Dancing in primary school

The purpose of this article is to focus on the way the teachers who want to encourage equality between sex and/or sexuality in their classroom claim to teach dancing and body expression (Sports and Artistic Physical Activity, APSA in French), a discipline that does not correspond to the usual standards of the Physical and Sports Education (EPS in French). When they speak about this activity and despite their effort to achieve sex equality, the article shows that the boys frequently take the power in the classroom and are put in the position to define the conditions of their participation or to force the teacher to modify his or her educational objectives. The article shows that the teachers interviewed seem to consider the questioning of sex stereotypes as a guarantee for equality while power relations between boys and girls and sex discrimination reappear when they think they were avoiding them.