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Increasing levels of student diversity, and inequality, frame the conditions of schooling in the contemporary moment. Initial teacher education has also been criticised for falling short in adequately preparing pre-service teachers who can cater for the needs of diverse student learners. This paper enters this discursive field and takes a specific focus on decolonising approaches to curriculum and pedagogical practices of health and physical education (HPE) of initial teacher education. My specific focus is the implementation of a range of strategies in a fourth-year Primary/Middle (years 3-9) HPE course within a Bachelor of Education program. I first provide a contextual overview and examine furthering an understanding of settler/colonialism in initial teacher education. In the remaining sections of the paper, I report on strategies designed to build cultural confidence, competence and respect. I conclude in arguing that if pre-service teachers are to develop pedagogical practices that are responsive to the diverse cultural, linguistic and embodied practices of all students, we too, as HPE teacher educators, need to confront our own assumptions about valued knowledge and practices.

Globalisation and human mobility have contributed to increased student diversity in Australian schools and globally. Initial Teacher Education (ITE) programmes are under pressure to prepare pre-service teachers (PST) who can respond to the educational and cultural needs of diverse student cohorts. International study tours and service-learning programs are conceived as means for developing interculturally competent "classroom-ready" teachers. This paper reports on a New Colombo Plan water safety/swimming programme designed and delivered by pre-service teachers in a rural Fijian community. Findings indicate that immersion as "other" was important for building empathy and appreciation of the lived realties of linguistically and culturally diverse Indigenous Fijian and Indo-Fijian children. Additionally, findings reveal various ways by which PST enacted cultural competence in teaching the water safety/swimming program. Where international service learning is not always be an option, we argue for multiple opportunities for PST to work with children within diverse communities and cultural life-worlds. At stake is the potential of ITE programs to enable the development of pedagogical practices for meeting the cultural and educational needs of all children We believe these calls have relevance for ITE educators and their programs in Australia and the broader Asia-Indo-Pacific region.

This paper considers the implications of the current landscape of education policy reform in Australian schooling. We argue that the decontextualisation of education policy enactments and the eschewing of concerns relevant at the local level of the school over the past two decades have prompted various reform agendas to fail. We contend that recognition of the deep contextualisation of schools is paramount in any attempt at renewal. Therefore, it is at the local school-level that reform agendas can and should be directed by the pedagogical and innovative work of educators. We focus on 'relational pedagogy' because it offers opportunities to enact school-wide reform and enhance the professional capacities of educators as pedagogical innovators. Contemporary education reform agendas are best situated and registered within school sites and relational pedagogy stands as a deeply contextualised provocation for enacting school renewal.

Public education is not just a way to organise and fund education. It is also the expression of a particular ideal about education and of a particular way to conceive of the relationship between education and society. The ideal of public education sees education as an important dimension of the common good and as an important institution in securing the common good. The common good is never what individuals or particular groups want or desire, but always reaches beyond such particular desires towards that which societies as a whole should consider as desirable. This does, of course, put the common good in tension with the desires of individuals and groups. Neo-liberal modes of governance have, over the past decades, put this particular educational set up under pressure and have, according to some, eroded the very idea of the common good. This set of contributions reflects on this state of affairs, partly through an exploration of the idea of publicness itself -- how it can be rearticulated and regained -- and partly through reflections on the current state of education in the 'north' and the 'south.'

Contemporary schooling produces unequal educational outcomes in Australia and across the globe. While mandated high-stakes tests supposedly place all students on a common scale, they can limit pedagogic practices and often fail to recognize the "abilities" or embodied knowledge of many children. In addressing these challenges, particularly as they relate to the teaching of mathematics this article reports on a qualitative study that investigated an arts integrated professional learning model, Creative Body-based Learning (CBL), at two Australian primary schools. CBL uses active and creative strategies from a range of art forms to increase student engagement and expand pedagogic possibilities across the curriculum. In this pilot study, five teachers formed action research teams with four artists to integrate CBL into mathematics. Findings drawn from interviews with teachers include higher engagement and improvement of student dispositions in mathematics and, more significantly, a broadening of teachers' pedagogical practices to engage students and provide them with multiple opportunities to present their learning.

Curricula and pedagogies that fail to utilise the cultural resources of students contribute to educational disadvantage. The health and physical education (HPE) learning area is not exempt from these concerns with calls emerging within Australia to include movement forms and ways of knowing of Indigenous and ethnic-minority students. In many respects, these are calls to counter the normativity of Anglo-Saxon middle-class male framings for HPE. This paper engages with these concerns and seeks to contribute through reporting on a case study from Australian-based research into culturally responsive pedagogies (CRP). Utilising Ricoeur's theorisation of narrative processes we explore a case study which centres on CRP informed pedagogical and curricular redesign in HPE. We engage with discourses of CRP to explore emergent understandings and raise awareness amongst HPE educators about the possibilities of CRP in foregrounding culturally informed movement forms and ways of knowing. We conclude in arguing all HPE educators face an ethical imperative to take up the challenge of adopting CRP and a broader range of culturally defined movement forms.

The Australian Professional Standards for Teachers identify a range of supposedly demonstrable capabilities for graduate teachers. Elaborations privilege the realization of Standards through mentoring, and feedback from senior colleagues. As manifestations of the logic of neo-liberalism they operate as audit technologies for pre-service teachers and their learning. In this paper, we argue for the preparation of graduate teachers who can engage in critical inquiry as means for expanding professional learning, developing pedagogical practices and improving student learning. We report on the preparation of 4th year pre-service teachers to undertake critical inquiry into an aspect of pedagogic practice during their final practicum placement. We first address instrumental framings of teacher preparation. A case is then made for critical practitioner inquiry as an alternative. Empirical data is drawn from the 'practice architectures' of an Australian teacher education program as these relate to developing pre-service teacher inquiry designs. We present inquiry questions, abstracts and reflections developed by pre-service teachers over a seven-year period in two discipline groupings, Health and Physical Education and Mathematics and Science, as evidence of possibilities for preparing graduates for a critical inquiry workforce. We conclude in arguing that these possibilities are vital in times framed by a narrowing technical and standardized educational environment.

Within the Australian context physical education (PE) and more recently health and physical education (HPE) have long been ascribed utilitarian value for producing healthy citizens. Whilst this has not been a linear progression over time, traces from the past do inform current assumptions about this utilitarian role. Of consequence are historical contingencies and responses to societal problems around health-related conduct and capabilities of the nations' citizens. In this paper a genealogical approach is adopted to explore discourses and power relations that have framed the contribution of PE and HPE in shaping students for healthy citizenship. Disciplinary technologies associated with military-style physical training, civilising technologies of game play and responsibilising governmental technologies of contemporary policies will be explored. I conclude in arguing that if HPE is to prepare all students for equitable, inclusive citizenship what is required is the adoption of curricula and pedagogies that counteract hegemonic notions of individual responsibility for healthy citizenship.

Drawing on conceptual resources that underpin arts integration, drama-based and embodied teaching approaches, and embodied mathematical cognition, the authors developed a fresh professional learning model for teachers to use with their mathematics classes. This article discusses how "Creative and Body-based Learning" (CBL), the authors' interpretation of drama-based pedagogy (DBP) for the local context in South Australia, uses active and creative approaches to deepen engagement and academic learning. The approach incorporates foundational arts strategies that work with the body to activate dialogue, use game as metaphor, engage in image work and/or role-play, and support mathematical understanding. The CBL endeavor was part of a larger vision--to activate creative education for young people in South Australia in ways that build collaboration, while inspiring and informing decision-makers. The following sections are included at the end of the article: (1) Spotlight on Innovators; (2) Innovative Programs Teaching History around the World; and (3) A Model of Innovation for Children's Libraries.

Pedagogical practices in schooling bear a potential to impact on student success, achievement and engagement with schooling. This is especially the case for students from disadvantaged backgrounds, who are deeply dependent on schooling for their educational resources. Central to this paper are pedagogies for social justice and improved engagement of boys in dance within a school located in an area of high socio-economic disadvantage. It is in these areas that boys spend considerable time performing masculinities that are in opposition to the formal processes of schooling, including participation in perceived feminine pursuits. The specific focus of this paper is a project of pedagogical redesign, enacted by a teacher of physical education and dance. The paper will first address pedagogies as they relate to dance, physical education, inclusion and gender. We next describe the action research project before describing redesigned pedagogical processes and outcomes for students. Findings reveal that altered pedagogical practices and relationships resulted in increasing student engagement, as well as broader outcomes across the curriculum. In conclusion we argue for practices that provide safe and supportive learning environments, connect to student life-worlds and extend student skills to offer "possibilities" for boys from disadvantaged backgrounds in dance as well as investment in schooling.

Within the Australian context, research into schooling experiences of refugee and migrant-background students has tended to focus on developing English language proficiency with little attention given to initiatives that contribute more broadly to students' social and educational resources. Whilst not denying the significance of English language acquisition, this paper explores strategies, implemented at one school, designed to enhance social, cultural and educational outcomes for refugee and migrant-background students. We draw on a relational view of space informed by Foucault and Lefebvre, and Fraser's theorisation of justice, to explore the school context, connections to students' life-worlds, moving beyond trauma and teachers as knowledge producers. Findings suggest that contextualised forms of knowing and practices can work to build connections and educational resources for refugee and migrant-background students. Where human spatiality, including as this relates to schools, produces advantages and disadvantages, we conclude in arguing for further research that incorporates the perspectives and voices of refugee and migrant-background students and their teachers.

Sports media are significant to the construction and representation of sports cultures and sporting bodies. They function as public pedagogies that frame knowledge and learning negotiated within and beyond physical education (PE) lessons. In this capacity public pedagogies of sports media inform young people's understandings of themselves and others, including in terms of the intersectionality of gender, 'whiteness', and race amongst other social/cultural relationships. Within the (post)-colonial Australian context, we are interested in ways online sports media construct understandings about females, 'race' and 'whiteness'. 'White' male athletes occupy under-examined positions of privilege within discourses of sport. As the norm 'white' male athletes require no definition, whilst female and/or non-white athletes are constituted through discourses of sport. In this paper we draw on intersectionality and Foucault's theorisation of subjectivity together with multimodal analysis to explore media coverage of three women's sporting phenomena. Our cases include Australia's Matildas football team, Australian Football League Women (AFLW) and Suncorp Super Netball. Our specific focus is how discourses together with visual images do pedagogical work. We conclude in challenging PE educators to work with their students in critically exploring public pedagogies of sports media.

Widening access to higher education is a key aspiration of Australian educational policy. Drawing on a sample of non-traditional undergraduate Health and Physical Education (HPE) students, this study argues that an inclusive curriculum recognises and builds on the resources represented by students from various socio-cultural backgrounds. Aligned with a strengths-based approach, this paper draws on Yosso's notion of community cultural wealth to explore the perceptions of 11 non-traditional students from an undergraduate HPE program regarding the resources they brought to higher education. Findings suggest a need to move beyond a traditional deficit approach and promote students' engagement and capital building in their higher education experiences. Implications for an inclusive curriculum with regard to the use of a strengths-based learning and teaching strategies for non-traditional HPE university students are also discussed.

Background: Laws and legislation have prompted movement from special education towards inclusive education, whereby students with disabilities are included in mainstream physical education (PE) classes. It is widely acknowledged that including students with disabilities in PE presents significant challenges in relation to meeting the diverse needs of all students. Significantly, little is known about how teachers include junior primary students with a disability in PE. Aims: This paper aims to explore pedagogical practices for the inclusion of junior primary students with disabilities in PE as well as environmental accommodations teachers make. In order to address these aims, the research undertaking was guided by the question: "What pedagogies do teachers draw upon to include junior primary students with disabilities in PE"? Methods: This qualitative research undertaking incorporated a critical case study approach, which utilised semi-structured interviews and field observations as data collection tools. Three teachers of PE in primary schools located in Adelaide, South Australia, participated in the research undertaking. Given this small sample group we make no claims for generalisability, but seek to provide connections for others teaching in PE. Results: Findings are presented in three general themes of: "Relationships for inclusion, Practices of Inclusion and Complexity and inclusion. Participants' statements are used to illuminate discussions about discourses drawn on and to make links between previous research and theoretical perspectives. In general terms, findings revealed that despite barriers, such as catering for multiple forms of disabilities with minimal assistance from support staff and negotiating school environments, participants embraced inclusion and made pedagogical modifications to ensure meaningful involvement in PE lessons for all students. This research also identified the important role teachers play in terms of relationships, adaptations and safe learning environments, which collectively enable the inclusion of junior primary students with disabilities. Conclusion: Students with disabilities warrant specific recognition and access to educational resources including within the field of PE.

Pre-service teachers of physical education (PE) bring understandings about gender and bodies to their university studies. These understandings are partially informed by biographies and experiences and bear potential to mediate learning and processes of becoming teachers. In this paper we explore technologies of power/knowledge and technologies of self that inform understandings of gender and the constitution of PE teacher subjectivities. Data were drawn from semi-structured interviews conducted with pre-service teachers studying at an Australian university. Foucault's theoretical perspectives around the constitution of subjects were drawn on to analyse data. Findings reveal that discursive practices frame particular "truths" around gender and, hence, possibilities for being teachers of PE. Discourses of sport were significant in establishing a male norm for bodies and subjectivities. This was problematic for female participants who also turned to discourses of nurturing in constituting their subjectivities. Implications are raised for PE teacher educators with regard to disrupting hegemonic discourses as means for developing pedagogies for greater justice.

Stories or narratives are integral to meaning making in relation to selves, others and the choices we make in living. It follows that pre-service teachers' narratives can provide a means for understanding experiences and processes of becoming teachers of physical education (PE). This paper reports on an interview-based inquiry from which biographical information was collated and constructed as narratives. The specific focus of this paper is demonstrating how Ricoeur's [1991a. Narrative identity. In D. Woods (Ed.), "On Paul Ricoeur: Narrative and interpretation" (pp. 188-199). London: Routledge; 1992. "Oneself as another." Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press] theorisation of narrative identity can generate understandings about incipient PE teacher identities as developed in various spaces and temporalities. Data are presented through a cluster of significant spaces: "sport, families, schooling, PE and Teacher Education plus narratives." Findings indicate that in constructing narrative identities, participants activated links between spaces, their past, present and aspirational futures as teachers. Given this, I conclude by identifying possibilities for PE teacher educators in using personal narratives as resources for exploring significant lifeworld spaces and subjective possibilities.

In developed economies, such as Australia, schooling is heavily impacted by neo-liberal and neo-conservative agendas. Policies suggest a homogeneity in students that fails to reflect regional contexts of inequality. For the new Australian Curriculum, which includes Health and Physical Education (AC: HPE), this logic prioritises consistency in content and standards for students no matter location or socio-economic circumstances. Little is known about the "lived" realities of such aspirations as they relate to teaching students from disadvantaged regions. This paper reports on practitioner inquiry into a redesigned dance unit, as part of a broader investigation into the implementation of AC: HPE with disadvantaged students. We draw on literature around student engagement and Nancy Fraser's theorisation of justice to explore the pedagogical redesign. We conclude in arguing that enhanced learning outcomes for disadvantaged students are dependent upon rich and contextualised pedagogical practices.

Pedagogical practices are fundamental to teachers' work, and in the spaces of schooling impact significantly on students' success and achievement (Evans, J. 1986. "Physical Education, Sport and Schooling: Studies in the Sociology of Physical Education." London: Falmer Press.). This is especially the case for students from disadvantaged backgrounds who are deeply reliant on schooling for their educational resources. This article explores the interrelationships between pedagogical practices, the physical education curriculum at the senior secondary level and learning by both students and a teacher in a school located in an area of socio-economic disadvantage. Action research investigating a pedagogical redesign of a unit of "Skill Acquisition" is the specific focus. Of key interest are pedagogical practices that incorporated opportunities to learn "about" Skill Acquisition "through" and "in" movement. These practices attempted to develop and apply scientific literacies specific to the human movement sciences, which are important for academic success in senior secondary physical education. Findings reveal high student engagement, increasing utilisation of scientific literacies and application of new learning to life-world situations. We argue that pedagogical practices that integrate learning "about" "through" and "in" movement disrupt default modes of teaching theoretical concepts in physical education, which diminish opportunities for academic success amongst students from low-socio-economic backgrounds.

This paper focuses on the significance of embodied understandings to the emerging subjectivities and pedagogical practices of pre-service teachers undertaking a Physical Education (PE) specialisation through a B.Ed. (primary/middle). Data from a research project conducted at an Australian university with seven pre-service teachers will be presented through three themes: "Naturally" sporty bodies; Healthy bodies; and Embodied pedagogical practices. Our findings suggest that through the configurative function of narrative identity, participants merge lasting dispositions around embodied physicality with acquired dispositions around embodied health, fitness and pedagogical practices. In doing so, they locate themselves in a contemporary narrative of PE which reinforces assumptions that bodies, subjectivities and lives can be shaped so as to protect against risks associated with obesity.

The expansion of neo-liberal policies' framing higher education has contributed to an increase in participation rates of students from non-traditional backgrounds. While an increase of a wider range of students might be seen as contributing to a more just and equitable higher education system, research has shown that broadening entry points does not necessarily ensure inclusion or positive experience for these students. This research investigated the experiences of first in family, rural and international students as they transitioned into their first year of university. Focus group interviews and surveys were used to collect data. Using Bourdieu's theory of field, habitus and capital as well as Weiss's dimensions of loneliness findings illuminate a number of poignant experiences for non-traditional students. We suggest that facilitating the transition for non-traditional students might require a cultural change by universities and a move away from the notion that the students need to "adapt" to university. Rather, the evolving university might provide for increasingly diverse student cohorts by embracing their habitus and unique features.

The field of physical education (PE), as it exists in teacher education, is dynamic as ways of preparing teachers to meet the needs of young people in contemporary times change. Such endeavours are underpinned by concerns about school-based PE, the alienation of students from PE, and responsibility for producing healthy students. Concerns also exist around a perceived propensity amongst pre-service teachers of PE to steadfastly retain initial beliefs and values and resist more socially critical perspectives and pedagogies. An engagement with socially critical discourses in teacher education is critical if PE is to be a site of inclusion rather than marginalisation and exclusion. This paper examines how a group of pre-service teachers of PE, who experienced a teacher education programme, at an Australian university, that was infused with strong social justice discourses constituted subjectivities and pedagogical practices. We explore how, emotional connectivity, and an "ethic of care", instil broadened perspectives and engagement with socially critical pedagogical practices. Whilst emotions and caring are generally perceived as marginal attributes in the field of PE, we suggest that the affective domain is significant to effective pedagogical practices, subjectivities of teachers of PE and the reality of teaching. We seek to trouble "truths" disseminated by hegemonic discourses that construct PE teaching as a technical undertaking, founded on disciplinary knowledge and curricular expertise. We close by providing possibilities for others working with PE pre-service teachers around foregrounding affective dimensions of pedagogical practices and teacher subjectivities and propose that these possibilities might address calls for a new type of PE teacher.

It is commonly recognised that health and well-being are influenced by social conditions, such as the transition to higher education. This study explored student perceptions and experiences of factors that impacted on health and well-being during the first year of university studies. Data for this study were collected via an online student questionnaire. The questionnaire included closed questions to collect demographic data and open-ended questions to collect data about students' perceptions and experiences of factors that impact on health and well-being. Findings revealed that a range of factors impact on student well-being during the transition to university studies. These include geographical relocation, engagement with university learning, sense of community as well as managing time and competing demands. Implications for the higher education sector and the need for further research amongst specific student cohorts, including first in family and relocating students, are discussed.

The development of health literacies, in relation to health, well-being, safety and physical activity, is a key pillar of the "Australian Curriculum: Health and Physical Education". Implications, therefore, arise for teachers of health and physical education (HPE) and their pedagogical practices. These practices of HPE inform ways of thinking, the acquisition of dispositions and constitution of subjectivities. They also impact on student success and positioning in relation to societal and cultural assumptions. We argue that bodies, including how they move, are exercised, nourished, represented and understood, should be central to pedagogies for developing health literacies. In this paper, we use interview and media excerpts to explore pedagogical practices and understandings in relation to bodies. We attempt to analyse practices of the body as they relate to health literacies. In arguing for socially critical pedagogical practices around bodies, we highlight the need to develop critical health literacies that disrupt common sense readings of "acceptable" and "desirable" bodies as lean, youthful and able-bodied. We conclude by identifying implications for pre-service teacher and in-service teacher education around the development of socially critical pedagogical practices and health literacies.

Australian Government policy initiatives to increase young peoples' participation in higher education are pursued in this paper. It argues that pedagogy and curriculum have a direct influence on student engagement. The interrelationships between pedagogical practices, curriculum based on a well-being framework, and the shaping of subjectivities and aspirations of young people in a region characterised by socio-economic challenge are explored. This 2-year case study used action research by university academics, school-based teachers and school students in an R-12 school in the northern suburbs of Adelaide, South Australia. Findings drawn from narratives, field notes, student work samples and professional conversations, situate well-being as central to young people's self-awareness of their aspirations. The themes of: Pedagogies and learning activities; Relationships, caring and connections, and; Places, spaces and belonging help to arrange the argument that concludes that young people living in low socio-economic areas do have aspirations for the future. Furthermore, the educational implications highlight the significance of the role of the teacher within the social and emotional domains which connect student life-worlds within their particular contexts, building cultural capital and broadening capabilities, self-awareness, aspirations and achievement.

It is widely acknowledged that social conditions are directly associated with health and well-being. Significantly little is known about the impact of changing social conditions, including the transition to higher education, on young people's health and well-being. This qualitative research investigated perceptions and factors that influence health and well-being for first year university students. Governmental practices adopted in managing health and well-being during transition to a university context, were also investigated. Empirical data were collected, in 2010, via an online student questionnaire. Participants were completing their first year of study in a School of Health Sciences at an Australian university. They were asked to respond to a series of closed questions to collect demographic data and open-ended questions regarding their perceptions of health and well-being as well as factors that impact on them personally as they transition into university studies. Findings indicate that there are significant factors that impact on student well-being during this transition. These include: geographical relocation, engagement with university learning, sense of community as well as managing time and competing demands. Findings also indicate that whilst young people accept an individualised responsibility managing health and well-being, the social conditions of transition to university render this complex and problematic.

The body is a powerful symbolic form and all bodily activities are expressions of culture. The look, size, shape and physicality of bodies are perceived by all and compared to particular cultural standards. In this way the body is inscribed with culture and can serve as a site for social control. Various discourses of the body, including those around appearance, health and fitness, circulate within societal institutions and through relations of power these impact on the way in which we come to understand bodies. In times marked by individualised responsibility for all aspects of life, the body and technologies of self around bodywork are also significant in relation to self-formation and self-government. This research investigates the impact of various cultures of the body, on pre-service physical education teachers' understandings and meaning making about bodies, fitness, health and personal engagement in bodywork. Implications for future practices in teaching, relationships with school students and messages for teacher educators are also considered.

Pre-service teachers bring to their university studies particular world views and understandings of themselves and others around health and physical activity. Their biographies and experiences in school physical education, sport and other societal institutions inform these perspectives and understandings. These in turn work to mediate university learning, interactions with the physical education learning area and understandings of teaching and learning processes. The biographies of pre-service teachers can provide valuable insights into how and why particular constructions of self are possible within given historical times, locations and events. In the context of teacher preparation in physical education this research attempts to investigate the construction of a teaching identity and pedagogical practices. Specifically it attempts to reveal how various cultures of physical activity, fitness and sport shape the subjective experiences of pre-service teachers as well as how different theoretical frameworks can be used to provide particular readings and deeper understandings of the stories told. Pre-service teachers were asked to respond to a series of open-ended questions regarding their personal experiences of physical education, sport and teacher preparation as well as the implications of these experiences for notions of themselves as an emerging teacher in the learning area. In the process of analysis attempt was made to identify the meanings students made in these contexts and their influence on the construction of a teaching identity. The findings give evidence of the complex and multiple ways that teaching identities are constructed as well as the processes whereby particular pedagogical practices are adopted.

In this research a number of strategies including physical experiences, physical stories and lab school with guided reflection were used with pre-service physical education teachers in an attempt to foster more critical and inclusive approaches to teaching physical education in the middle years. The strategies were used to illustrate the complex processes that inhibit or enhance an individual's relationship to physical activity. They served to identify discursive, social and institutional practices, which supported the development of a physical identity for some young people while powerfully denying it to others. Pre-service physical education teachers were asked to respond to these strategies in multiple ways as well as constructing their own knowledge around teaching and learning in physical education. It was concluded that a more complete understanding of young people's physicality could develop from recognition of the complex interrelationships that occur between school, culture and physical experiences. The strategies used allowed insights into these complexities and worked to develop a deeper appreciation of "lived" experiences, around physical education. Opportunities to explore and critically reflect on teaching and student learning were also found to be significant in considering broadened understandings of pedagogies of physical education.

In this research a number of approaches were used with pre-service physical education teachers in an attempt to foster inclusive and critical approaches to teaching physical education. Physical experiences, storytelling and lab school were used to highlight the multifaceted processes around students' engagement in physical education and relationship to physical activity. Pre-service physical education teachers were asked to respond to these activities as they developed knowledge around teaching and learning. Findings suggest that the strategies employed allowed insights into the intricate relationships that occur between school, culture and physical activity and worked to develop greater awareness of the variety of "lived" experiences, around physical education. Opportunities to connect theory to practice through lab-school were also found to be useful in developing practices and ways to make physical education a safer and happier place.

The obesity crisis is a hegemonic discourse that has established common-sense understandings that young people are less active and fit than previous generations. Unquestioning acceptance of links between fitness and obesity in turn leads to unproblematic fitness testing of young people. Argument is made that fitness tests motivate and encourage participation in physical activity. Poststructural perspectives as informed by the work of Michel Foucault invite consideration of alternative possibilities around complex social phenomena such as the obesity crisis and pedagogical practices such as fitness testing. This research was informed by concerns about the unproblematic fitness testing of young people and calls for pedagogies of physical education that work to unsettle dominant discourses. The research investigates the experience of fitness testing from the perspective of university students pursuing health and physical education pathways through their degree programmes. Experiences of fitness testing were explored and the meanings made around participation, performances and results were interrogated.

This research is concerned with how exposure to a diverse range of lived and personal experiences and then guided reflection of teaching episodes can be harnessed to assist student teachers in making meaningful connections with their diverse and complex learners. These strategies were used in a bid to promote critical perspectives and approaches by inviting student teachers to entertain alternative possibilities in teaching primary school health and physical education. The research draws on the past experiences of a group of generalist primary student teachers that revealed considerable diversity in subjectivities made and held around physical education, sport and physical activity. The breadth, contrast and contradiction in personal experiences and subjectivities provided an opportunity to problematise traditional practices and beliefs in the learning area. The cohort were then involved in a series of "lab school" experiences where they were encouraged to reflect on their teaching experiences. The findings indicate that for some student teachers the connections made with real life and "lived" experiences facilitated a more critical reflection and an enhanced desire to "do things differently". However for others, sporting discourses in physical education were firmly entrenched and served to limit their engagement with alternative approaches.

The obesity crisis is a discourse that has established common-sense understandings that all young people are less active and fit than previous generations. Unquestioning acceptance of the links between fitness and obesity in turn leads to unproblematic fitness testing of young people. This research investigated the personal and embodied experiences of fitness testing amongst university students who will in the future teach health and physical education. Foucault's ideas around technologies of self offer possibilities for understanding fitness tests as a means to discipline classify and regulate young bodies. The work is also informed by notions of "embodiment" to assist in understanding the way individuals experience their bodies in and through fitness testing. The data gathered and analysed contributes to a growing body of evidence that suggests that fitness testing is not a neutral practice and there is need for educators to problematise taken for granted assumptions and practices around fitness testing.

Background: People's actions and decisions are deeply influenced by their sense of self as well as the meanings they afford to particular ideas and concepts around them. These meanings and ways of understanding oneself in relation to the world constitute an individual's subjectivity. It is produced through a range of discursive practices, the meanings of which are multiple, contradictory and changing. Beginning primary teachers have a range of subjectivities around physical activity that have been formed during years of experience in sport and physical education. They bring these to their initial teacher education courses and make sense of new knowledge in relation to their own prior and personal experiences. Purpose: This research involved an examination of the discursive resources used to construct individual subjectivity around sport, physical education and physical activity for a group of pre-service primary student teachers. It aimed to investigate the nature of personal experiences, subjectivities and resulting identities for a group of early pedagogues who would be required to teach health and physical education in a primary setting. Participants and setting: Within the context of a singular compulsory curriculum studies course in health and physical education, participants consisted of an entire cohort of junior primary/primary student teachers in their second year of training as well as a group of graduate-entry primary student teachers. Resulting numbers included 102 female and 35 male student teachers. Their ages ranged from 19 to 35 years. Research design: In adopting a poststructural theoretical framework a qualitative research design was employed to identify the ways in which student teachers position themselves around the discourses of sport and physical education as well as how these discourses merge with developing pedagogies. Poststructural approaches allow recognition of how complex selves are constructed and assist in exploring the ways that cultural and institutional discourses are embedded into practices around sport and physical education. Data collection: Data were drawn via an online student survey system where student teachers were asked to respond to a series of open-ended questions regarding their recollected experiences of sport and physical education in both primary and high school. Questions extended to include key life experiences and significant individuals as well as the influence of these experiences on their orientation toward the learning area and physical activity in general. Data analysis: Analysis centred on the way participants drew on life experiences and discursive resources to make sense of and interpret their physical experiences. Attempts were made to identify discourses that were drawn upon as well as how individuals positioned themselves and others in relation to these discourses. Deeper analysis draws attention to the effects of these discourses and ways in which they constitute subjectivities and shape individuals in particular ways. Findings: The findings give evidence of the breadth, complexity and multiplicity in participants' school-based experiences. While early experiences highlighted the dominance of sport-related discourses and encouraged narrow definitions of being "sporty" or "non-sporty", the experience of competition provided diverse and contradictory meanings for individuals. Understandings of physical competence or incompetence were established early and were paramount in supporting ongoing engagement or disengagement in physical activity. The findings also highlight the notion of physical education as a form of public display or performance where the nature of one's physical competency is conspicuous and exposed. This was particularly problematic for adolescents where it served to alienate some individuals from their physical selves. Conclusions: The insights gained through data collection and poststructuralist theorising have been significant in problematising practices in physical education. It is argued that outcomes in physical education are inherently complex and multifaceted. The study provides support for arguments to extend and look beyond traditional forms of physical education to a wider range of movement practices. It is proposed to share these findings with new student cohorts with the intention of developing more critical approaches to teaching and learning in the area.