Busy doing nothing? Physical education teachers' perceptions of young people's participation in leisure-sport

Within the substantial body of research examining the professional knowledge of physical education (PE) teachers one particular area remains relatively under-explored: namely, their understandings of young people's participation in leisure-sport and the implications of this, if any, for the practice of PE. There are grounds for thinking, however, that in this aspect of their professional knowledge PE teachers might not be as conversant with patterns of participation—among young people, generally, and their own pupils, in particular—as one might expect. In order to examine this tentative hypothesis, the present study involved focus groups with a total of 29 PE teachers at six secondary schools in England. A central finding of the study was that PE teachers' perceptions of their youngsters' leisure-sport lives tended to be characterized by a blend of myth and reality. Many teachers, for example, underestimated the levels of participation in leisure-sport both of their own pupils and the 15–16 years age group, generally. Nevertheless, the teachers' observations regarding what amounted to growing and diversifying sporting repertoires among their pupils were, to a greater or lesser degree, commensurate with the profiles reported by the pupils, and with wider trends associated with the changing lifestyles and preferences of young people. The paper concludes by briefly locating this study of professional knowledge within the sociology of knowledge, while observing that the content and form of PE for Year 11 pupils at the six schools in this study appeared to be informed by the common-sense, everyday knowledge of PE teachers rather than by evidence from national or local surveys of young people or studies of their own pupils.     

Swedish PE teachers struggle with assessment in a criterion-referenced grading system

In the field of education, the international trend is to turn to criterion-referenced grading in the hope of achieving accountable and consistent grades. Despite a national criterion-referenced grading system emphasising knowledge as the only base for grading, Swedish physical education (PE) grades have been shown to value non-knowledge factors, such as students’ characteristics and behaviour. In 2011, a new national curriculum was implemented which attempts to deal with the problem by prescribing specific knowledge requirements with a clear progression as the only basis for different grades. The aim of the present study is to explore the impact of the new knowledge requirements on what teachers consider important when assigning grades. It is also to discuss what non-knowledge-related aspects (if any) teachers continue to look for and why these seem to remain resilient to the reform. The Repertory Grid technique was employed to interview the teachers before (2009) and after the implementation (2013). During the interviews, the grading of 45 students was discussed, which generated 125 constructs. After the implementation, there was a near doubling of knowledge constructs, half as many motivation constructs and an almost total elimination of constructs based on confidence and social skills. While motivational factors were still considered valuable for the award of a higher grade, clear criteria seemed to be important, but too limited for the teachers’ needs. In order to understand the persistence of motivational factors, we discuss the results in relation to Bernstein’s interrelated message systems of curriculum, pedagogy and assessment. We emphasise the need to discuss how valid grades can be achieved and, at the same time, give value to the regulative discourse in order to realise the overarching national goals of values and norms in education and PE.     

Re-engaging disengaged pupils in physical education: an appreciative inquiry perspective

Many children and young people enjoy physical education (PE), yet many do not, and subsequently become disengaged from PE. Previous research that has explored pupil disengagement from PE has focused on what teachers should do to re-engage their pupils, or has encouraged dis-engaged pupils to create a curriculum that they perceive to be socially and culturally relevant. While this research is extremely important, it does not highlight enough what teachers bring to the teaching and learning process. An alternative approach to understanding (dis)engagement in PE is to start by asking both teachers and pupils: what is currently working, why is it working, and what could be in the future? This ‘appreciative inquiry’ (AI) approach is underpinned by the belief that everyone and everything has strengths that can be developed, and that those strengths should be the starting point for change. Consequently, in establishing the use of AI as an important means of understanding and potentially enhancing PE pedagogy, this research sought to understand the successful teaching strategies developed by PE teachers to re-engage disengaged pupils. Importantly, in recognising the value of understanding pupil experiences we also explored and shared the success stories of the ‘re-engaged’ pupils. Finally, in extending the research in this area, we examined the impact that teacher engagement in the AI process had on their professional learning. As the teachers engaged in the AI process, they discussed, listened to (each other and their pupils), reflected and shared their success stories. This, in turn, appears to have encouraged them to re-articulate and re-enact their practice and learning within the context of a more positive future. They designed (and in some cases, co-design with their pupils) meaningful and empowering PE programmes for their ‘disengaged’ pupils and have subsequently made a commitment to future professional learning and inquiry.     

Transactions in primary physical education in the UK: a smorgasbord of looks-like-sport

Background: Crum proposes the term ‘movement culture’ as a means to best understand the relationships between PE and wider movement practices. Learning within movement culture is practical and embodied, and integral to the cultural and institutional contexts within which PE is situated. Purpose: Using visual data gathered from PE lessons within a UK primary school this paper aims to identify movement cultures across the observed PE lessons, and understand how these movement cultures are shaped and maintained by analysing how teachers and pupils' actions-in-on-going-events make the movement cultures something ‘in-common’. Participants, research design and data collection: A mixture of Year 5 and 6 PE lessons were video recorded within a primary school in the West Midlands. Careful attention was paid to the ethical considerations involved in the collection and storage of the data. Data analysis: By dissolving the dualism between an individual and their environment, Dewey and Bentley's (1949/1991) transactional theory of learning supports an analysis of action in context. Application of this theory enables the researcher to explore actions-in-on-going activities and understand how this action shapes the movement culture within which it occurs. In this process we did not use theory to deduce the participants' intensions or potential changes in their cognitive structures; rather it was the functions' actions constituted in the observed situation, which lead the analysis. Findings: The existence of a multi-activity idea of sampling different sports within this study of primary PE amounted to eating from a smorgasbord where the flavours of the dishes initially looked different, but actually tasted the same. Each dish was differentiated by the use of contrasting equipment, physical locations and named activities. In reality what was realised was a diluted, repetitive and overriding flavour of looks-like-sport. Pupils were tasked with actions which functioned to produce a stage managed show of controlled activity. This was supplemented by their compliance to strict behaviour codes and by attempting to make highly cooperative tasks and games work. This was aided by the adoption and acceptance of different roles. Succeeding within this movement culture demanded an implicit understanding of the need to coordinate actions with others cooperatively. Conclusions: The standout flavour within this smorgasbord involved gymnastics, where the removal of competition and provision of space for pupils to re-actualise their knowledge, created an interesting blend of pupil engagement, sustained physical activity, creativity, inclusion and cooperation. These interesting flavours may have been curtailed by a need to replicate movements acceptable to doing gymnastics-for-real and suggests that other forms of looks-like-sport may have the potential to elicit similar action. Continued investigation of the directions of actions-in-context-in-PE-settings would aid our understanding of the creation, nature and reproduction of learning experiences within this looks-like-sport movement culture. More specifically, analysis of the educational content and pedagogy of the recorded PE lessons within this school would support our understanding of how teachers and pupils negotiate the complex mix of educational, sport and health discourses that constitute the looks-like-sport movement culture.     

Knowing in primary physical education in the UK: negotiating movement culture

This paper aims to understand how pupils and teachers actions-in-context constitute being-a-pupil and being-a-teacher within a primary school physical education (PE) movement culture. Dewey and Bentley's theory of transaction, which views organism-in-environment-as-a-whole, enables the researcher to explore how actions-in-ongoing activities constitute and negotiate PE movement culture. Video footage from seven primary school PE lessons from a school in the West Midlands in the UK was analysed by focusing upon the ends-in-view of actions as they appeared through the educational content (what) and pedagogy (how) of the recorded PE experiences. Findings indicated that the movement culture within the school was a monoculture of looks-like-sport characterised by the privileging of the functional coordination of cooperative action. Three themes of pupils' and teachers' negotiation of the movement culture emerged U-turning, Knowing the game and Moving into and out of games. This movement culture required teachers to ensure pupils looked busy and reproduced cooperative looks-like-sport actions. In fulfilling this role, they struggled to negotiate between their knowledge of sport-for-real and directing pupils towards educational ends-in-view within games activities. Simply being good at sports was not a prerequisite for pupils' success in this movement culture. In order to re-actualise their knowledge of sport, pupils were required to negotiate the teacher's ‘how’ and ‘what’ by exploring what constituted cooperative actions within the spatial and social dimensions of the activities they were set. These findings suggest that if PE is to be more than just the reproduction of codified sport, careful adjustment and consideration of ends-in-view is of great importance. Without regard for the latter there is potential to create significant complexity for both teachers and pupils beyond that required by learning and performing sport.     

Working through whiteness,race and (anti) racism in physical education teacher education

Background: The persistent gaps between a largely white profession and ethnically diverse school populations have brought renewed calls to support teachers' critical engagement with race. Programmes examining the effects of racism have had limited impact on practice, with student teachers responding with either denial, guilt or fear; they also contribute to a deficit view of racialised students in relation to an accepted white ‘norm’, and position white teachers ‘outside’ of race. Recent calls argue for a shift in focus towards an examination of the workings of the dominant culture through a critical engagement with whiteness, positioning white teachers within the processes of racialisation. Teacher educators' roles are central, and yet, while we routinely expect student teachers to reflect critically on issues of social justice, we have been less willing to engage in such work ourselves. This is particularly the case within physical education teacher education (PETE), an overwhelmingly white, embodied space, and where race and racism as professional issues are largely invisible.

Purpose: This paper examines the operation of whiteness within PETE through a critical reflection on the three co-authors' careers and experiences working for social justice. The research questions were twofold: How are race, (anti) racism and whiteness constructed through everyday experiences of families, schooling and teacher education? How can collective biography be used to excavate discourses of race, racism and whiteness as the first step towards challenging them? In beginning the process of reflecting on what it means for us ‘to do own work’ in relation to (anti) racism, we examine some of the tensions and challenges for teacher educators in PE attempting to work to dismantle whiteness.

Methodology: As co-authors, we engaged in collective biography work – a process in which we reflected upon, wrote about and shared our embodied experiences and memories about race, racism and whiteness as educators working for social justice. Using a critical whiteness lens, these narratives were examined for what they reveal about the collective practices and discourses about whiteness and (anti)racism within PETE.

Results: The narratives reveal the ways in which whiteness operates within PETE through processes of naturalisation, ex-denomination and universalisation. We have been educated, and now work within, teacher education contexts where professional discourse about race at best focuses on understanding the racialised ‘other’, and at worse is invisible. By drawing on a ‘racialised other’, deficit discourse in our pedagogy, and by ignoring race in own research on inequalities in PETE, we have failed to disrupt universalised discourses of ‘white-as-norm’, or addressed our own privileged racialised positioning. Reflecting critically on our biographies and careers has been the first step in recognising how whiteness works in order that we can begin to work to disrupt it.

Conclusion: The study highlights some of the challenges of addressing (anti)racism within PETE and argues that a focus on whiteness might offer a productive starting point. White teacher educators must critically examine their own role within these processes if they are to expect student teachers to engage seriously in doing the same.     

How does a physical education teacher become a health and physical education teacher?

The purpose of this study is to explore what the role of a health and physical education (HPE) specialist teacher in the primary school entails. The new Australian Curriculum: HPE Framework requires schools and teachers to implement the HPE key learning area. Many self-perceived physical education (PE) teachers have voiced concern about not knowing how they go about this. This research investigates ‘How PE teachers best become HPE teachers?’ We are reminded by Kirk that this is not the first time teachers have implemented this very change in Australia. Many similarities can be drawn between the recent national Australian Curriculum: HPE and the 1994 HPE National Statement and Profile, which provided a foundation for the construction of the 1999 Queensland HPE (P-10) Syllabus. As recommended by Kirk this study ‘look[s] to the past for lessons about the present and where we might be heading in the future’, by investigating school responses to the 1999 Queensland HPE (P-10) syllabus and curriculum documents. Within the constructionist paradigm, an interpretivist study was conducted. The methodology chosen to construct meanings through capturing the context of each school was ‘evaluative’ and ‘multiple’ case study. The sites for the three case studies involved: one small; one medium; and one large-sized Brisbane Catholic Education primary school. The three case studies were selected as representative of different demographics and the methods engaged so as to enable precision of details were semi-structured interviews, reflective journal, observations and document analysis. Data gathered suggest that enacting the HPE key learning area is very achievable. Implementation is enhanced by HPE leadership, underpinned by clear communication. More so, barriers can be overcome through professional development and support. This study is significant nationally, and the findings may be of wider international interest. It models how school leaders can optimise the health opportunities within their context and models how PE teachers can become HPE teachers.     

Narrative accounts of US teachers' collaborative curriculum making in a physical education department

Through the use of narrative inquiry, this research study explores the collaborative curriculum making experiences of six teachers (three males; three females) in one physical education (PE) department in an urban middle school in the U.S. Collaboration; as defined in this work, this has to do with teachers’ voluntary interactions and their shared decision making in support of common goals. Where curriculum making is concerned, it refers to interactions between and among the four commonplaces of curriculum (teacher, learner, subject matter, milieu). The paper features the perspectives of the department head (female), experienced teachers (male and female) and teachers new to the profession (male and female). The narrative accounts of the individual teachers are set against the backdrop of the PE department with which they identify and within the storied history of the school in which they work. The story constellations representational form conveys the interrelatedness of the narratives and instantiates the teachers’ experiences of collaborative curriculum making. In the final analysis, this research enterprise makes a major contribution to the study of PE as well as to education generally. To date, no inquiries have focused on the collaborative curriculum making of teachers lodged in a PE department in one school context, despite collaborative curriculum making most closely reflecting how PE teachers typically approach the teaching task due to shared classrooms/gymnasiums/fields and the communal use of equipment.     

Swedish PE teachers’ understandings of legitimate movement in a criterion-referenced grading system

Background: Physical Education (PE) has been associated with a multi-activity model in which movement is related to sport discourses and sport techniques. However, as in many international contexts, the Swedish national PE syllabus calls for a wider and more inclusive concept of movement. Complex movement adapted to different settings is valued, and in the national grading criteria qualitative measures of movement are used. This research seeks to examine how the wider concept of movement is interpreted and graded. Drawing on Bernstein’s concept of the pedagogic device, the paper explores teachers’ roles as active mediators in the transformation of national grading criteria for movement and the kinds of movement that are valued in teachers’ grading practices. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate what PE teachers consider legitimate movement in a criterion-referenced grading system and the factors that influence their grading practice. The Repertory Grid (RG) technique was employed in order to access their tacit knowledge. Methodology: Seven Swedish PE teachers were interviewed, all of whom teach and grade years seven to nine in different compulsory schools. Using the RG technique, the teachers were asked to reflect on the aspects they considered important for achieving a high grade. The national grading criteria for years seven to nine were then presented one at a time and the teachers were asked to describe how they assessed and graded each requirement. The teachers were also asked whether any specific factors had influenced their grading. In the content analysis, the second part of the interview was attended to first and the results were interpreted in light of Bernsteins’ concept of the pedagogic device. Findings: Sport techniques and competitive sports influenced the teachers’ interpretations of what constitutes complex movement. The aspect of fitness also appeared to be valued by the teachers in that it facilitates the valued movement. In some cases the difficulty of describing movement qualities in words could reduce the concept of movement to something measurable and quantifiable. The teachers’ concerns about students’ unequal opportunities to develop and demonstrate their skills also influenced the teachers’ interpretation of complex movement. Conclusions: In the transformation of national grading criteria to grading practice, the pedagogic actions taken inform and limit the way in which legitimate movement in PE is conceptualised. Adopting a concept of movement that is wider than competitive sports allows the structures of inequality to be addressed and enables the movements performed by students with other moving experiences than competitive sports to be valued. The tension between the demands of transparency in a high stakes grading system and the inability to articulate the quality of complex movements is problematic. There is a need to verbalise teachers’ conceptions about physical education knowledge to be able to discuss and develop the concept of movement. In this process, the RG technique is a potentially useful tool. Having the language to discuss movement qualities also enables us to strengthen the interrelation between curriculum, pedagogy and assessment.     

Testing,training and tensions: the expression of health within physical education curricula in secondary schools in England and Wales

This paper utilises critical discourse analysis to explore and discuss the expression of health within physical education (PE) curricula in secondary schools in England and Wales. The study adopted a case study approach, involving three state secondary schools in England and two in Wales. Data were drawn from interviews with PE teachers and health-related school documentation in the five schools plus observation of a health-related unit of work in one of the schools. The expression of health in PE broadly reflected ideologies associated with promoting ‘fitness for life’ and ‘fitness for performance’. The extent to which teachers could express their favoured discourses in policy and practice was partly determined by their position of power, relative to others within the department, although they could find ways of privileging their favoured discourse in their own lessons. Curiously, rhetorical ‘fitness for life’ discourses were commonly expressed through ‘fitness for performance’ practices in the form of testing and training activities. These were found to be the most common contexts for the delivery of health-related learning. In terms of Bernstein's location of discourses within contexts of educational systems, the findings suggest that recontextualisation of statutory PE curricula occurred at the site of the relocation of discourse (in this case, within PE departments in secondary state schools), resulting in the privileging of discourses heavily influenced by sport- and fitness-related ideologies. Improved awareness of the expression of health in secondary school PE curricula should help to better understand and address the complex tensions between health-related policies and practices in schools.     

The changing value of vigorous activity and the paradox of utilising exercise as punishment in physical education

Background: Previous research on physical education (PE) teaching practice indicates that an exercise physiology discourse has assumed a dominant position within the field. Research shows that PE teachers are likely to emphasise physical fitness training in their teaching, and PE teachers seem to appreciate pupils who show high levels of physical exertion.

Purposes: Our aim is to examine how vigorous activity/exercise is represented in the practice of PE teaching. We will also examine teaching as a discursive practice, and thereby contribute to a critical perspective on PE pedagogy.

Research design: This study was conducted in four upper secondary schools in Oslo, Norway. Data material was produced through fieldwork, during which we observed 92 PE lessons. Additionally, we conducted qualitative interviews with the eight teachers who participated in the study. Our methodological framework was discourse analysis.

Findings: Our material shows that vigorous activity plays a complex role in PE class: it can be beneficial, but it can also be punitive. The PE teachers we observed drew on an exercise physiology discourse to portray vigorous activity/exercise as beneficial and valuable to the promotion of pupils’ physical fitness and health. However, the teachers also drew on a military discourse when assigning vigorous activity to rebuke a disobedient pupil. The teachers also introduced vigorous activity in the form of additional exercise ‘punishment’, which they assigned to losers in competitive activities. In these instances, the teachers drew on exercise physiology and sports discourses. Thus, we identified how vigorous activity changed value according to context, and discuss how teachers’ use of vigorous activity as punishment can seem paradoxical in a PE setting.

Conclusion and recommendation: Our study indicates that, rather than adhering to modern educational practices, PE is rooted in ideas and practices derived from military, sports and exercise physiology discourses. PE teachers inculcated with these discourses have limited ability to discern the paradox of assigning vigorous exercise to their pupils as both a high-value activity and a punishment. PE Teacher Education should therefore problematise how teaching practice is influenced by these discourses, and facilitate discussions on how such discourses constitute PE.     

From PE experiences to PE teaching practices? Insights from Scottish primary teachers' experiences of PE,teacher education,school entry and professional development

Morgan and Hansen suggest that further research is needed to explore how non-specialist primary teachers approach and teach physical education (PE) based on their personal school PE backgrounds, teacher education experiences and ongoing professional development. This paper adopts Lawson's socialisation model, a theoretical framework subsequently used by many other researchers, to explore how primary teachers' experiences in various contexts ‘shape [their] knowledge and beliefs about the purpose of physical education, its content and teaching approaches’. Examining teachers' beliefs and attitudes towards PE is arguably important as it highlights how they approach the profession and enact particular teaching practices. We examine the views of 327 non-specialist primary teachers who participated in a postgraduate certificate in primary PE run by the Universities of Glasgow and Edinburgh. This article reports findings from the baseline data of our longitudinal research—arguably crucial in ascertaining teachers' starting point and useful in monitoring the programme's impact. Our findings suggest the prevalence of negative PE experience during primary and secondary years, which we considered part of Lawson's ‘acculturation’ phase. Experiences during initial teacher education (ITE) or ‘professional socialisation’ showed that teachers were only given a basic starting point, which was inadequate for teaching PE effectively. The initial teaching experience or ‘organisational socialisation’ stage also presented major challenges for teachers who endeavoured to apply knowledge and skills acquired during ‘professional socialisation’. We suggest that how teachers' conceptions about PE are formulated and the accounts of challenges they encountered upon school entry are vital for the design and delivery of effective ITE and PE-CPD. Additionally, these findings underpin the need for more critical and reflective learning experiences at all levels of PE.     

Me,osteogenesis imperfecta,and my classmates in physical education lessons: a case study of embodied pedagogy in action

Pupils with disabilities have been found to experience a narrower physical education curriculum and participate less frequently than pupils without disabilities. A lack of knowledge, skills, relevant experiences and confidence amongst physical education (PE) teachers has been said to contribute to these differential educational experiences. This article adds to the paucity of research that analyses the PE experiences of pupils with disabilities while, at the same time, evaluating embodied pedagogy as a tool for better preparing PE teachers for their role as inclusive educators. Specifically, the article aims to: (1) explore the PE experiences of a university student named Violeta who lives with the condition of Osteogenesis Imperfecta (OI); (2) analyse the views of a group of prospective teachers who participated in a PE lesson (Experience 1) which included Violeta; and (3) examine the perceptions of a group of prospective teachers who participated in a simulated attempt at embodied pedagogy (Experience 2). Data were gathered using field notes, observations and interviews with Violeta and the prospective teachers who participated in Experience 1 and Experience 2. The findings suggest that in both Experience 1 and 2, the prospective teachers developed a greater aware of OI and a more positive attitude towards inclusive PE. That said, the nature of the student learning experience and their ability to empathetically imagine themselves in, and through, the bodies of others that were different from themselves varied significantly in Experience 1 and 2. Such a contrast, especially in relation to notions of alterity, related to the presence or absence of the other as a corporeal entity involved in the lessons. Neither Experience 1 or 2 was found to be ‘better’ than the other, they simply provided different contexts, resources and opportunities for learning to take place. We discuss some implications of these differences for those wishing to engage in embodied forms of pedagogy as a way of helping prospective teachers to have the knowledge, skills and experience to develop a more inclusive culture in school PE.     

Classroom Teachers' Perceptions of the Impact of Barriers to Teaching Physical Education on the Quality of Physical Education Programs

A major aim of the current study was to determine what classroom teachers perceived to be the greatest barriers affecting their capacity to deliver successful physical education (PE) programs. An additional aim was to examine the impact of these barriers on the type and quality of PE programs delivered. This study applied a mixed-mode design involving data source triangulation using semistructured interviews with classroom teachers (n = 31) and teacher-completed questionnaires (n = 189) from a random sample of 38 schools. Results identified the key factors inhibiting PE teachers, which were categorized as teacher-related or institutional. Interestingly, the five greatest barriers were defined as institutional or out of the teacher's control. The major adverse effects of these barriers were evident in reduced time spent teaching PE and delivering PE lessons of questionable quality.     

学科教学知识对培养体育教师专业化途径的研究

目前在我国体育教师专业化进程中,比较重视体育教师职业专业化方面发展,而相对忽视体育教师个体专业化发展。以学科教学知识这一概念为切入点,对其产生的背景及其内涵进行了阐述,对一般教学法、体育教学论、体育学科教学知识之间的逻辑关系进行了分析,指出体育学科教学知识是体育教学论规律性知识的进一步延伸与补充。通过案例分析明确了体育教师个体专业化过程中学科教学知识的内涵。研究表明,体育学科教学知识是指特定情境下某一知识点的呈现方式,具有明显的个体经验特征。提出通过体育教师教育过程中增设学科教学知识课程、整合师资力量、改变教育实习模式、多元化的体育学习评价方式等措施,对体育教师教育学科教学知识内容进行了初步的构建。     

Ethnomethodology at Play

Writing over a decade ago, Penney and Harris examined extra-curricular physical education (ECPE) provision in state schools in England and Wales and focused, in particular, on issues of inclusion, equality and equity. They concluded, among other things, that ECPE provision was highly gendered, characterised by a disproportionate emphasis on traditional team games and competitive sport and provided a limited number of opportunities to only a minority of pupils. Although Penney and Harris were less concerned with reflecting upon how the content, organisation and delivery of ECPE may come to impact the involvement and experiences of young disabled people and those with special educational needs (SEN), their analysis nevertheless has important implications for understanding this largely under-explored and neglected aspect of research. In this paper, therefore, we draw upon some key aspects of Penney and Harris's analysis to examine the extent and ways in which physical education (PE) teachers have endeavoured to incorporate disabled pupils and those with SEN in ECPE. In particular, by drawing upon the findings of a study conducted with 12 PE teachers working in five secondary schools in north-west England, the central objectives of this paper are to: (i) examine the ways and extent to which teachers have endeavoured to incorporate young disabled people and pupils with SEN in ECPE; and (ii) explore the extent to which the content, organisation and delivery of ECPE impacts on pupils’ involvement and experiences. The findings suggest that the trend towards including disabled pupils and those with SEN in mainstream schools has not radically altered the content, organisation and delivery of ECPE which, according to PE teachers, continues to be heavily dominated by competitive team sports that retain a strong emphasis on performance, excellence and skills. This provision, it is claimed, appears to have done more to reduce, rather than enhance, the opportunities for pupils to participate in the same activities and to the same extent in ECPE than they might have done in the special school sector. Indeed, when compared to their non-disabled peers, some disabled pupils and those with SEN typically tended to be provided with a limited and somewhat narrow range of sports and physical activities in which to participate. Teachers also suggested that some pupils rarely participated, if at all, in ECPE and, in some cases, they were often taught separately from other pupils in clubs and teams that were developed specifically for them in an effort to cater more adequately for their needs and abilities. It is concluded that until PE teachers and schools are willing and/or able to bring about desired change in the content, organisation and delivery of ECPE, rather than developing more inclusive and non-segregated forms of provision, teachers in many schools will be constrained and/or inclined to continue providing programmes that, in effect, continue to provide what Penney and Harris call ‘more of the same for the more able’ pupils in ECPE.     

Telling physical education teacher education tales through pedagogical case studies

This paper analyses two pedagogical case studies (PCS) from a multidisciplinary perspective to highlight the problems of theoretical knowledge in tertiary physical education teacher education (PETE) programmes, school-based physical education (PE) practice and continuous professional learning (CPL) in PE. We argue that a critical view of tertiary PETE and PE teacher educator CPL practice or practices is particularly important if PETE programmes want to develop future PE and current teacher practitioners who are transformative agents. In setting up the pedagogical case study accounts, we recall common conversations about the bodies of knowledge in tertiary PETE programmes that have been positioned as problematic. The accounts highlight the existence of an artificial divide between PE educators as theory generators and both pre-service PE teachers and school-based PE practitioners as theory appliers. We suggest that part of the reason why this divide exists can be attributed to a general misunderstanding of theoretical and practical knowledge that have been wrongly compartmentalised into ‘theory’ and ‘practice’, and hence erroneously taught as isolated entities without any connection or direct link with each other, or the former considered to be less relevant and perhaps even irrelevant in practice.     

Teachers' stories: physical education teachers' constructions and experiences of masculinity within secondary school physical education

Physical education (PE) and sport have traditionally been identified by scholars as a key mechanism for the production and reproduction of a culturally esteemed ideal of masculinity, premised upon being stoic, strong, competitive, sexist and homophobic. Yet, more recent research reflects a change in valued masculinity as a response to declining cultural homohysteria. As such, this preliminary study looks to establish how PE teachers understand and construct masculinities within the educational environment. Through in-depth interviews, we find participants recognised many elements of softer masculinities, described in inclusive masculinities literature, as being performed by contemporary teenagers. This includes being emotionally open, embracing a more effeminate taste in dress and being increasingly physically tactile. However, we also found that the PE teachers have a cohort variance in their masculine values, with those socialised in sport through the 1980s showing the most orthodox and oppressive views.     

高校体育必须顺应健康观念的更新

长期以来 ,由于人们按照旧的健康观念去认识和理解体育 ,从而对体育的目的和任务产生了片面的看法。尤其是高校体育 ,如果不顺应新的健康观念实施教学 ,就会影响高校体育的改革与发展。所以如何使高校体育适应新的健康观念 ,这就是本文所要探讨的问题