Physical education "in all sorts of corners": student activists transgressing formal physical education curricular boundaries

The data for this paper were generated during a 3-year; participatory action research project, with 41 female coresearchers and activists ages 15-19 years old, within and beyond the walls of a secondary school. The two questions we sought to answer were (a) what happens when we engage with students to challenge formal physical education curricular boundaries and connect with students' physical culture; and (b) what are the benefits and the challenges associated with engaging in this sort of practical activism? The findings suggest that a boundary-crossing approach to physical education can facilitate students in finding their own meanings in physical education and physical activity. Supporting boundary-crossing practices is, however; a time- and thought-intensive pedagogical design, which will be challenging for many physical education teachers.     

Schools,student health and family welfare: Exploring teachers’ work as boundary spanners

Young people's health and welfare is an enduring, and sometimes contested, underpinning rationale for compulsory schooling. However, a contemporary culture of austerity and accountability has challenged the capacity of schools to address health-related agendas. This article reports on how four Australian teachers negotiate the network of partnerships within and beyond the school when attempting to solve their students’ particular health and welfare needs. Drawing on interview data collected as part of a larger government-funded project, we reveal the labour-intensive, typically risky and often emotionally charged nature of this work. To better understand this ‘health work’ we drew on the idea of ‘teacher as boundary spanner’ to get a clearer sense of the type of work undertaken within an education sector that operates under the conditions of what Fraser calls progressive neoliberalism. We conclude that there is a compelling need to better support those particular teachers who are, to all intents and purposes, human safety nets called upon to care for some of the most vulnerable children in our schools.     

Youth sport policy: the enactment and possibilities of ‘soft policy’ in schools

Youth sport policies are increasingly driven by health concerns and social issues, and focus on broad participation outcomes. Given the significant financial investment in, and critique of, such policies internationally, this study aimed to examine the implementation of Sporting Schools (SS), a $100 million programme intended to increase children’s sport participation in Australia. In addressing the limited research in this area in the Australian context, we draw on the notion of policy as process [Penney & Evans, 2005 Policy, power and politics in physical education. In K. Green, & K. Hardman (Eds.), Physical education: Essential issues (pp. 21–38). London: SAGE] and Fullan's [Fullan (2015) The new meaning of educational change (5th ed.). New York, NY: Teachers College Press] work on educational change. This analysis employed a qualitative methodology. Data collection included interviews with 32 sporting organisation (SO) representatives, coaches, and teachers involved in the implementation of SS. Data were analysed using a combination of inductive and deductive approaches, and the trustworthiness of the findings was supported using several strategies. Findings indicated divergent understandings of the need for the SS programme by stakeholders, as well as a lack of clarity of the policy aims and the means for realising them. There was little indication that SOs, coaches and teachers were engaged in a meaningful, working relationship to accomplish the reform objectives of SS; however, each saw benefit in the programme. Youth sport policy implementation in schools is a complex process. The dynamic interplay among the various factors influencing such policies makes realising their stated intentions nigh on impossible. While working to enhance the enactment of SS as intended is important, we propose that youth sport policies written for enactment in schools need to be viewed as ‘soft policies’. The simplicity and limited accountability associated with ‘soft policies’ can be viewed as an opportunity to recognise the expertise of those who work, learn and move in schools, and trust them to use resources effectively and reconcile tensions based on their unique knowledge of their local school contexts.     

Letters from Early Career Academics: the Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy field of play

Taking our lead from Rainer Maria Rilke’s (1929) ‘Letters to a Young Poet’, our broader project aimed to create a space for dialogue and intergenerational learning between Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy (PESP) Early Career Academics (ECAs) and members of the PESP professoriate. This paper focuses specifically on the experiences of PESP ECAs. We draw upon narratives of thirty ECAs from nine different countries to gain insight into the experiences, joys, challenges and ambitions they associate with being and becoming a PESP academic. A narrative analysis of the data generated by the ECAs was undertaken. The analysis aimed to be holistic in nature, interested in form and content: both the told (the content) and the telling (how it was told). We initially focused our analysis using the six dimensions of narrative (characters, setting, events, audience, causal relations and themes). Bourdieu’s socio-analytical toolkit complemented our narrative analysis and helped us move beyond the personal narratives by linking them to the broader social practices, relations and structures of the various settings or fields (PESP, university, family) within which the participants function. The findings suggest that many ECAs are experiencing crises of habitus, as they work to suppress ethical dispositions and values and adjust to ‘the rules’ that universities increasingly play by. Our discussion engages with the affective costs of playing by these rules, and recruits Bourdieu’s notion of ‘reflexive vigilance’ to advocate for ongoing critical analysis of how power operates in the various field which academics inhabit.     

Learning to be researchers in physical education and sport pedagogy: the perspectives of doctoral students and early career researchers

Numerous academics have argued that if a field is to progress, attention needs to be paid to how future generations of researchers are being prepared. To date, data generated on research training in physical education and sport pedagogy (PESP) have primarily focused on students undertaking doctoral programmes with a formal coursework component, which is the model predominantly used in the USA. The traditional master-apprentice model is still, however, the dominant model in many countries, including Australia, and there is a dearth of research on this model of research preparation. Hence, this study was an effort to capture the perspectives and experiences of doctoral students (DSs) and early career researchers (ECRs) who are/were engaged in programmes employing the apprentice model of training. The question we sought to examine was ‘what do PESP doctoral students and early career researchers perceive as the facilitators and challenges associated with learning to be researchers?’. The participants in this study included eight DSs and seven ECRs who were based in Australian and New Zealand institutions. Data were generated through a questionnaire that sought to identify participants’ various research training experiences, a workshop that brought participants together to discuss their research training, and follow-up individual semi-structured interviews. While much of the data generated through this study related to the importance of developing such generic research skills as writing, grant writing and presenting at conferences, participants also discussed PESP-specific skills and dispositions, including particular orientations towards research impact, and the development of research culture. Findings are discussed in reference to the neoliberalisation of education and questions are raised about the forms of research training developing researchers in PESP might need if they are to thrive as researchers within and beyond the field.     

Nutritional, lifestyle, and weight control practices of professional jockeys

In this study, we describe diet and lifestyle practices of professional jockeys. Participants completed a 59-item nutrition, lifestyle, and health questionnaire (n = 21) and a 7-day estimated food diary (n = 18). Acute weight loss strategies included the use of saunas (86%), exercising to induce sweating (81%), and restricted energy intake (71%). Of the smokers (38%), 56% used smoking to control weight. Most (86%) jockeys reported attaining a 2-kg weight loss for racing (if required) 24-48 h before or on the designated race-day. Mean daily energy intake (1803 ± 564 kcal) was low and appeared to provide an insufficient availability of energy for sustainment of usual daily and metabolic processes. Carbohydrate intake (3.7 ± 1.3 g · kg?1) was below recommendations for athletes. A substantial proportion of jockeys failed to meet the estimated average requirement and lower threshold intake for a number of micronutrients. Jockeys consumed well below (0-2) the recommended five daily servings of fruit and vegetables set by the World Health Organization. Pressures of the jockey lifestyle and rigid weight limits appear to encourage unhealthy weight management practices in this group and may risk long term-health.     

Media,digital technology and learning in sport: a critical response to Hodkinson,Biesta and James

Background: In their 2008 paper, Hodkinson, Biesta and James draw on the sociological theories of Pierre Bourdieu to construct what they claim is a ‘holistic’ theoretical framework for understanding learning. While not an attempt to dissolve the long-standing opposition between ‘cognitive’ and ‘situated’ theories, the authors claim that thinking about learning and learners in ‘cultural’ terms via Bourdieu's theories allows us theoretically to integrate individuals and learning contexts. The result, they claim, is a ‘scalable’ theory of learning that overcomes the dualisms – such as structure/agency and individual/society – that dog learning theory. We welcome both Hodkinson et al.’s ideas and overall goal. However, we were struck by the absence of any mention of communications media or digital technology in their theoretical framework. Does this mean that media and digital technology can straightforwardly be mapped onto Hodkinson et al.’s theory? Or is this a serious oversight?

Purpose: Given the large amount of recent theorising about the transformative educational potential of media and digital technology – admittedly much of it speculative and hyperbolic – there appear to be some grounds for troubling some of Hodkinson et al.’s ideas by prioritising the effects of media and digital technology on learning.

Methods: We used two examples of learning in sports, one historical and the other contemporary, to consider the theoretical implications of media and digital technology's role in sports learning. The first explores the ways professional footballers learned to produce displays of emotion during the 1950s and 1960s. Our second example presents data from semi-structured interviews with downhill longboard skateboarders and focuses on how these young people use and think about digital technology as they learn their sport.

Findings: While not rejecting Hodkinson et al.’s preference for Bourdieu's sociological theories, we draw on other theories that do not see the relationship between the ‘individual’ and ‘society’ as their conceptual starting point. To this end, we touch on Actor Network Theory (ANT), ‘connectivism’ and the theoretical work of Deleuze and Guattari in order to at least question whether Bourdieu's ideas are sufficiently flexible or dynamic to account for learning in media- and technology-saturated environments. Most obviously, rather than the individual/society dualism which Hodkinson et al. simultaneously question but also rely on, are there advantages in using ‘flatter’ metaphors such as the ‘network’ to understand learning?

Conclusions: We agree with Hodkinson et al.’s point that theories are tools for thinking with and that their metaphorical power can and should be harnessed to improve the way we teach. It is for this reason that we question Hodkinson et al.’s claim to offer a ‘holistic’ theory of learning. All theories, like metaphors, have real-world limitations and this is why we should always be suspicious of theories that claim to be able to ‘see’ the world from all angles and, perhaps more fundamentally, to dissolve the dualisms that they are built on. Theories are always a partial view from somewhere and just as they help us to see some things, they do so by demanding that we not see others.     

“Deaths in Prison Custody” Capstone Course: Engaging Final-Year Law Students In Service Learning and Public Value

Capstone service learning courses are designed to overcome the negative effects of fractioned knowledge by enabling students to consolidate and apply what they have learned over a program of study. They also promote a scholarship of engagement. This article documents the learning experiences of students on a Deaths in Prison Custody capstone service learning course. Though such a criminal justice course requires significant staff input and involves some loss of educational control, it has many benefits including enhanced learning, meaningful service, public value, and civic engagement. The focus on this article is on student learning experiences. It outlines how the pragmatic focus of such a course made knowledge and student learning relevant and actionable. It also describes how the deliberately unstructured design of the course, together with its emphasis on pubic value, encouraged autonomous and self-directed learning, prompting the students to take greater ownership of their learning.     

The impact of making-weight on cognitive performance in apprentice jockeys

Jockeys regularly engage in rapid weight-loss practices in preparation for competition. These practices are thought to impair cognitive function, although the evidence in support of this theory remains inconclusive. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of making-weight on cognitive function in apprentice jockeys in a simulated and competitive environment. Apprentice jockeys (n = 12) reduced their body mass by 4% in 48 h in a simulated environment using weight-loss methods typically adopted in preparation for racing. Simple and choice reaction time, attention, learning and memory were assessed before and after the weight loss. A further 10 apprentice jockeys performed the cognitive function assessment in a competitive racing environment at both a self-reported “normal” and “light” body mass. Hydration status and body mass were assessed in all trials. In the simulated environment, body mass was reduced by 4.2 ± 0.3%, yet no change in cognitive function was observed. Cognitive function also remained unchanged in the competitive environment after a body mass loss of 5.7 ± 1.9%. Typical reductions in body mass in preparation for racing have no effect on cognitive function in apprentice jockeys in a simulated and competitive environment. Further research is required to investigate the physiological mechanisms preventing the adverse effects of making-weight on cognitive function in jockeys.