Abstract:

This study, employing qualitative research methods, provides an in-depth description of the physical experiences and moral situations of physical education students graduating from regular high schools as they transition between the classroom and the playground. It presents and analyzes the interactions between their individual and structural dynamics, as well as the cultural production processes involved. The research reveals that these students develop a complex emotional structure characterized by both “glory and stigma” within the educational system. After undergoing comprehensive and meticulous physical discipline, their suppressed bodily experiences lead to resistance against the school, thereby plunging them into a low moral predicament.From the classroom to the playground, high school athletes begin to regain their subjectivity amidst the enjoyment of their bodies and the opening of new meaning spaces. In their training lives, they form a group culture characterized by “loyalty” and “respect for hierarchy” within the atmosphere of a “closely connected and mutually dependent” community and shared memories of “blood and breath”. With the coach's backing, they develop an anti-school cultural confidence or illusion. Upon returning to the classroom, they actively create cultural distinctions and elevate their moral status through bodily management exemplified by “swagger”, yet this effort inevitably falters under the traditional educational value order.Thus, the act of “creative” meaning production paradoxically places individuals in a situation of stigmatization through showing off. The new cultural context in universities has given birth to a new cultural world. When knowledge education is no longer the sole criterion for excellence, and when physical culture is once again respected, the sports student group may achieve true meaning production and cultural creation.

Key words: sports students, sociology of the body, moral situations, stigmatization, cultural production