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Physical contact between teachers and students in physical education (PE) has been a troubling, complex and unsolved issue. Research has shown that PE teachers struggle with high levels of fear, insecurity and anxiety when it comes to physical contact with students. However, most of the research conducted so far has focused on a few countries and in regard to the dominant no-touch societal discourse related to sexual connotations. Research from other countries on PE-related touch and other non-sexual physical contact topics is still missing from the literature. This paper aims to explore touch within the PE arena in Argentina and France. Data were generated with a group of eight PE teachers, four from France and four from Argentina. Results suggest that even though teachers were well aware of the widely spread discourse regarding sexual harassment, they discussed the concerns of touch in PE in different ways. Touch was considered necessary for both emotional support and the avoidance and treatment of injuries. In some cases, teachers were concerned about the admissibility of touch involving students with religious beliefs, and some acts of violence. The conclusions of this study reveal a shift in the 'risks' surrounding teacher-student physical contact, and the less-discussed presence of risks other than those related to sexual implications when considering other countries. The conclusions also revolved around the changes of PE teachers' professional subjectivities over the last few decades.

Sweden received worldwide attention for its approach to managing the COVID-19 pandemic. Notably, throughout the pandemic, Sweden was one of the few countries that did not implement any lockdown measures. This meant that primary schools remained open and classes proceeded as usual, including the delivery of physical education (PE). This paper explores PE teachers' perceptions of the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on Swedish PE. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with seven PE teachers. Results suggest that teaching PE during COVID-19 has led to disparate challenges and changes for teachers, including modifications in context, content, roles and responsibilities, as well as the handling of issues concerning physical contact and proximity among students and teachers. The conclusions of this study reveal that in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the parameters of PE in Sweden are changing more rapidly now than ever before. Understanding how the pandemic has impacted the subject of PE and its delivery might create opportunities for further discussions, possible solutions and subsequent necessary adjustments in dealing with the ongoing COVID-19 situation.

Background: Physical education (PE) has been traditionally considered as a practical and 'hands-on' subject in schools, where close proximity and physical contact is common, particularly in Spain which has a high proximity culture. Significantly, the delivery of PE has changed because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and this brings significant consequences for preservice PE teachers. Purpose: The aim of the paper is to explore the changes of PE during COVID-19 and the effects on pre-service teachers. Methods: Semi-structured interviews were used to produce data with a group of 12 preservice PE teachers from Spain (four women and eight men) who were undertaking their practicum in PE when the COVID-19 lockdown was imposed in Spain [14 March 2020]. Dredging was used as an analytical technique to identify the relations and affects that comprised assemblages of bodies, things and social formations. Findings: Results suggest that preservice teachers are having difficulties in re-assembling PE in the age of COVID-19, and that this produces the affects of precarity, fear and insecurity. Furthermore, the PE re-assemblage also results in a shift of pedagogical affects. The participants particularly struggled to think on a PE assemblage that does not include the affect of physical encounters with their students. The new assemblage of PE also included encounters with digital technologies, which allowed for particular openings and closings for a re-alignment into the shifted PE. Conclusions: Pre-service teachers were unfamiliar with the way the PE assemblage has shifted, and this shifting affected their ability to produce affects in the 'new PE'. The new PE assemblage leads to a significant change in the culture of PE teaching in Spain, where physical contact between teachers and students was previously normal and taken for granted.

Bodies have been claimed to be an 'absent presence' and touch 'risky business' in physical education (PE). We have now witnessed how these claims are intensified in pandemic times of COVID-19, particularly in countries that have adopted extreme lockdown measures. This paper explores how PE practices have become 'touchless' and bodies absent using the theoretical concepts of risk and assemblage. The paper focusses on a group of pre-service PE teachers who were keen on undertaking their PE practicum experience and who were forced to switch to online mode. Data were collected through participant-produced drawings and comments on the drawings. Results suggest that the pre-service teachers are experiencing a mix of emotions during this time, miss the physical contact with students and believe the subject of PE is losing its identity as a consequence of the current situation. The conclusions of this study reveal a shift in the way that bodies are being constituted as assemblages now, and the possibility that pre-service teachers are missing out on an important aspect of their practicum experiences because of the lack of direct contact with students. We also wonder if pre-service teacher education programmes should put more emphasis on better preparing the students to teach online, and what will be the long-term consequences in the teaching of PE because of the current COVID-19 pandemic situation.

The USA Gymnastics sex abuse scandal raised global awareness about child sexual abuse (CSA) in women's artistic gymnastics. The ensuing media coverage also centre-staged victims' survivorship stories, a process that for many moved from dissociating, recognising and disclosing CSA to feeling comfort when connecting with survivors and accepting CSA as part of their life history. However, scholarship on what survivorship from CSA in sport entails, and importantly, what it means to athletes, is limited. In this article, we frame the survival of CSA using Arthur Frank's socio-narratological conceptualisation of people being able to process the devastating consequences of a life-threatening and/or a life-altering event, and present the survivorship stories of two former gymnasts, Maria and Lucia (pseudonyms). For these two women, survivorship was facilitated by hearing others' stories of sexual abuse, purposefully facing their CSA experiences and connecting with one another later in life to raise awareness about sexual abuse in sport. Thus, in addition to presenting Maria and Lucia's stories for the purpose of providing CSA victims with a survivorship narrative, we outline and reflect on the role hearing and telling stories have in CSA survivorship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes a new learning experience, which was introduced following an examination of the literature regarding preservice primary school teachers' (PPST) notions of their past experience in Physical Education (PE) (Elliott 2013). PPSTs were given the opportunity to recognise, reflect, interrogate and reframe a critical incident from their schooling in PE or Sport. This exercise was designed to enlighten students about their own schooling and the potential impact this event may have on pre-conceived ideas and opinions about teaching PE. Students (N = 214) enrolled in off and on campus mode, of a preservice teacher education program in a university located in regional NSW, were asked to provide information about, and to analyse, an incident, either positive or negative that occurred in PE or Sport during their primary or secondary school years. In addition, students were encouraged to reframe the incident and to seek out alternative actions that could have influenced the outcome. The aim was to encourage reflection about how preconceived notions pertaining to PE might be dealt within their present position as a preservice teacher. The PPSTs scripts were analysed using the Leximancer text mining software (Smith, 2000). Findings from the analysis provided themes and concepts, which suggest a similarity for both, off and on campus, males and females. However, there are some subtle differences between the cohorts that may be due to an age or experience.

The teaching profession requires an understanding of teachers' and students' emotions, and teachers' emotions can influence their teaching practice, professional development and pedagogical approaches. Furthermore, emotions are embodied and they may have a detrimental effect on wellbeing if they are not addressed properly. This paper explores the emotional dimensions of preservice primary teachers' practicum experiences in physical education (PE). Body journals were used to collect data which were analysed using a Sociology of Emotions (SoE) approach. The findings revealed that preservice teachers' emotions manifest physically during their practicum, especially at particular junctures, such as at the beginning of their teaching. Preservice teachers felt the need to make a 'good impression' within the school through the regulation of their emotions as they faced continual challenges to succeed in unfamiliar teaching circumstances. The conclusions of this study demonstrate the benefits of providing opportunities for preservice PE teachers to reflect on their emotions during the practicum and the consequences that these may have on their bodies and teaching practices.

Consumer culture and neoliberalism have significantly influenced contemporary globalised, Western(ised) and highly visual societies. These influences have also infiltrated physical education settings, contributing to market-driven surveillance of physical education teachers' physical appearance. This paper examines the reflections of a group of physical education teachers working at the primary and secondary levels in Spain concerning subjectivities of bodies and professional practices. It draws on semi-structured interview data and the Foucauldian concepts of Panopticon and surveillance to explore the ways in which the participants were influenced by the market and neoliberalism. The results of the study invite us to reflect on how images and messages from media may promote certain expectations for physical education teachers concerning physical appearance, dress and sports supplements consumption. The findings have implications for teacher education and the preparation of physical education teachers to resist dominant discourses promoted by the media.

Conversation regarding the challenges and pressures that Early Career Academics (ECAs) face in the current context of the neoliberal university sector has begun to grow generally, and in the field of Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy (PESP) in particular. However, the additional challenges faced by non-white PESP academics in their early careers have, as yet, been absent from the ECA conversation. In this paper, I draw upon my own experiences as a non-white, female ECA with English as an additional language (EAL), working in the field of PESP in a developed English-speaking country, to explore racialised discourses and practices in the academia. To do so, I make use of a critical whiteness lens and an autoethnographic approach. In the analysis of the narratives, I invite others to reflect on how race is socially constructed, on the 'extra effort' that non-white academics with EAL must expend in order to survive colour-blind academia, and on the limited options for agency among non-white ECAs. The paper concludes with reflections on how academics need to open the dialogue 'just a bit more' to include non-white academics in the conversation about ECAs working in neoliberal university contexts to create spaces for equitable work.

The importance of the Physical Education (PE) teacher's body, particularly for teaching PE, has been highlighted in literature. PE teachers are expected to be clear role models to students through their acts, behaviours and bodies. However, their strong embodied subjectivities, particularly those related to their teaching practices, may be problematised. This paper explores the ways in which a group of 15 pre-service PE teachers from a Spanish university constructed perspectives about the body and health in relation to their professional practices. Body journals were used to collect data, which were analysed using a Deleuze-Guattarian approach. The findings reveal the significant emphasis participants placed on their own bodies while teaching PE and the pressure they felt to conform to certain expectations of their professional roles. In response, we propose critical reflection on the content of Physical Education Teacher Education (PETE) programmes and incorporation of alternative pedagogical approaches to alleviate the heavy reliance on pre-service teachers' bodies.

Digital technologies are now considered important in shaping young people's engagement in and with health and physical activity. Recent discussions show that the use of digital technologies to track health and fitness may over-emphasize the linear understanding of the body and health generally underpinned by Western health ideologies such as healthism. Other studies have shown the increased use of digital technologies in teaching Health and Physical Education (HPE) and as a means to enhance health and increase physical activity. Despite the opportunities and risks apparent in these studies, little is known about how HPE students make choices, negotiate, and resist or embrace the digitalisation of physical activity, exercise, and more broadly health. This study examines HPE students' meaning making of risk and surveillance associated with the self-digitisation of exercise. The study further investigates how the concept of 'prosumption'; the production, curation and consumption of self-data within the context of digitised health and physical activity, is understood. Based on the findings, we have constructed a typology of prosumers that can be used as a pedagogical device to illustrate the various kinds of subject positions students take up with digital technology in health and physical activity. This study extends the current understanding of prosumers by identifying the 'ambivalent prosumer'. The results provide insights that have direct pedagogical implications in HPE teacher education specifically in the areas of knowledge production and consumption of knowledge through digital technology in health and physical activity.

Despite increasing support for models in physical education, ambiguity exists concerning the role of teachers in the implementation of models. Very generally, some scholarship seems to suggest that teachers should work as technicians and use models in an instrumental manner. Other scholarship suggests that teachers should use models in ways that are responsive to the contexts in which they are working. This suggestion positions teachers more as craftspeople. Ambiguity is problematic given that teachers have been identified as 'key players' when it comes to the implementation of models. How teachers are positioned in research may have a significant impact on further research and pedagogical practices. This paper has two specific aims. First, we aim to provide a detailed map of how scholars have positioned teachers within physical education models literature. Second, we aim to provide a reinterpretation of our findings using Deweyan theory. The scoping review conducted here is based on the framework provided by Arksey and O'Malley [2005. "Scoping Studies: Towards a Methodological Framework." International Journal of Social Research Methodology 8 (1): 19–32]. It involved: (1) the development of a research question which was: in which ways does PE models literature position teachers? (2) the identification of potentially relevant literature through searches of the Web of Science, SPORT Discus and Google Scholar databases. The search terms used were: 'Physical education' AND 'Models-based practice;' OR; 'Pedagogical model;' OR; 'Instructional model;' OR; 'Curriculum model;' OR; 'Model;' OR; 'Teacher,' and literature needed to be published between 2010 and 2021 in English, (3) the selection of literature for the review. This occurred as an iterative process that involved going back and forth between the potentially relevant literature and our research question, (4) charting of the literature, done through inductive thematic analysis. This involved a close inspection of the included texts and the identification of recurring types of positioning in the corpus, and (5) a theoretical reinterpretation of teacher positioning achieved in models scholarship. In the physical education scholarship on pedagogical models, teachers are positioned as: (1) resistant to using models; (2) incapable of using models correctly; (3) mechanical reproducers of models; (4) struggling implementers of models; (5) needing models to change their ordinary practices; (6) capable of using models correctly with support; (7) adapters of models, and (8) collaborators with researchers when implementing models. Three issues are raised for discussion. The first relates to the potential disempowerment of teachers achieved by models. The second relates to the relationship between teachers and researchers. The third relates to how models themselves are conceived. The paper is concluded with two general reflections that follow from the issues raised in the discussion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research has shown that Physical Education (PE) is a white, male, and able body-dominated profession, particularly in Spain. When some female pre-service PE teachers, who had a difficult relationship with their bodies and sports abilities, enrol in such a degree, some of these problematic relations come to light. Participants for this study were four female pre-service teachers who self-identified as lesbian, anorexic, visually impaired, and big respectively. Data were collected through participant-produced texts, graphical representations, and interviews. The authors then reconstructed the participants' stories which are presented in the form of narratives. The conceptual tool of embodying norm-criticality helped us to highlight the importance of critical reflection about own beliefs, past experiences and understandings, and their influence on pedagogical practices in PE. This study contributes to the push towards a change of the stereotypical beliefs of what a PE teacher should be or look like, and in this way, emphasises the vast benefits of diversifying PE teachers' beliefs and understandings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to explore children's play during recess and in physical education (PE) classes from the perspective of Huizinga's theory of play. Specifically, this study investigated how primary school PE teachers used the concept of play, how it was understood by student participants, and how the participants engaged in the different phases of play during recess. Two groups of Year 3 children from two different schools participated in the study. Observations and unstructured group and individual interviews were used to collect data. The results reveal that PE teachers used the concept of play to propose activities, therefore employing play as a pedagogical tool. Participants engaged in some short breaks during the different parts of the PE class, during which they engaged in a ludic mode of play. Finally, the players communicated with each other in different ways while playing in a ludic mode during recess, using verbal and non-verbal communication and a combination of both. The results suggest that PE teachers need to determine which approaches to play are more appropriate to use in their classes.

The purpose of this study was to determine how the design and organisation of primary school playground spaces may result in the inclusion or exclusion of some groups of children. Two primary school playgrounds in rural New South Wales, Australia, were selected for this investigation. Data were collected through observations and unstructured interactional interviews. Data analysis revealed the design and organisation of primary school play spaces may lead to segregation among school children. Gender, safety concerns and school rules were also established as factors restricting full use of the playground space. The identification of these factors is vital in guiding future school reform programmes and policies aimed at enhancing participation in play and a sense of belonging for all children. The results suggest that there is need to promote schools' understandings of the significance of playground spaces in children's social lives so children can fully benefit from the time they spend in school playgrounds.

Socio-cultural theorists have argued that having a diverse understanding of subjectivities of "normal"/"ideal" bodies is important for Health and Physical Education (HPE) teachers. When teachers hold a single understanding and perception of "normal"/"ideal" bodies, such as a thin body as normal or ideal body, which are usually informed by dominant discourses, they may (re)produce narrow understandings of bodies among their students. This paper focuses on how a group of pre-service HPE specialist teachers (11 females and 3 males, aged between 18 and 26 at the time of the first interview) from an Australian university, discuss issues related to subjectivities of bodies. It draws on visual methodologies and semi-structured interviews to understand how these pre-service HPE specialist teachers construct discourses of bodies. Foucault's concepts of normalisation, surveillance and biopedagogies are used to explore discursive constructions of bodies, with a particular focus on how some discourses are normalised via surveillance techniques. The results of the study invite us to reflect on how images may promote certain ways of thinking about and considering the body among pre-service HPE specialist teachers. In light of contradictions which were found across the comments of two participants who constructed different discourses during the interviews, we posit that making sense of subjectivities of bodies is complex and often contradictory. Furthermore, the results suggest that photo elicitation is a useful visual method for theorising issues related to bodies. Results can inform teacher education and policy in how to better prepare pre-service HPE teachers to teach about bodies.

This paper explores how a cohort of pre-service Health and Physical Education (HPE) teachers from an Australian university describe and construct their understandings of health and the body. Given that the courses that these undergraduates take in their degree programme present different perspectives on health and the body, a relevant question is to what extent these perspectives adequately equip these future HPE teachers to successfully teach the recently released Australian HPE curriculum. The participants in this study were 14 pre-service teachers, 11 females and 3 males, aged between 18 and 26 at the time of the first interview. The data used for this paper were taken from a larger study and were generated through interviews, the analysis of two undergraduate course profiles and an analysis of the new National HPE curriculum. Results reveal that there are some dominant discourses in health-related courses that may have a significant impact on these students. The purpose of HPE, the role of the HPE teacher and the idea of the HPE teacher as role model are also discussed. The results suggest that pre-service teachers face several challenges and dissonances between what they learn during their undergraduate programme and what the Australian HPE curriculum expects them to teach. How pre-service HPE teachers think about and relate to health and the body is important in terms of how they think about their professional practice and the influence they may have on their future pupils.

Research among former Physical Education (PE) school students has demonstrated how fat phobia in PE classes is oppressive and makes it extremely difficult for most students to develop positive subjectivities. This study explores how a group of pre-service Health and Physical Education (HPE) specialist teachers from an Australian university construct fatness discourses. Taking a Foucauldian perspective, focusing particularly on the concepts of "surveillance" and "normalisation", this paper explores the dominant discourses that pre-service HPE specialist teachers construct about fatness. Semi-structured, in-depth interviews (three interviews per participant) were conducted with 14 students (11 females and three males) aged between 18 and 26 at the time of the first interview. The results of a content analysis of the interview data suggest that students generally tend to classify certain bodies as "decent" and "normal", implying the existence of "indecent" and "abnormal" bodies. Participants also expressed a paternalistic approach and moral judgments towards people they considered to be fat. The results suggest that HPE specialist teachers have certain constructions of fatness that could be explored in their undergraduate degrees so as to minimise any possible ramifications for their teaching.

Narrow understandings about fatness and health continue to prevail in the West. However, we have witnessed emerging trends and movements against these dominant discourses. Examples of these counter discourses are the fat acceptance and body positivity movements. Social media is a space where confrontation and discrepancies between these different discourses are common, particularly in relation to nonnormative bodies. This paper explores how Instagram users reinforce or challenge underlying assumptions regarding the 'Operación Feria' advertising campaign, which focuses on promoting physical exercise to fight obesity and fatness. A total of 1,930 comments posted on Instagram were analysed using a discourse analysis approach. Two main narratives were constructed from the data. On the one hand, there is a dominant position that challenges societal norms regarding bodies, which confronts fat-phobia and stereotypes. On the other hand, there is a reinforcement of the campaign with a discourse based on humour, victimhood and medical terms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Young people with English as an Additional Language/Dialect backgrounds are often identified in public health messages and popular media as "bodies at risk" because they do not conform to the health regimens of contemporary Western societies. With increasing numbers of Chinese students in Australian schools, it is necessary to advance teachers' understandings of the ways in which these young people negotiate notions of "health" and "(un)healthy bodies". This paper explores the ways in which young Chinese Australians' understand health and (un)healthy bodies. The data upon which this paper focuses were drawn from a larger scale study underpinned by critical, interpretive, ethnographic methods. The participants in this study were 12 young Chinese Australians, aged 10--15 years, from two schools. Photographs of a variety of bodies were sourced from popular magazines and used as a means of interview elicitation. The young people were invited to comment on the photographs and discuss what "health" and the notion of a "(un)healthy body" meant to them. Foucault's concepts of discursive practice and normalisation are used alongside Chinese concepts of holistic paradigms and Wen--Wu to unpack the young people's subjectivities on health and (un)healthy bodies. The findings invite us to move beyond Western subjectivities of health and (un)healthy bodies and highlight the multidimensional and diverse perspectives espoused by some of the young Chinese Australians in this study. The research findings can inform future policy and practice relevant to the exploration of health and (un)healthy bodies in health and physical education and health and physical education teacher education.

This paper explores how a group of undergraduate Human Movement Studies (HMS) students learnt to know about the body during their four-year academic programme at an Australian university. When students begin an undergraduate programme in HMS they bring with them particular constructions, ideas and beliefs about their own bodies and about the body in general. Those ideas and beliefs are often challenged, disrupted or reinforced according to discourses and practices to which students are exposed and which they experience throughout their programme of study. The courses that these students take in their in HMS degree programme present to them different perspectives about health and the body. Some perspectives take the status of taken-for-granted truths and others are dismissed or ignored. Taking a Foucauldian perspective, this paper explores the dominant discourses and practices to which this group of students was exposed during their four years of academic formation, and the influences that this exposure might have upon their construction of the body and their formation as pre-service Health and Physical Education (HPE) teachers. The participants in this study were 14 students, 11 females and 3 males, aged between 18 and 26 at the time of the first interview. The data used for this paper were taken from a larger study and were analysed using a content analysis approach. Results suggest that some students may be heavily influenced by certain practices and discourses during their programme of studies, and that they embody dominant discourses of health. Furthermore, a possible change of thinking may occur across their academic programme, as a consequence of their engagement with a few alternative discourses presented during their academic programme, disrupting some of their previous beliefs and knowledge.