to develop uncritically and unchecked. University students in the fields of exercise science and physical education generally develop from students who excelled in high school physical education (PE). The power of curriculum and pedagogy result in the reproduction of biological ‘race’ that has become reified in the field of physical education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sport, including club activities in Japanese schools and universities, occupies an important place in educational curricula; but is it imbued with what Bourdieu suggests are guaranteed capital properties? That is, can sport and physical education help to accrue capital, and can such capital become cultural and economic capital? Further, is this capital similar to that resulting from academic education? Although western culture recognizes Cartesian differentiation, mind and body are seen as one in the Japanese understanding of the individual, unified by the concept of spirit (this is different to the concept of soul). Recognizing this concept of the body is crucial in addressing the question of transferring educational (in this case physical) capital into forms of cultural capital. This article investigates the responses of members of a Japanese University Rowing club when addressing questions dealing with various uses of the body in rowing and perceived opportunities for future employment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]