Senior Lecturer in Physical Education

I spent the first part of my career as a Physical Education teacher/head of department in various schools and age ranges: middle, secondary, sixth form college, FE college and HE college before finally reaching my career goal of University Lecturer and Teacher Training Physical Education.

I played National League Div 1 Basketball for 16 years my last team being The Thames Valley Tigers who were league champions on many occasions.

I was fortunate enough to travel the world playing basketball and to play in the World Basketball Tournament in Taiwan.

I have represented the county in Badminton, Squash, Basketball and Athletics.

I am currently an artist working in glass, ceramic and print.

Qualifications

• BAQTS Physical Education - University of Brighton
• MA Physical Education – De Montfort University  
• PhD –  De Montfort University

Teaching Expertise

At the University of Bedfordshire I lecture across both practical (school based gymnastics) and theoretical paradigms (Sociocultural, Qualitative Research) and to students from a diverse range of courses.

Research Interests

My research centres on Gender and Physical Education/exercise/sport; Equity, and subjectivities in Physical Education; the medicalisation of bodies and the social constructions of health.

I am currently involved in a number of projects exploring dangerous discourses of health, with a particular focus on the discourses of eating and ritualistic behaviours.

Conceptually much of my work is informed by sociological, educational and poststructuralist feminist theory drawing upon feminist ethnographic and qualitative methodologies. I was awarded my PhD in 2005. The title of my thesis was ‘From Subcultures to Social Worlds: Women in Sport, Women in Triathlon’. I draw upon evidence from a three-year feminist ethnography in which I studied a triathlon club in the South of England.

My data suggests that triathlon can act as both technologies of power and as a technology of the self (Markula 2003). During my time in the club some of the women began to recognise themselves as subjects, and in this sense began to consciously counter the discourses of power.

Publications

• Jones, A. (2007). Triathlon as a Space for Women’s Technologies of the Self. In C. C. Carmichael Atichison (Ed.), Sport and Gender Identities. Masculinities, Femininities and Sexualities (pp53-73). Routledge.

Contact Details

T: +44 (0)1234 793372 
E: amanda.jones@beds.ac.uk