Physical Education and Cultural Diversity:

Physical Education and Cultural Diversity: Article Review

In Walseth and Fasting's article, the sociological issue that is being explored is the relationship that women in the Islamic culture have with physical activities and sport. The authors attempt to explore the complex relationship about the interpretation of the Islamic religion and in the context o f sports, and to gain more knowledge about the general influence of the Islamic religion on some Muslim women's participations in physical activity and sports. It seems that overall, through their study, the authors learned that women believed that Islam encouraged sport participation for women, with the strongest supporters of physical activity for women being those who had a fundamentalist interpretation of Islam. This is indicative, according to the study, that different interpretations of Islam had a correlation with the support of physical activity.

The purpose of the article was to create more knowledge about the influence of Islam on some Muslim women's participation in sport. The manner in which the authors and researchers decided to execute this was by interviewing twenty-seven women as well as completing in-field observations. The researchers chose Egypt, because of the cultural dynamic of the country including that there are many different attitudes about issues in this country. There was previous research in this area that was mainly done in two categories- the first being that there is literature about Islam's positive attitude toward sport and secondly, more specific research done about women's sports participation in Muslim countries. Using previous research along with the new material that was being gathered from respondents, researchers were able to draw conclusions and learn more information about their original goal.

In the journal article of "Sport, Education and Society," the sociological issue that is being discussed is the relationship between race, ethnicity and cultural diversity and physical activity from a more educational standpoint. The authors in this article attempt to explore that relationship in the context of Indigenous and Muslim young people. The purpose of this article is to focus on the relationship between ethnicity and physical activity by exploring the specific relationships, perceptions, and thoughts that some religious and cultural factions foster towards physical activity while ultimately attempting to argue that physical educations needs to better account for "others" and "othering" in its research, planning and practices.

The manner in which these authors have attempted to explore this relationship is by using research, specifically from research projects with Indigenous and Muslim young people, to extrapolate information of what their families thoughts are on physical education, activity and health. From these research projects, the authors of the article will drawn conclusions by also drawing on the biopolitical landscape of the cultures, governmentality and citizenships.

Some similarities that exist between the two articles that are discussed is the general subject matter of trying to find a correlation between physical activity and sport as well and the cultures and religions that individuals find themselves in. It seems that both articles have concluded that there is definitely a correlation between the cultural and religious perceptions and how they eventually translate into a more negative or positive attitude towards physical activity. For example, the Walseth and Fasting article conclude that the informants who did no use veil or who used a hijab said that God encouraged while who with a nikab or krimar veils said that they had to engaged in exercise and sport. Similar to that, the other article in their exploration of indigenous children said they associated the words of "physical activity" with concepts of health and strength. The concepts and associations that both articles found that cultures fostered towards physical activity which is important to the overall understanding of these cultures and helps readers and the scholarly community gain knowledge about the impact that religions and cultures have on such things as physical activity.