Female PE teachers in Ireland: An emancipating commitment?

By analyzing women’s commitment to teaching physical education (PE) in Ireland, we discuss experiences of women working in foreign countries. In a Catholic country where the church has a major stranglehold on education, the values of the family unit established around the figure of the mother are part of the construction of a particular society. However, PE teachers display a commitment that disrupts these values by putting the body at stake. Using a qualitative sociological approach, we attempt to understand the justification processes of these teachers using the concept of commitment (Becker), and also try to categorize the terms of their commitment using a typology (Weber). Interpreting the data enabled us to identify what triggers these women’s commitment: their sporting experience. We were also able to establish a typology of their commitment to sport: the “heiress,” the professional practitioner, and the “chosen one.” Becoming a female PE teacher may be akin to an act carried out for many purposes: the legitimation of a non-compulsory discipline, the teaching of a body culture for all students, and the quest for a specific posture that would allow one to become emancipated “by way of the body.”