Dr Maria Luiza Tanure Alves - Critical Perspectives on Disability and Inclusion in Physical Education

IAS Visiting Fellow Dr Maria Luiza Tanure Alves delivers a seminar on their research, fully titled "Critical Perspectives on Disability and Inclusion in Physical Education" - Physical Education (PE), as part of the fundamental right to education, should be understood as the first setting in which children and young people systematically learn about their possibilities within physical activity and sport. However, research developed over recent years has highlighted a reality permeated by ableist assumptions, resulting in the exclusion and silencing of disabled students in PE and, subsequently, their distancing from sport. The theoretical recognition of ableism has shed light on the power relations that shape practices and, consequently, determine rights to exist within PE and later within sport. As an evolving field supported by critical theories such as Black feminism, current research has increasingly questioned the meaning of inclusion and the ways in which this fundamental right is also constituted through relations of domination and power among social groups. Transforming the reality of disabled people in PE requires a transformation in how we understand PE and how we define inclusion within it. The starting point for this transformation is the recognition of the intersectional identity of disabled people in PE and sport, grounded in the understanding that a reality can only be transformed once its existence is recognized. For more information about the IAS, please visit - https://www.lboro.ac.uk/research/ias