Exploring Mechanisms of (Dis)Engagement in Health and Physical Education Class with Adolescent Boys

Currently, there remains a primitive understanding of the potential mechanisms that promote participation, disengagement and withdrawal in Health and Physical Education class (HPE) among adolescent boys. Of central concern then, and the foundation of this research, is to develop a substantive and theoretical understanding of the intersubjective and intrasubjective meanings ascribed to HPE among adolescent boys who are transitioning into their final year of institutionalized HPE in Ontario. Drawing from an ethnographic, grounded theory case study conducted at an independent elementary school for boys', this research elucidates the mechanisms of HPE (dis)engagement from 15 adolescent boys (12-14 years of age) of varying physical abilities. In conjunction with Pierre Bourdieu's conceptual tools of field, capital, habitus, practice and symbolic violence, it is proposed that a habitus of HPE (dis)engagement is formed through the reflexive observation, somatization and naturalization of the valorized forms ofM.Sc