You Have Nothing to Lose! Using Culturally Relevant Pedagogy in Secondary Education to Make Space for Body Acceptance

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You Have Nothing to Lose! Using Culturally Relevant Pedagogy in Secondary Education to Make Space for Body Acceptance You have nothing to lose! Using culturally relevant pedagogy in secondary education to make space for body acceptance by Ashley C. Fullbrook A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Masters of Arts Graduate Department of Curriculum, Teaching and Learning, Program of Curriculum Studies & Teacher Development University of Toronto © Copyright by Ashley Fullbrook 2012 You have nothing to lose! Using culturally relevant pedagogy in secondary education to make space for body acceptance Ashley C. Fullbrook Masters of Arts Graduate Department of Curriculum, Teaching and Learning, Program of Curriculum Studies & Teacher Development University of Toronto November 2012 Abstract Schools are sites of great power and influence where the “obesity” discourse is often taken uncritically as truth and reproduced, to the detriment of young people. The purpose of this thesis was to investigate how theories of fatness can inform theories of culturally relevant pedagogy with the goal of helping teachers create spaces where increased size acceptance is possible for secondary students. Literature from both these areas of study was reviewed and applied to the Ontario secondary curriculum documents for science and physical education. This analysis demonstrated a body acceptance orientation in teaching these disciplines, and that doing so can mitigate many of the negative effects of living in a fat hating world. ii Table of Contents Abstract .......................................................................................................................................... ii Table of Contents .......................................................................................................................... iii Chapter 1 – Introduction ................................................................................................................ 1 My Story .................................................................................................................................... 1 Research Rationale .................................................................................................................... 2 Thesis Outline ............................................................................................................................ 5 Chapter 2 – Methodology .............................................................................................................. 6 Conceptual Framework .............................................................................................................. 6 Search Framework ................................................................................................................... 10 Discourse Analysis Framework ............................................................................................... 10 Chapter 3 – Fatness-as-a-Problem ............................................................................................... 14 Fat Oppression ......................................................................................................................... 14 Fat and Medicalization ............................................................................................................ 17 Countering “Obesity” Discourse from within the Medical Model ...................................... 20 Complicating the “Obesity” Discourse ................................................................................ 23 Fat Bodies as Other .............................................................................................................. 25 “Obesity” as A Measure of Health ....................................................................................... 26 Cultural Messages: The Dangers of Fat ............................................................................... 28 Cultural Messages: The Diet Industry ................................................................................. 30 Fat, Queer, and Disability ........................................................................................................ 34 Fat and Queer Theory .......................................................................................................... 35 Fat and Disability Theory .................................................................................................... 35 The Power of Non-Normativity ........................................................................................... 38 Fat and Gender ......................................................................................................................... 40 Gender Performativity ......................................................................................................... 40 Tension between Fat and Femininity ................................................................................... 42 Pedagogy and Gender .......................................................................................................... 44 Fat and Post-Structuralism ....................................................................................................... 47 Biopedagogies...................................................................................................................... 48 Healthism in Educational Spaces......................................................................................... 53 Chapter 4 – Culturally Relevant Pedagogy: A tool for teachers .................................................. 55 Implicating Schools as Part of the Problem ............................................................................. 55 Culturally Relevant Pedagogy as a Vehicle for Change .......................................................... 57 Achievement and Cultural Competence .............................................................................. 59 Sociopolitical Consciousness and Critical Race Theory ..................................................... 64 Limitations to using CRP ........................................................................................................ 66 Chapter 5 – Implications for Educators ....................................................................................... 68 Linking Fat and Culture ........................................................................................................... 68 Fat and Education .................................................................................................................... 75 Attitudes of Teachers ........................................................................................................... 79 Fatness/Fitness ..................................................................................................................... 83 Strategies for Educators ........................................................................................................... 84 Ontario Curriculum .............................................................................................................. 86 Physical Education and Science .......................................................................................... 89 iii Barriers to CRP and Body Acceptance .................................................................................... 92 Conclusions and Next Steps .................................................................................................... 94 Appendix – Activities for Teachers ............................................................................................. 96 1 Word association ................................................................................................................... 96 2 Malri‟s story .......................................................................................................................... 97 3 Anonymous bodies ............................................................................................................... 98 4 How does fat fuel an industry? ........................................................................................... 100 5 Additional Resources .......................................................................................................... 101 Notes .......................................................................................................................................... 103 References.................................................................................................................................. 103 iv Chapter 1 – Introduction My Story I have been conscious of my body size for almost as long as I can remember. My earliest memories of this are connected to the attitudes of my family members who were critical of my own perceived fatness as well as their own. It was how they spoke disparagingly about their own fitness and fatness, conflating the two, that was most painful and cutting, since I was clearly fatter (in my perception at least) than all of them, so even if they usually didn't tell me directly that there was something wrong with my body, that they were criticizing their own made it crystal clear that mine was also imperfect and needing improvement. I carried these beliefs with me to school where they were, of course, validated. I was teased for being fat (and wearing glasses, being smart, being tall, being “weird”) and not once did a teacher intervene or suggest in any way that it was actually okay for my body to look how it does or, at the very least, that it was not okay for other children to mock me
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