The physical education teacher education community in Ireland has developed Beginning Teacher Standards for Physical Education (BTSfPE) at the post-primary (secondary) level. This study explored teacher educators' perspectives on how the BTSfPE could be implemented and considered the possible impact on the profession within the discourses of…

This collaborative self-study examined the experiences of two teacher educators who developed and implemented a pedagogical approach that prioritised learning how to facilitate meaningful physical education (PE) experiences in their physical education teacher education programs. Data sources included 33 individual planning and reflection…

The article presents our response to some ideas presented by David Kirk in his 2012 Scholar Lecture to the Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy Special Interest Group of the British Educational Research Association Annual Conference in September 2012. We seek to present an alternate view to one aspect of Kirk's argument which supports a view…

Background: Recently, there has been growing interest in the emotional aspects of teaching and learning in general education and in physical education (PE). Scholars have argued that high-quality teaching and learning depend on a teacher's knowledge of students' emotions (Hargreaves 1998, 2000, 2002; McCaughtry 2004; McCaughtry and Rovegno 2003;…

Drawing on data from a three-year Participatory Action Research project, undertaken with 41 teenage girls within and beyond the boundaries of a designated disadvantaged urban school, this article is an effort to critique the use of participatory methods as a means of producing different knowledge, and producing knowledge differently with students.…

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…

Popular physical culture serves as a site, subject and medium for young people's learning (Sandford & Rich, 2006) and impacts their relationship with physical education, physical activity and the construction of their embodied identities. This paper addresses the potential of scrapbooking as a pedagogical and methodological tool to facilitate…

Background: Extra-curricular sport is an important aspect of life in Irish primary schools. Team invasion games hold a dominant position and, within this category, Gaelic games are extremely popular. Teachers have, historically, played a significant role in the promotion of Gaelic games through the organization of inter-school competitions. The…

There is a growing body of research and scholarship highlighting the importance of teachers and teaching to children's learning and life opportunities (Bransford, Darling-Hammond and LePage 2005). More specifically what teachers do in classrooms is a function of many things (e.g., content knowledge, pedagogical knowledge) including their belief…

The data for this paper were generated during a three-year, Participatory Action Research project, with 41 15-19-year-old female co-researchers and activists, within and beyond the walls of a secondary school. The purpose of the larger study was to work with these students to understand and transform their self-identified barriers to physical…

The purpose of this study was to explore enhancers and inhibitors that impacted 4 secondary physical education teachers to make changes in their programs. An interpretivist approach was used to understand the physical educators' change process. Data were collected from document analyses, participant information sheets, interviews, discussion…

This chapter summarizes the 4-year-long PEP professional development (PD) initiative in terms of current perspectives on teacher learning and PD, shares lessons learned about the design and delivery of high-quality PD, and presents some principles to guide the development of future PD efforts. The first section reviews the definition and…

This manuscript attempts to unpack a number of issues around the phrase "quality research in physical education and sport pedagogy". The following questions serve as the frame for discussion: What is the purpose of research? What is good research and who says it is good? What do we hope to accomplish with research? Who do we serve with…

Bechtel and O'Sullivan suggest that teacher change within the context of professional development (PD) is influenced by the design and content of PD initiatives. This paper examines the influence of an initiative designed to stimulate reflection and discussion among experienced teachers. It has been argued in the physical education literature and…

There are many factors that affect the design of effective professional development (PD) programs. This review of literature focuses on some of the theoretical models used to explain teacher change, the contextual factors that impact teacher behaviors and curricular change, and the role of continuous professional development in changing teaching…