Karen Lambert
Biographic Data
| ID | 3784193 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Karen Lambert |
| GIVEN NAMES | Karen |
| FAMILY NAME | Lambert |
| SIGNATURE | LAMBERT K |
| AFFILIATIONS | Monash University |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-7406-4013 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 23 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 33 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 23 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2009 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Embodiment in physical education
Recent interest in physical literacy, meaningful physical education (PE), and bodily pleasure has brought renewed attention to the notion of embodiment in PE (EPE). Yet embodiment remains conceptually complex and often poorly understood. Building on previous theoretical work that identified five attributes of EPE, intentionality, affect, meaning, shared, and unity, this study sought to consolidate and refine an emerging EPE approach. We examine h…
Intersectionality in research on equity, diversity, and inclusion in sport
Research increasingly focuses on intersectionality to advance existing approaches to equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) in sport. Intersectionality is a complex concept that has been defined and operationalized in various ways. Using a systematic review comprising 41 peer-reviewed publications, this paper examines the extent to which and how research on EDI in sport engages with intersectional thinking and practice. The authors used three the…
What's right with PE
For decades, physical education (PE) scholars have called for a change to how PE is conceptualised and enacted, highlighting that its current (and persistent) form and focus – organised around physical activities and sports – are not fit for purpose. Much of this change-oriented discourse highlights what is wrong with PE, leading to suggestions about how PE should change in and for the future, for example, by adopting critical approaches and conn…
How is intersectionality being represented by Australian sports organisations? A content analysis
In the realm of critical social theory, the application of intersectionality is crucial for addressing social inequalities and advocating for social justice. Our research focuses on the growing integration of intersectionality in Australian sport systems, a development observed in government documents and sports organisations’ operational procedures. Despite this trend, challenges persist in effectively implementing intersectionality due to the c…
How is embodiment in physical education theoretically conceptualised? A concept analysis
Background Interest in and debates around meaningful movement and embodiment in physical education (EPE) have grown over the last ten years. The quality of these discussions centre on a degree of conceptual clarity for talking pedagogically about embodiment, and consideration of ways of applying it in practice in meaningful ways. The aim of this study is to systematically analyse the theoretical concept of embodiment presented within physical edu…
The association between physical education and academic achievement in other curriculum learning areas
Background : As a curriculum learning area, physical education (PE) has continually struggled to gain status within an increasingly crowded curriculum. This frequently leads to a reduction in available time within the curriculum for PE. In Australia and internationally, this may be explained by a focus on standardised testing, though questions are also raised about the capacity of PE to contribute to broader learning outcomes within the school co…
Diversity and inclusion strategies for LGBTQ + students from diverse ethnic backgrounds in higher education
LGBTQ + students from diverse ethnic backgrounds studying in higher education institutions (HEI) continue to face high levels of marginalisation due to the intersections of their identities. These students have distinct needs and require specialised support that are currently not being met. This scoping review aims to consolidates literature of diversity and inclusion strategies implemented by HEIs to support LGBTQ + students from diverse ethnic …
What would bell hooks think of the remote teaching and learning in Physical Education during the Covid-19 pandemic? A critical review of the literature
This critical narrative review draws on bell hooks’ engaged pedagogy to examine the pedagogies deployed by PE teachers and PETE educators in response to COVID-19. Full-text, empirical studies between 2020 and 2022 were accessed through Academic Search Complete, Education Database (ProQuest), Education Research Complete (EBSCO), ERIC (EBSCO), Scopus, and SPORTDiscus. In total, 86 articles were considered for full-text review, with 38 articles movi…
Navigating queer spaces in Australian tertiary STEM Education
This article presents a retrospective autoethnopoetic study exploring a queer student's journey in Australian tertiary STEM education, employing queer research methodologies to illuminate the challenges encountered. Through personal narrative and poetic expression, we identify critical themes: microaggressions, discrimination, identity formation, cisheteronormative navigation, and resilience strategies. Although rooted in the first author's exper…
It was just as political as it was pragmatic’
Politics and pragmatics are central and inseparable features of curriculum reform. In a federated system like Australia, many individuals and organisations are invested in reform at the national and jurisdictional level. This paper focuses on the policy work and roles of key actors positioned at the interface of national and state-based curriculum development, and at the juncture of curriculum policy and pedagogic practice. These were individuals…
How pupils' playfulness creates possibilities for pleasure and learning in physical education
Background Physical education has been described as too instrumental and uncritical, where a focus on utility has limited the value of pleasure in movement. Decades of previous research has addressed the need for changes where embodied experiences and learning are emphasized [Kirk, David, and Richard Tinning. 1994. "Embodied Self-Identity, Healthy Lifestyles and School Physical Education." Sociology of Health and Illness 16 (5): 600-625; Kirk, Da…
Examining Pride Cups as a health promotion resource to address homophobia in Australian men’s sport
Effective interventions are needed to stop homophobic behaviours in sport settings as these behaviours are associated with negative health and social outcomes for individuals who identify as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer or other diverse genders and sexualities. This paper reports the results of a quasi-experimental study commissioned by a public health agency to explore the benefits of a novel intervention that has been widely adopt…
School psychologists’ perceptions of transgender training and education
The experiences of Australian transgender young people in school counseling
The problematization of the (im)possible subject
Policy classifies and shapes people/subjects in particular kinds of ways. Focusing on the context of Health and Physical Education (HPE), this paper analyses policy documents from Australia, the United States of America (USA) and Wales. We pay particular attention to how learners are represented within and across the three policy documents, and we apply Bacchi’s ‘What’s the Problem Represented to be?’ approach to guide the analysis. For us, probl…
Re-conceptualizing embodied pedagogies in physical education by creating pre-text vignettes to trigger pleasure ‘in’ movement
Background: Recent critiques of twenty-first century physical education (PE), and by association physical education teacher education (PETE), position the discipline as largely uncontested, unproblematised and uncritical. This critique encourages researchers to re-consider the nature of PE and what it means to move, be moved, value movement or be physically educated. Much literature also supports the claim that young people, especially young wome…
Artefacts and influence in curriculum policy enactment
Artefacts are an important part of policy work, and a means of representation, translation, re-negotiation, and resistance of policy. While research has established their integral role in policy enactment, little research has examined the production and/or dissemination of artefacts by teacher educators. This paper reports and analyses the production and re-production of a specific set of artefacts, arising from the policy work of four teacher ed…
Curriculum interpretation and policy enactment in health and physical education
Past research in Health and Physical Education has repeatedly highlighted that curriculum development is an ongoing, complex and contested process, and that the realisation of progressive intentions embedded in official curriculum texts is far from assured. Drawing on concepts from education policy sociology this paper positions teacher educators as key policy actors in the interpretation and enactment of new official curriculum texts. More speci…
Girls on fire
For a long time the role and lived experiences of the body in cognition and everyday life, let alone learning, has been problematised making the moving body a site of contestation. When tethered to the movement experiences of young women this contest takes on social justice imperatives destined to problematise power relations. In physical education (PE) this presents disciplinary challenges and invites critical contestations alongside opportuniti…
Folding Time, Places That Linger and Other “Queer” Modes of Representing Sense of Place
The notion that place and identity are mutually constitutive suggests that attachments to place forge attachments to self that linger over time. In order to consider the ways in which sexual identities and places influence the development of a “queer sense of place” over time I returned to an autoethnographical experience from 2002 to write about it in 2015. Then something unusual happened - time showed itself and folded to reveal the lingering a…
Capturing’ queer lives and the poetics of social change
In this paper, I highlight the ways that poetic inquiry can provide a space for marginalized voices and make movements in social change. By deploying Judith Butler’s theory of passionate attachments to analyse a poem crafted from interview text, I suggest that poetic inquiry can open up a space in which to challenge oppressive discourses and present different angles and new types of knowledge regarding what it is like to ‘be’ different (lesbian).…
The Lost Boys
The following two poems were formed from transcribed interview text from an unpublished doctoral thesis (Lambert, 2006) which explores some of the ways in which identities and places could be considered mutually constitutive. Specifically, it examines the ways in which five "lesbian" identified women talk about their experiences and identities with, in and through "queer" places and events. The original words were spoken by two participants as pa…
The 2002 Sydney Gay Games
In this article poetic representation in qualitative research is explored in relation to researching "lesbian" lives. Set within the context of The 2002 Sydney Gay Games the article considers how poetry can bring to light experiences at the intersection of sexuality, sport, and place. The article details three aspects to this process. First, by asking what queer theory could do for particular research subjects, a robust, malleable, and transporta…
Curriculum interpretation and policy enactment in health and physical education
Past research in Health and Physical Education has repeatedly highlighted that curriculum development is an ongoing, complex and contested process, and that the realisation of progressive intentions embedded in official curriculum texts is far from assured. Drawing on concepts from education policy sociology this paper positions teacher educators as key policy actors in the interpretation and enactment of new official curriculum texts. More speci…
Artefacts and influence in curriculum policy enactment
Artefacts are an important part of policy work, and a means of representation, translation, re-negotiation, and resistance of policy. While research has established their integral role in policy enactment, little research has examined the production and/or dissemination of artefacts by teacher educators. This paper reports and analyses the production and re-production of a specific set of artefacts, arising from the policy work of four teacher ed…
The problematization of the (im)possible subject
Policy classifies and shapes people/subjects in particular kinds of ways. Focusing on the context of Health and Physical Education (HPE), this paper analyses policy documents from Australia, the United States of America (USA) and Wales. We pay particular attention to how learners are represented within and across the three policy documents, and we apply Bacchi’s ‘What’s the Problem Represented to be?’ approach to guide the analysis. For us, probl…
How pupils' playfulness creates possibilities for pleasure and learning in physical education
Background Physical education has been described as too instrumental and uncritical, where a focus on utility has limited the value of pleasure in movement. Decades of previous research has addressed the need for changes where embodied experiences and learning are emphasized [Kirk, David, and Richard Tinning. 1994. "Embodied Self-Identity, Healthy Lifestyles and School Physical Education." Sociology of Health and Illness 16 (5): 600-625; Kirk, Da…
The 2002 Sydney Gay Games
In this article poetic representation in qualitative research is explored in relation to researching "lesbian" lives. Set within the context of The 2002 Sydney Gay Games the article considers how poetry can bring to light experiences at the intersection of sexuality, sport, and place. The article details three aspects to this process. First, by asking what queer theory could do for particular research subjects, a robust, malleable, and transporta…
How is intersectionality being represented by Australian sports organisations? A content analysis
In the realm of critical social theory, the application of intersectionality is crucial for addressing social inequalities and advocating for social justice. Our research focuses on the growing integration of intersectionality in Australian sport systems, a development observed in government documents and sports organisations’ operational procedures. Despite this trend, challenges persist in effectively implementing intersectionality due to the c…
It was just as political as it was pragmatic’
Politics and pragmatics are central and inseparable features of curriculum reform. In a federated system like Australia, many individuals and organisations are invested in reform at the national and jurisdictional level. This paper focuses on the policy work and roles of key actors positioned at the interface of national and state-based curriculum development, and at the juncture of curriculum policy and pedagogic practice. These were individuals…
School psychologists’ perceptions of transgender training and education
The experiences of Australian transgender young people in school counseling
Capturing’ queer lives and the poetics of social change
In this paper, I highlight the ways that poetic inquiry can provide a space for marginalized voices and make movements in social change. By deploying Judith Butler’s theory of passionate attachments to analyse a poem crafted from interview text, I suggest that poetic inquiry can open up a space in which to challenge oppressive discourses and present different angles and new types of knowledge regarding what it is like to ‘be’ different (lesbian).…
The 2002 Sydney Gay Games
In this article poetic representation in qualitative research is explored in relation to researching "lesbian" lives. Set within the context of The 2002 Sydney Gay Games the article considers how poetry can bring to light experiences at the intersection of sexuality, sport, and place. The article details three aspects to this process. First, by asking what queer theory could do for particular research subjects, a robust, malleable, and transporta…
The Lost Boys
The following two poems were formed from transcribed interview text from an unpublished doctoral thesis (Lambert, 2006) which explores some of the ways in which identities and places could be considered mutually constitutive. Specifically, it examines the ways in which five "lesbian" identified women talk about their experiences and identities with, in and through "queer" places and events. The original words were spoken by two participants as pa…
Capturing’ queer lives and the poetics of social change
In this paper, I highlight the ways that poetic inquiry can provide a space for marginalized voices and make movements in social change. By deploying Judith Butler’s theory of passionate attachments to analyse a poem crafted from interview text, I suggest that poetic inquiry can open up a space in which to challenge oppressive discourses and present different angles and new types of knowledge regarding what it is like to ‘be’ different (lesbian).…
Folding Time, Places That Linger and Other “Queer” Modes of Representing Sense of Place
The notion that place and identity are mutually constitutive suggests that attachments to place forge attachments to self that linger over time. In order to consider the ways in which sexual identities and places influence the development of a “queer sense of place” over time I returned to an autoethnographical experience from 2002 to write about it in 2015. Then something unusual happened - time showed itself and folded to reveal the lingering a…
Girls on fire
For a long time the role and lived experiences of the body in cognition and everyday life, let alone learning, has been problematised making the moving body a site of contestation. When tethered to the movement experiences of young women this contest takes on social justice imperatives destined to problematise power relations. In physical education (PE) this presents disciplinary challenges and invites critical contestations alongside opportuniti…
Curriculum interpretation and policy enactment in health and physical education
Past research in Health and Physical Education has repeatedly highlighted that curriculum development is an ongoing, complex and contested process, and that the realisation of progressive intentions embedded in official curriculum texts is far from assured. Drawing on concepts from education policy sociology this paper positions teacher educators as key policy actors in the interpretation and enactment of new official curriculum texts. More speci…
Re-conceptualizing embodied pedagogies in physical education by creating pre-text vignettes to trigger pleasure ‘in’ movement
Background: Recent critiques of twenty-first century physical education (PE), and by association physical education teacher education (PETE), position the discipline as largely uncontested, unproblematised and uncritical. This critique encourages researchers to re-consider the nature of PE and what it means to move, be moved, value movement or be physically educated. Much literature also supports the claim that young people, especially young wome…
Artefacts and influence in curriculum policy enactment
Artefacts are an important part of policy work, and a means of representation, translation, re-negotiation, and resistance of policy. While research has established their integral role in policy enactment, little research has examined the production and/or dissemination of artefacts by teacher educators. This paper reports and analyses the production and re-production of a specific set of artefacts, arising from the policy work of four teacher ed…
The experiences of Australian transgender young people in school counseling
The problematization of the (im)possible subject
Policy classifies and shapes people/subjects in particular kinds of ways. Focusing on the context of Health and Physical Education (HPE), this paper analyses policy documents from Australia, the United States of America (USA) and Wales. We pay particular attention to how learners are represented within and across the three policy documents, and we apply Bacchi’s ‘What’s the Problem Represented to be?’ approach to guide the analysis. For us, probl…
Examining Pride Cups as a health promotion resource to address homophobia in Australian men’s sport
Effective interventions are needed to stop homophobic behaviours in sport settings as these behaviours are associated with negative health and social outcomes for individuals who identify as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer or other diverse genders and sexualities. This paper reports the results of a quasi-experimental study commissioned by a public health agency to explore the benefits of a novel intervention that has been widely adopt…
School psychologists’ perceptions of transgender training and education
It was just as political as it was pragmatic’
Politics and pragmatics are central and inseparable features of curriculum reform. In a federated system like Australia, many individuals and organisations are invested in reform at the national and jurisdictional level. This paper focuses on the policy work and roles of key actors positioned at the interface of national and state-based curriculum development, and at the juncture of curriculum policy and pedagogic practice. These were individuals…
How pupils' playfulness creates possibilities for pleasure and learning in physical education
Background Physical education has been described as too instrumental and uncritical, where a focus on utility has limited the value of pleasure in movement. Decades of previous research has addressed the need for changes where embodied experiences and learning are emphasized [Kirk, David, and Richard Tinning. 1994. "Embodied Self-Identity, Healthy Lifestyles and School Physical Education." Sociology of Health and Illness 16 (5): 600-625; Kirk, Da…
How is embodiment in physical education theoretically conceptualised? A concept analysis
Background Interest in and debates around meaningful movement and embodiment in physical education (EPE) have grown over the last ten years. The quality of these discussions centre on a degree of conceptual clarity for talking pedagogically about embodiment, and consideration of ways of applying it in practice in meaningful ways. The aim of this study is to systematically analyse the theoretical concept of embodiment presented within physical edu…
The association between physical education and academic achievement in other curriculum learning areas
Background : As a curriculum learning area, physical education (PE) has continually struggled to gain status within an increasingly crowded curriculum. This frequently leads to a reduction in available time within the curriculum for PE. In Australia and internationally, this may be explained by a focus on standardised testing, though questions are also raised about the capacity of PE to contribute to broader learning outcomes within the school co…
Diversity and inclusion strategies for LGBTQ + students from diverse ethnic backgrounds in higher education
LGBTQ + students from diverse ethnic backgrounds studying in higher education institutions (HEI) continue to face high levels of marginalisation due to the intersections of their identities. These students have distinct needs and require specialised support that are currently not being met. This scoping review aims to consolidates literature of diversity and inclusion strategies implemented by HEIs to support LGBTQ + students from diverse ethnic …
What would bell hooks think of the remote teaching and learning in Physical Education during the Covid-19 pandemic? A critical review of the literature
This critical narrative review draws on bell hooks’ engaged pedagogy to examine the pedagogies deployed by PE teachers and PETE educators in response to COVID-19. Full-text, empirical studies between 2020 and 2022 were accessed through Academic Search Complete, Education Database (ProQuest), Education Research Complete (EBSCO), ERIC (EBSCO), Scopus, and SPORTDiscus. In total, 86 articles were considered for full-text review, with 38 articles movi…
Navigating queer spaces in Australian tertiary STEM Education
This article presents a retrospective autoethnopoetic study exploring a queer student's journey in Australian tertiary STEM education, employing queer research methodologies to illuminate the challenges encountered. Through personal narrative and poetic expression, we identify critical themes: microaggressions, discrimination, identity formation, cisheteronormative navigation, and resilience strategies. Although rooted in the first author's exper…
Intersectionality in research on equity, diversity, and inclusion in sport
Research increasingly focuses on intersectionality to advance existing approaches to equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) in sport. Intersectionality is a complex concept that has been defined and operationalized in various ways. Using a systematic review comprising 41 peer-reviewed publications, this paper examines the extent to which and how research on EDI in sport engages with intersectional thinking and practice. The authors used three the…
What's right with PE
For decades, physical education (PE) scholars have called for a change to how PE is conceptualised and enacted, highlighting that its current (and persistent) form and focus – organised around physical activities and sports – are not fit for purpose. Much of this change-oriented discourse highlights what is wrong with PE, leading to suggestions about how PE should change in and for the future, for example, by adopting critical approaches and conn…
How is intersectionality being represented by Australian sports organisations? A content analysis
In the realm of critical social theory, the application of intersectionality is crucial for addressing social inequalities and advocating for social justice. Our research focuses on the growing integration of intersectionality in Australian sport systems, a development observed in government documents and sports organisations’ operational procedures. Despite this trend, challenges persist in effectively implementing intersectionality due to the c…
Embodiment in physical education
Recent interest in physical literacy, meaningful physical education (PE), and bodily pleasure has brought renewed attention to the notion of embodiment in PE (EPE). Yet embodiment remains conceptually complex and often poorly understood. Building on previous theoretical work that identified five attributes of EPE, intentionality, affect, meaning, shared, and unity, this study sought to consolidate and refine an emerging EPE approach. We examine h…
Sociology (19 works) · Pedagogy (12 works) · Physical Education and Pedagogy (12 works) · Psychology (12 works) · Inclusion and Disability in Education and Sport (9 works) · Physical education (9 works) · Social Psychology (9 works) · Aesthetics (8 works) · Epistemology (8 works) · Political science (8 works)