This paper draws on critical discourse analysis to examine how health and physical education (HPE) curricula from Sweden, Norway, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand may influence possibilities for the enactment of social justice in schools. The findings highlight the presence of social justice intentions across the five curricula as related to embodied movement experiences, social cohesion, and activism. That said, the findings simultaneously suggest that the language used to orient teaching towards social justice objectives is often elusive. In this paper, we contend that despite the presence of social justice intentions in these five HPE curricula, the articulation and function of the language within the curriculum documents do not necessarily support the enactment of this in practice. To conclude, we therefore suggest that more work is needed to ensure that curricula and other supporting artefacts and resources can better support both teachers' practice and students' learning in raising awareness of, and addressing, social justice outcomes in HPE.

School physical education (PE) is influenced by different discourses that play a crucial role not only in the (re)production of PE practices but also in shaping teacher subjectivities. This paper aims to explore how a PE teacher responds to, lives, and negotiates his embodied professional subjectivity over time. To achieve this, we employ an autobiographical approach to delve into the first author’s life story of becoming and being a PE teacher over time, grappling with the unease generated by the knowledge that his body may have an “expiry date.” Through narrative analysis, we discuss and reflect on the complex experience of teaching a physical and corporeal subject such as PE, focusing on four themes: (1)reflecting his life as a PE teacher“the young, healthy and athletic body,” (2) “the uncertain body,” (3) “the precarious body,” and (4) “the shut-up and just-do-it body.”

This chapter brings together seven critical coaching scholars all of whom have studied various abuses of power perpetrated by sports coaches and the impact this can have on athletes’ health and well-being, not to mention their performance potential. The chapter opens with some introductory comments from the first author concerning the important role that coach developers can play in equipping coaches to be able to address this urgent matter. This is followed by commentaries from the remaining authors who each take a different approach to address the central issue at hand: how coaching can become a more ethical practice with the support of coach developers who are cognizant and concerned about curtailing the negative impact that coaches’ abuse of power can have on athletes’ experiences in sport. In the conclusion, the first author returns to offer some final comments concerning the possibilities for ensuring a more equitable distribution of power across the sport and coaching landscape.

Research on grading in physical education and health (PEH) continues to demonstrate both inequitable practices and outcomes some of which are associated with the students' family background. A central goal for schools around the world is to compensate for students' family backgrounds to promote greater educational equity. This study aimed to examine the effect of family background on grades in PEH in Sweden. The data in this study involved the total population of full siblings (N = 1,444,575) who were enrolled in Year 9 (ages 14-15) between 2000 and 2017. The results indicate an increasing impact of family background on PEH grades over time, particularly for foreign-born students, suggesting a decline in educational equity. These results highlight the need for targeted interventions and policy reforms to address growing inequities and ensure that all students, regardless of background, have equal opportunities to succeed in PEH.

School physical education and health (PEH) has an important role to play in the physical, cognitive, emotional and social development of young people (Opstoel et al., 2020) which, in turn, can enhance interpersonal relations and help build more socially cohesive and just societies (Benn et al., 2011; Smith et al., 2021). Unfortunately, research continues to highlight the inability of PEH to realise these important outcomes and the pervasiveness of practices that instead contribute to exclusion and inequality. The aim of this study was to add our understanding of school PEH practices by exploring pupils’ experiences of inclusion and social justice. Data was generated through a survey, observations, interviews and critical reflective texts. Participants in the study were pupils from three different upper-secondary schools (age 16-19) located in southern Sweden. The analysis of data involved a six-phase thematic analysis approach (Braun & Clarke, 2013) informed by theories of critical and dialogical pedagogy (Freire, 1970). The results are presented in relation to four central themes: (1) care and relationships, (2) pupil involvement, (3) use of modified and non-traditional activities and spaces; and (4) learning about and acting on social inequities. In order to promote more inclusive and socially just PEH practice, a Freirean (1970) analysis of the pupils’ experiences draws attention to the importance of: establishing horizontal teacher-pupil relationships built on trust and love: engaging pupils in an ongoing dialogue where the pupils practice choice and decision-making with their peers; inviting the pupils into critically reflecting on issues of positionality and power and; pupils learning to act on social inequities. To conclude, the paper calls for future studies where teachers and pupils collaborate to develop PEH practices underpinned by inclusion and social justice.

This research is contextualised by Freirean approaches to teacher education, which promote complex arrangements in the organisation of knowledge communities among teachers. Such communities are supportive of teachers’ learning by providing critique to advance socially-just teaching practices. Recently, Sanches Neto, Venâncio and Ovens (2021) found that collaboration across different settings allowed a better understanding of the teaching complexities. However, it is uncertain how knowledge communities structured based on Sanches, Costa and Ovens (2022) support and promote teachers’ democratic values and thinking towards social justice. We explore this uncertainty by drawing on an action research project within a Brazilian physical education teacher education (PETE) Master’s program (ProEF). Participants included teacher-researchers from different locations in the Northeast of Brazil, who were supervised by two teacher educators and co-authors of this article —Sanches Neto and Venâncio. In this article, the authors used vignettes of one ProEF Master’s student —Silva— to discuss her own teaching and context. Through a complexity thinking lens, our objective was to analyse collaboratively her teaching intentions and dilemmas towards social justice. We found that critical incidents regarding race, gender and class evidenced intersectionalities and how the teacher embodied democratic values while coping with inequalities. The teacher was aware of the inequalities faced by her students. Despite this, her teaching lacked the criticality and full institutional support to address all emerging issues for a more equitable physical education and long term change. The teacher’s advocacy connects to the broad research project aiming to readdress democracy through engaged teaching a pedagogy of discomfort as an alternative to neoliberal educational guidelines. 

 Background: Despite its ubiquity in education discourses, social justice is a highly contested concept that can be framed in different ways [Dowling, F., H. Fitzgerald, and A. Flintoff. 2012. Equity and Difference in Physical Education, Youth Sport and Health: A Narrative Approach. Routledge]. The ‘social’ element of social justice is always framed by broader cultural and socio-political contexts. Therefore teaching for social justice cannot be conceptualised as a single pedagogy that can be enacted without regard for the learning content and the learning context. Purpose: The rationale for this research is to bridge the gap between advocacy for pedagogies for social justice and practices done in the name. The specific aim of this paper was to explore how specialist primary school physical education teachers in Spain enact democratic practices that promote social justice by engaging students in decision making in ways that ensure their voices are heard and considered. Method: The research was informed by Critical Incident Technique (CIT) methodology. Data were generated through six classroom observations and stimulated recall interviews with three Spanish primary PE teachers. Data analysis was informed by Paulo Freire’s [1970. Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Seabury Press] democratic pedagogy and associated concepts of dialogue, problem posing and critical consciousness. Findings: The findings demonstrate how the teachers’ PE teachers’ practices have strong roots in democratic principles that are consistent with the scholarship of Freire. The two themes; (1) ‘Student-led dialogical encounters’ and (2) ‘Pedagogy of questioning and exploration’ provide insight into how the Spanish primary school PE specialists in this study teach for and about social justice in contextually relevant ways. Discussion: These findings remind us that PE provides a fertile educational context for implementing democratic pedagogies due to its interactive activity-based context and curricular focus on holistic development. The findings provide insight into both how democratic pedagogies in PE are possible even with very young students. Conclusion: We argue that democratic pedagogies are essential to social justice outcomes in school PE. They can enhance student participation, foster relationships, and empower individuals to become active agents of change. Democratic pedagogies in primary schools provide a sound foundation for scaffolding a critical consciousness in secondary school PE contexts.

This chapter examines the nature of a socially critical physical education and the opportunities it provides for teachers and students to question and challenge assumptions about physical culture and take action to effect positive change. Physical education is a mandatory school subject for many young people around the world. It is a space that is experienced in a variety of ways, often depending on the pedagogies used and content selected by the teacher. As a growing literature base shows, it is a space that often reinforces a raft of racist, sexist, and ableist beliefs as well as normalising discriminatory practices and behaviours. The challenge becomes one of questioning how physical education can become a space that is empowering and enables young people to not only participate positively in human movement culture, but also ask critical questions about physical activity within their communities and challenge dominant discourses around body image, health, gender, and competition. We conclude the chapter by offering further suggestions about what future PE practice and curriculum could/should look like to strengthen the social justice agenda.

Ball games are common content in school physical education and health (PEH), particularly in Sweden. However, criticism has been directed at ball games for focusing too much on performance and competition. In this paper, we explore the learning that occurs in ball games beyond subject-specific knowledge and skills. Data was generated through observations and interviews with four different PEH classes at an upper-secondary school in southern Sweden. Data analysis was based on Uljens' (2023. Non-affirmative Theory of Education and Bildung (1st ed.). Springer International Publishing.) non-affirmative theory. The findings show that the students learn both subject-specific (e.g. sport techniques, skills, rules and game sense) and generic knowledge and skills (e.g. cooperation, care and providing equal opportunities for everyone) in and through ball games. The findings further draw attention to how more students participate in and learn from ball games when performance and competition is not in focus and when forms of ball games that are less known to the students are used. To conclude, the paper argues that the learning objectives in ball games need to be re-articulated to focus more on the important generic knowledge and skills that students can learn from this PEH content.

Although many studies have explored teachers’ and students’ perceptions of physical education (PE), the voices and beliefs of school principals about PE remain scarce in existing literature (Ní Chróinín et al., 2020). In Norway, a new national curriculum for PE was introduced in 2020 (Norwegian Directorate for Education and Training, 2019) making it timely to examine how key stakeholders, such as principals, understand and attempt to enact these new curricular objectives. In this paper, we draw on interviews conducted with five participant principals from schools located in Eastern Norway that explored their perceptions of PE. Based on our reflexive thematic analysis [Braun & Clarke, 2022) of the interview data, we present the findings in relation to three main themes: (i) ‘PE is a very important subject’, (ii) ‘PE creates other pedagogical opportunities and has extrinsic values’ and (iii) ‘PE as friluftsliv [“outdoor activities”], swimming and social aspects – but not sports … ’. However, by also utilizing Foucauldian understandings of discourse (Foucault, 1972), we draw attention to how the principals’ perceptions of PE are largely constituted within dominant discourses of activation, fitness and (physical) health. To conclude, we call for further studies on what principals’ value and talk about in relation to PE but also what they do not talk about such as PE as a subject for learning and where other dimensions of health are promoted.