Runners in the Gym: Tales of Resistance and Conversion at an Adolescent Treatment Center

Abstract

This article presents the author's interpretation of her own experiences during two years of teaching physical education at an adolescent treatment center school that had a high percentage of Native and Metis students in attendance. Using a variety of fictional writing techniques in a mixed genre format, a series ofself­ relevant stories are strung together in an attempt to construct a meaningful and coherent understanding of the process of learning from and working with troubled youth. Initially, the narrative text was produced as a means to introduce the context of a larger research project investigating the experience of physical ac­tivity for youth at risk. However, as the reflective writing process evolved through experimentation, revision, and the reading of other interpretive educa­tional research texts, a tale of transformation emerged. By situating the reader in the context of the author's lived experience, and blurring the boundaries between literature and science, the author hopes to challenge conventional notions of both scholarly research and traditional pedagogy.