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.

Gard (2008), Booth (2009) and Pringle (2010) argue that if critical PE scholars want to change the social influence associated with dominated discourses of gender, which have previously been subject to sustained critique, there is a need to examine the discourses of PE pleasure. By drawing on visual ethnographic data from an all-boys’ secondary school this paper employs Foucault’s (1985) discourse/power/pleasure combination to make meanings and understand the boys as gendered subjects. The findings from this study demonstrate how some boys derived pleasures from merely participating in PE whereas others seemed to relate their pleasures to instrumental/developmental goals based on discourses of fitness, health and sport. It is argued that PE teachers need to be aware that they not only enable students’ experiences of pleasures, but that they can also be influential in (re)producing gendered understandings about the pleasures (and displeasures) of learning in, through and about movement in PE.

Both becoming and unbecoming an elite athlete is a complex endeavour filled with mixed feelings and emotions some of which are related to certain moral and ethical dilemmas. Drawing on the Ancient Greeks’ emphasis on the aesthetics of existence, Foucault (1985), invited us to focus on the production or shaping of an ethical self through a restrained and stylised engagement with problematized activities. In this chapter I present a narrative that delves into my creation of a post elite athlete self as a work of art (Foucault, 2000) in relation to (elite) sporting practices. The narrative covers the period from my last years of playing tennis at an elite level, first years of playing the game socially and being a coach to reinterpreting my athlete self as a critical scholar, and negotiating my critic and complicit elite athlete self when engaged in my own kids’ sport and everyday leisure time activities. The narrative reveals how I am engaged in a protracted process of ethical self-creation involving extended periods of ambiguity and uncertainty. Through my narrative I further highlight how problematizing normalised practices that are tied to pleasure, success, reward and power are difficult even when these practices are known to create various problems. In negotiating disciplinary technologies and discourses of performance, competition and winning I argue that I will to some extent always have a desire to adhere to these notions. In my post elite sporting life, they are still and will probably always be tied to the pleasures and displeasure I derive from participation in sport and other leisure time activities. The chapter concludes with a discussion of how Foucauldian analyses of athlete narratives can help provide a moderate critique of elite sport practices and some final thoughts on my ongoing negotiation of the critic and complicit elite sporting self.

Research and policy statements argue that school Health and Physical Education (HPE) can make a unique contribution to the physical, cognitive, emotional and social development of young people (Opstoel et al., 2020; UNESCO, 2015). It can also provide opportunities for young people to develop the knowledge and skills needed to navigate and respond to the inequities and precarity (Kirk, 2020) that can negatively impact health, and that have been amplified in a COVID-19 era. Despite the aforementioned potential of HPE, it does not always provide equitable opportunities for all students, and often excludes on the basis of gender, sexuality, ethnicity, religion and social class (e.g., Gerdin & Larsson, 2018; Landi, 2019; Mooney & Gerdin, 2019; Walseth, 2015). Due to a range of socio-historical, political and contextual factors, many HPE teachers have not had the opportunity to develop the necessary pedagogical knowledge and skills to teach in inclusive and socially just ways (Gerdin et al., 2018; 2019). Exacerbating this challenge is the limited scholarship focusing on empirically-based, social justice pedagogies in HPE, particularly as informed by teacher and student perspectives. This proposed symposium will report on the ongoing work of the EDUHEALTH 2.0 project. This project builds on the findings and outcomes of the previous EDUHEALTH project that called on HPE teacher observations and post observation critical incident interviews (Philpot et al, 2020), and identified how broader curricular and school policy interact to facilitate the enactment of social justice pedagogies in HPE. These pedagogies include building goodrelationships, teaching for social cohesion and explicitly teaching about and acting on social inequities (Gerdin et al., 2020). The aim of EDUHEALTH 2.0, which brings together researchers from Sweden, Norway, Spain, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand, is to identify, compare, co-design and support the enactment of social justice pedagogies in HPE that promote equitable learning experiences and outcomes. Data will be collected in these countries by; (i) drawing on critical incident technique methodology to observe and identify teaching practices that promote social justice and explore the teachers’ and students’ experiences of these practices; and (ii) doing participatory action-research together with teachers and students in developing social justice pedagogies for HPE practice. The strength of this research project lies in being able to examine and curate examples of HPE practices across different countries and collectively learn more about social justice pedagogies in practice. Our conception of social justice pedagogies is built on Wright’s (2004) call for teaching practices that assist ‘students to examine and challenge the status quo, the dominant constructions of reality and the power relations that produce inequities, in ways that can lead to advocacy and community action’ (p. 7). That is, social justice pedagogies are about identifying inequalities and empowering individuals and groups to take social action to achieve change (Freire, 1970). Ultimately, the goal of this research project is to inform educational policy, curriculum makers, HPE teacher education and the further development of social justice pedagogies that support HPE teachers in practice. The session will begin with a brief introduction to the symposium and overview of the project rationale and methodology. This overview will be followed by four separate presentations from four of the participating countries in the EDUHEALTH 2.0 project. Each country will present initial findings from the work has been done to date within their context. At the conclusion of the fourth presentation we will present the future direction and intended goals of the project. Finally, a discussant will reflect on the work presented and the nature of the project before opening the floor to the audience for the final 15 minutes of the symposium.

Using visual ethnography, this book explores the many forms of pleasures that boys derive in and through the spaces and their bodies in physical education. Employing the works of Michel Foucault and Judith Butler, Gerdin examines how pleasure is connected to identity, schooling, and power relations, and demonstrates how discourses of sport, fitness, health and masculinity work together to produce a variety of pleasurable experiences. At the same time, the book provides a critique of such pleasurable experiences within physical education by illustrating how these pleasures can still, for some boys, quickly turn into displeasures and can be associated with exclusion, humiliation, bullying and homophobia.

Boys, Bodies, and Physical Education argues that pleasure can both be seen as an educational and productive practice in physical education but also a constraint that both engenders and privileges some boys over others as well as (re)producing narrow and limited conceptions of masculinity and pleasures for all boys. This book works to problematize these pleasures and their articulations with gender, bodies, and spaces.

This chapter discusses the methodological underpinnings of a doctoral study that examined boys’ performances of gender in physical education (PE) at a single-sex secondary school in Auckland, New Zealand. Initial findings are also presented; however, they only serve to demonstrate the potential of such an approach and not as an exhaustive report of findings. Using a participatory visual research approach involving video recordings of boys participating in PE, the boys’ representations and interpretations of the visual data were explored during both focus groups and individual interviews. The boys’ visual representations and interpretations highlight how their performances of gender are embedded in the design and structure of the physical spaces and places associated with PE. Through a Foucauldian (poststructural) lens the boys’ responses also illuminate how the gendered self is performed in multiple, contradictory and fluid ways involving particular technologies of the self. Visual research methods that focus on young people’s visual representations and interpretations might help identify (gendered) identity issues that are seen as important to the students themselves. It creates a space for young people to critically think about, reflect, articulate, and reason their lived experiences, their relationships with their peers and more importantly themselves. The use of such research approaches has the potential of realizing one of the key aims of symbolic interactionism by opening up new analytical possibilities for understanding young people’s lived experiences in both formal and informal pedagogical contexts.

In this thesis I argue that in order to change the social influence of dominant discourses of gender in PE, which have previously been subject to sustained critique, there is a need to examine the discourses that constitute pleasure within PE. Such an examination is justified due to the broad social significance of pleasure but specific absence of empirical investigations within PE. My prime research questions, accordingly, asked: (i) How do boys’ performances of gender in PE articulate with dis/pleasures? (ii) How are spaces and bodies implicated in these performances? These questions were answered via ethnographic data, generated through a participatory visual research approach (Pink, 2007), involving observations, video recordings, focus groups and individuals interviews, with 60 Year 10 (ages 14-15) boys participating in PE at a single-sex boys’ secondary school in Auckland, New Zealand. In order to interpret the visual and verbal data I utilised the works of Michel Foucault and Judith Butler to explore how pleasures work as the productive effect of power (Foucault, 1985). The findings suggest that pleasures are produced in PE when boys perform gender in a way that typically conforms to discourses related to fitness, health, sport and masculinity. Beginning with a spatial analysis, I highlight how the boys derive pleasures from the power articulated in and through the performative spaces (Gregson & Rose, 2000) of PE. This exploration is extended further to a study of the discourses of PE that have co-produced these pleasures. Finally, the thesis demonstrates the materialisation (Butler, 1993) of pleasurable bodies within the discursive practices of boy’s PE. This thesis illustrates how boys’ performances of gender in PE can, correspondingly, be understood as a co-construction of pleasures, spaces and bodies, where each depends on the other so, that they are constituted reciprocally. I argue that this reciprocal constitution can be problematic as the gendered pleasures can ‘lock’ PE into ‘traditional’ forms that legitimate and produce inequitable sets of gendered power relations. That is, the discourses and relations of power in boys’ PE that produce certain pleasures can, at times, also induce dis/pleasures (e.g. as associated with exclusion, humiliation, bullying and homophobia). In sum, this thesis draws attention to pleasures as an educational, productive practice in boys’ PE while at the same time offering a critique of such pleasurable moments within this context. PE teachers need to be aware that they are not only enabling students’ experiences of pleasures, but they are also influential in (re)producing gendered understandings about the dis/pleasures of learning in, through and about movement in PE.

As a compulsory school subject, Health and Physical Education (HPE) has a mandate, responsibility, and potential to contribute to lifelong physical activity, health and well-being. The World Summit on HPE (1999) proposed that HPE is potentially the most effective educative forum for providing the skills, attitudes, knowledge, and understanding for lifelong health and well-being (Doll-Tepper & Scoretz, 2001). However, we need to go beyond assuming that educating individuals to take responsibility for their own health is sufficient. Complex and layered forces have an impact on the health and well-being of individuals and we must address these forces at societal level. In a world of increasing diversity, with many established democracies consumed by capitalist individualism and protectionist ideals, a focus on equity and social justice is relevant (Azzarito et al., 2017). Increasing levels of ethnic, religious, cultural and sexual diversity, require us in the teaching profession to develop responses to inequality and injustice. For instance, with the recent increase in immigrants and refugees the EU is currently facing one of its biggest challenges. Conflicts in countries such as Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan have meant that in 2015 160,000 people applied for asylum in Sweden, of which 70,000 were children (in Norway, 32,000 people including 5,000 children). A key concern for Sweden, Norway and the EU is how best to promote and ensure positive health outcomes for its increasingly multi-cultural population. The pandemic of Covid-19 is also a shared global concern, and highlights the urgency for a solid knowledge base among citizens, a well-equipped health care system, reduced socio-economic differences and thereby increased social justice, better to meet similar future threats.EDUHEALTH 2.0 is a collaborative research project that will examine the role school HPE can play in contributing to better and more equitable health outcomes for the people of the EU and beyond. To facilitate this process, the project will build on the solid foundation of the recently completed project on social justice teaching practices in HPE across Sweden, Norway and New Zealand, EDUHEALTH (Gerdin et al., 2019, 2020; Linnér et al., 2020; Mordal Moen et al., 2019; Philpot et al., 2020, 2021; Schenker et al., 2019; Smith et al., 2020) which will inform the theoretical and methodological base underpinning this new iteration of the project. However, this new project will expand on the previous project by including two new contexts (South Africa and Australia) and added data collection methods: analysis of HPE curriculum documents; students’ experiences of inclusion and social justice; and doing action research with teachers on further developing teaching practices for social justice. In this paper will outline and discuss these new contexts and data collection methods as well as present some initial findings.

For long, there has been extensive advocacy for social justice pedagogies in HPE but few articulations and concrete examples of the enactment of such pedagogies in HPE teaching practice. The EDUHEALTH 2.0 project will therefore employ an innovative ‘bottom-up’ approach to understand how HPE teachers teach for equity and social justice in their classrooms and how the students experience and perceive such teaching practices. Data collected from HPE teaching practices and teachers’ and students’ experiences/perceptions of these will draw on the principles of Critical Incident Technique (CIT) methodology (Tripp, 2012).However, an important part of understanding these practices involves an analysis of broader political and societal factors that shape those practices, and in particular how the HPE curriculum, as being the product of those political and societal agendas, dictates what HPE teaching practice should involve. Thus, this proposed project will also conduct an analysis of HPE curricula in each country. Analysis of the HPE curriculum documents will consist of two parts. The first part is to analyse and understand the framing and potential HPE practice; characteristics of the HPE concepts are defined, the semantic relations between the concepts are sorted out, and systems of concepts are created (Zimmermann & Sternefeld 2013).  The second part is to analyse the curricula documents by using linguistic tools from systemic-functional grammar (Butt et al 2012). Findings from the linguistic and grammar analysis will be framed by the broader political and societal factors in each country.Our ‘three-pronged’ approach in this project will additionally involve doing action-research with HPE teachers to better our understanding of how social justice pedagogies can be further developed and implemented in practice across different contexts. The action-research with the HPE teachers will involve us as researchers actively working with the participant teachers in further developing and refining social justice pedagogies in HPE practice. To do so, we will draw on ‘Participatory Action-Research’ (PAR) (Alfrey & O’Connor, 2020).The knowledge generated through this action-research will, together with the data collected from the teachers and students as well as the HPE curriculum analyses, provide a form of triangulation of the data and hence not only represents different sets of data but also strengthens the validity, credibility, trustworthiness and generalisability of the findings (Bryman, 2016). Data from HPE curriculum analyses, CIT observations and interviews and action-research will be analysed through thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2013).

The findings and outcomes of this research project will inform educational policy, curriculum makers and the creation of intervention strategies intended to assist HPE teachers in the EU and beyond to further refine and develop their practices to become more inclusive and engaging, thus helping to contribute to healthier citizens and societies.

This paper will report on findings from a study that examined boys’ performances of gender in school Physical Education (PE). Using a participatory visual research approach, involving video recordings of boys participating in PE, the boys’ representations and interpretations of the visual data were explored during both focus groups and individual interviews. In order to interpret the data I draw on Foucault’s work on power and his disciplinary technologies in which he highlights the body as a site of disciplinary, normalising practices. The boys’ visual representations and interpretations illuminate how this disciplinary mechanism is responsible for simultaneously constructing meanings around the normal versus the abnormal masculine body with significant impact on boys’ gendered and bodily experiences in PE. The findings in particular highlight how the disciplinary techniques used in this PE setting are aimed at producing docile and functional boys’ bodies which above all are fit, healthy and sporty masculine bodies. In this sense, PE can be seen as a disciplinary machinery which influences how boys inhabit and experience their bodies in different ways which may have long term consequences for how boys perceive their bodies and see themselves as physically educated beings.

School physical education and health (PEH) has an important role to play in the physical, cognitive, emotional and social development of young people which, in turn, can enhance interpersonal relations and help build more socially cohesive and just societies. 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 to our understanding of school PEH practices by exploring students’ experiences of inclusion and social justice. Data was generated through a survey, observations, interviews and critical reflective texts. Participants in the study were students from three different upper-secondary schools (age 16-19) located in southern Sweden. The analysis of data involved a six-phase thematic analysis approach informed by Paulo Freire’s theories of critical and dialogical pedagogy. The results are presented in relation to four central themes: (1) care and relationships, (2) student 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 analysis of the students’ experiences draws attention to the importance of: establishing horizontal teacher-student relationships built on trust and love: engaging students in an ongoing dialogue where the students practice choice and decision-making with their peers; inviting the students into critically reflecting on issues of positionality and power and; students learning to act on social inequities. To conclude, the paper calls for future studies where teachers and students collaborate to develop PEH practices underpinned by inclusion and social justice.

This chapter explores boys’ embodied performances of gender in school Physical Education (PE). Using a participatory visual research approach, involving video recordings of boys participating in PE, the boys’ representations and interpretations of the visual data are explored during both focus groups and individual interviews. In order to interpret the data I draw on Foucault’s work on power and disciplinary technologies in which he highlights the body as a site of disciplinary, normalising practices. The boys’ visual representations and interpretations illuminate how this disciplinary mechanism is responsible for (re)producing meanings around the normal versus the abnormal masculine body with significant impact on boys’ gendered and bodily experiences in PE. The findings in particular highlight how the disciplinary techniques used in this PE setting are aimed at producing suitably docile and gendered bodies which above all are fit, healthy and sporty masculine bodies. In this sense, PE can be seen as a disciplinary machinery which influences how boys inhabit and experience their bodies in different ways which may have long term consequences for how boys perceive their bodies and see themselves as embodied physically educated beings.

Despite clear messages from current physical education (PE) curricula about the importance of adopting socially critical perspectives, dominant discourses of gender relating to physical activity, bodies and health are being reproduced within this school subject. By drawing on interview data from a larger ethnographic account of boys’ PE, this paper aims to contribute to our understanding of boys’ experiences of gendered discourses in PE, particularly by acknowledging boys not only as docile or disciplined bodies but also as active subjects in negotiating power relations. In the analysis of the data, particular emphasis is placed on whether the boys recognise the influence of gendered discourses and power relations in PE, how they act upon this knowledge and how they understand themselves as gendered subjects through these particular discourses/power relations. Using Foucault’s (1985. The use of pleasure: The history of sexuality, vol. 2. London: Penguin Books) framework related to the ‘modes of subjectivation’, this paper explores boys’ problematisation of dominant discourses of gender and power relations in PE. In summary, these boys perform gendered selves within the context of PE, via negotiation of gendered discourses and power relations that contribute to an alternative discourse of PE which creates spaces and opportunities for the production of more ethical and diverse masculinities.

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.

Since the 1980s, research advocacy for inclusion and social justice in school PEH and physical education teacher education (PETE) has continued to thrive in many countries including the United States (Bain, 1990), Canada (Robinson & Randall, 2016), Australia (Tinning, 2012), New Zealand (Ovens & Tinning, 2009) and also in Sweden (Larsson, et al, 2018). Unfortunately, the increased advocacy for inclusion and social justice in PEH related to issues such as gender, ethnicity and (dis)ability has not been matched with examples of how PEH teachers could actually teach for inclusion and social justice, that is, what teachers could do in their classrooms, and for whom social justice is sought (Gerdin et al., 2018). Amongst the extant literature base of advocacy for social justice pedagogies in PEH, there is far less literature that specifically addresses the ways in which teachers enact social justice pedagogies in their own practice (Tinning, 2016). In one of the few PEH classroom accounts, Oliver and Kirk (2015) identified four critical elements that they believe need to be present in order to assist girls to identify, name and negotiate barriers to their engagements with PEH and participation in physically active lifestyles. They suggest that the development of a pedagogical model for working with girls in PEH built on the four critical elements of activist research as a way of breaking the reproduction cycle and improve the current situation for girls in PEH. One other example is Fitzpatrick’s (2013) study of life at a high school in South Auckland, New Zealand. Using critical ethnography as an analytic, she shadowed one of the participating PE teachers, Dan, who was ‘passionate about critical pedagogy’ (p. 80). Dan’s “classes provided a rare example of critical pedagogy in practice” (p. 99). Fitzpatrick (2013) described the key tenets of Dan’s critical approach and success as; “building the environment, deconstructing power, playfulness, studying critical topics, and embodying criticality” (pp. 193-206). Finally, the findings and outcomes of an international research project on social justice in PEH across New Zealand, Sweden and Norway named EDUHEALTH that called on PEH teacher observations and post observation critical incident interviews, identified how broader curricular and school policy interact to facilitate the enactment of social justice pedagogies in PEH. These pedagogies include building good relationships, teaching for social cohesion and explicitly teaching about and acting on social inequities (Gerdin et al., 2021). Notwithstanding the importance of these research findings, there still exists a paucity of studies that focuses on the pupils’ perspectives of these issues. This study therefore aims to explore the pupils’ experiences of inclusion and social justice in Swedish PEH by addressing the following research questions: (i) How do PEH practices address inclusion and social justice? (ii) How may PEH practices contribute to greater inclusion and social justice for all pupils? Knowledge generated through this study can help assist PEH teachers in Sweden and beyond to refine and develop their practices to become more inclusive and engaging for all pupils, thus helping contribute to social justice outcomes and more pupils maintaining sport and physical activity as an important part of well-being and health for the rest of their lives. This paper will present some findings from the pilot study carried out in 2021 and initial findings from the main data collection conducted so far in 2022.

The data collection is based on critical incident technique (CIT) methodology (Tripp, 2012). ‘Critical incidents’ in the context of this study will focus on PEH practices that foregrounded issues of inclusion and social justice.  Observations: The CIT classroom observations will focus on identifying critical incidents that appear to be addressing issues of social justice based on an observational template generated from previous research on teaching for social justice. Although this observational template help guide the observation, the template focuses on rich descriptions of practice rather than having observations being overly dictated by observational categories (Tripp, 2012). Interviews: The interviews are semi-structured (Bryman, 2016) and also guided by principles of CIT methodology (Tripp, 2012) as well as stimulated-recall interviews (Lyle, 2003). To interrogate the pupils’ experiences of the critical incidents identified during the observations individual interviews are also conducted using an interview guide which involves a combination of open-ended questions designed to enable the pupils to suggest incidents for inclusion and social justice and specific questions designed to afford the pupils an opportunity to explicate their experiences of inclusive and socially just PEH practice. Reflective texts: The reflective texts consist of an open, written questionnaire that has been designed to encourage pupils to reflect on their experiences of inclusion (exclusion) and (in) equality during PEH lessons. The reflective texts are used to explore critical incidents that pupils perceived as significant in their PEH lessons and to examine their perceptions of inclusion and socially just teaching methods. The participants include pupils from three different upper-secondary schools (age 16-19) located in the south of Sweden with diversity when it comes geographical location, school demographics and socio-economic status. In total, data in the form of observations and reflective texts is currently being collected from three different PEH classes at each school (total of nine PEH classes). Furthermore, it is estimated that 5-6 pupils from each class will participate in the individual interviews (total of 30-36 pupils) later in the year. In order to analyse the data generated from the observations, interviews and reflective texts, a six-phase thematic analysis approach (Braun and Clarke, 2013) consisting of familiarisation with the data, initial and advanced coding, identifying and naming themes and reporting findings will be used to seek out central themes that are important to the research questions. The analysis will draw on theories of pedagogies for social justice (Freire, 1970) and transformative pedagogy (Tinning, 2016).

The initial findings will report on the participating pupils’ experiences of pedagogies for social justice in HPE as generated through questionnaires, observations, interviews and reflective texts. Tentative themes suggest that the pupils perceive pedagogies for social justice as related to: the use of non-traditional spaces and content; a focus on building relationships, and lessons that are framed by clear aims and purposes. In addition, some pupils talk about the positive aspects of online / Zoom teaching caused by effects of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic where either themselves and/or other pupils are more engaged and participating in the lessons than before. They believe that this is because they can participate in PEH in / from their “own places” and that teachers seem to be clearer about the purpose and learning objectives of these online / Zoom lessons compared to regular lessons in the gym or on the sports field.

This paper examines how space and pleasure are discursively interlinked in boys’ performances of gender in physical education (PE). Although previous research has implicated space in the production of gendered identities and unequal power relations, there exists a gap in current literature focusing on how space contributes to pleasure in PE. The paper draws on ethnographic data, generated through a participatory visual research approach (Pink, 2007), involving observations, video recordings, focus groups and individuals interviews, with 60 Year 10 (ages 14-15) boys participating in PE at a single-sex boys’ secondary school in Auckland, New Zealand. In order to interpret the data I use Gregson and Rose’s (2000) concept of ‘performative space’, an extension of Butler’s notion of performativity, to illustrate how the pre-existing spaces of PE come to matter or become meaningful through the boys’ performances with/in those spaces. Drawing on Foucauldian (1985) understandings of power, I argue that the boys derive pleasures as the productive effect of the power articulated in and through the spaces of PE. I demonstrate how the boys, through their performances of gender, as shaped by discourses and relations of power related to sport and masculinity, capitalise on the spaces of PE to highlight not only these as disciplinary but also productive and pleasurable spaces. This paper accordingly contributes to understandings of the complex nature of how PE is constituted and constitutive of gendered performances and space.

In taking heed of the so-called ‘spatial turn’ in social theory this paper explores how the spatialintersects with boys’ performances of gender and (dis)pleasures in school physical education (PE).In particular, the paper aims to contribute to our understanding of how the organisation andimplementation of physical and social spaces in PE can be seen as enabling or restricting boys’participation and enjoyment in this subject. The research setting was a multicultural single-sexboys’ secondary school in Auckland, New Zealand which is widely known for its strong focuson sports and especially rugby. The data was generated through a participatory visual researchapproach involving video recordings, focus groups and individual interviews. In order to interpretthe data I draw on Foucault’s theorising of the disciplinary use of space, what he calls ‘the art ofdistributions’, to examine the co-construction of gender, space and (dis)pleasures within boys’ PE. Idemonstrate how through their performances of gender, as shaped by discourses and relations ofpower associated with sport and masculinity, the boys capitalise on the spaces of PE to highlightthem as productive and pleasurable spaces.

This article examines how space and pleasure are discursively interlinked in boys’performances of gender in school physical education (PE). Although previousresearch has implicated spaces in the production of gendered identities and unequalpower relations, there exists a gap in the current literature focusing on how spacealso contributes to pleasure in PE. This article draws on an ethnographic accountof boys’ PE, and Gregson and Rose’s (2000) concept of ‘performative space’, anextension of Butler’s (1990) notion of performativity, to illustrate how the preexistingspaces of PE come to matter or become meaningful through the boys’performances with/in those spaces. I argue that the boys derive pleasures as theproductive effect of the power (Foucault, 1985) articulated in and through thespaces of PE. This article accordingly contributes to understandings of the complexnature of how PE is constituted and constitutive of gendered performances, spacesand pleasures.

Although, Foucault’s concept of power has been aptly utilized in post-structural qualitative PE research in recent years (e.g. Gore, 1998; Kirk, 1997; Webb & Macdonald, 2007; Webb, McCaughtry, & MacDonald, 2004; Wright, 1997, 2000), power as producing pleasure is noticeably absent in this body of research. Indeed, Gard (2008), Booth (2009) and Pringle (2010) argue that if critical PE scholars want to change the social influence associated with dominated discourses of masculinity, there is a need to examine the discourses of PE pleasure. This paper explores how boys’ performances of gender in PE articulate with pleasure. By drawing on ethnographic data from an all-boys’ high school I use Foucault’s (1985) discourse/power/pleasure combination to make meanings and understand the boys as masculine subjects. The findings from this study demonstrate how some boys find intrinsic pleasures (e.g. ‘being part of a team’ and spending ‘time with your mates’) and/or ‘emotional’ pleasures (e.g. ‘PE is fun’ and ‘I love PE) from being involved in these activities whereas others seem to be relating their pleasures to instrumental/developmental goals based on discourses of fitness, health and sport (e.g. ‘getting fit’, ‘being healthy’ and ‘better at sport’). Other pleasures seem to stem from constructing themselves in accordance to discursively constructed norms of boys, masculinity and sport. In sum, this paper draws attention to pleasure as an educational, productive practice in boys PE while at the same time offering a critique of such pleasurable moments within this context. That is, PE teachers need to be aware that they are not only enabling boys’ (and girls’) gendered experiences of pleasure through, for instance, play, games and sport, but they are also influential in shaping their understandings about the gendered pleasures (and displeasures) of these.

This paper will report on initial findings from a doctoral study that uses video recordings to investigate boys' embodied performances of masculinities in school physical education. Many studies have investigated girls' alienation and lack of participation in physical education (e.g. Hastie, 1998; Ennis, 1999; Azzarito, Solmon & Harrison, 2006). However, few studies have focused on boys' experiences of physical education. Moreover, as pointed out by Lundvall (2004), studies investigating gendered experiences of physical education, are typically comparative and rarely look at differences within genders. Additionally, Azzarito (2010) has called for the inclusion of research methods, specifically visual methodologies, which "enable young people to "speak" meaningfully about their experiences and ways of knowing about the body in physical activity contexts" (p. 155). My doctoral research, designed in relation to this literature, uses video recordings of boys participating in physical education, in both focus group and individual interviews, to explore the participants' interpretations of the multiple, contradictory and competing nature of masculinity performances. The video data is, thus, used to present the boys' perspectives and allows them to provide an interpretation of how they experienced particular situations. I interpret the data via Foucauldian poststructuralism to highlight the multiple and competing discourses of masculinities that boys have to negotiate in and through school physical education.

Finding and describing the optimal path to elite athletic performance has, for a long time, been a challenge for researchers. This study examined Swedish tennis coaches’ everyday practices for creating athlete development environments and the environmental factors that promote or hinder athlete development. The study was conducted in 2018–2019 and included in-depth focus groups with 13 Swedish full-time tennis coaches. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis and by drawing on models for studying athlete development environments. The results highlight how the coaches’ everyday work involves a range of administrative tasks, which ultimately means that there is little to no time left for focusing on athlete development. These results also draw attention to concerns about these professional coaches’ health, with increasing demands in their roles to manage administrative tasks in addition to the coaching and time spent on the court with their athletes. The results further reveal how the tennis clubs’ boards are increasingly interested in sound economy and high participation levels rather than focusing on performance outcomes and developing elite athletes. Finally, the results from this study emphasize the importance of increased collaboration and communication between clubs, coaches, regions, and the national association to create common and clearer guidelines for long-term athlete development. Future studies could engage in longitudinal and ethnographic work with tennis clubs of varying size and geographical locations, involving different stakeholders (e.g., coaches, management, parents, players) in order to further explore the environmental factors that promote or hinder athlete development.

The relative age effect (RAE) has been extensively debated and researched in both popularmedia and academic discourse. This study examined RAE in Swedish tennis players born in1998–2001. The study was conducted in 2015–2016 and includes all ranked Swedish tennis players(n = 1835) registered in the Swedish Tennis Association database from the year 2014. The resultsshow that when the birth dates of the corresponding Swedish population and all the ranked playersare compared, they show a moderate RAE; however, the higher up they are in the ranking system,the greater the RAE becomes. Top 10 players display an average of 64.1% being born in the firsthalf of the year. Some gender differences were also found, with a greater proportion of bothhigher and lower ranked females being born in the first half of the year. In our discussion ofthe findings we raise several issues that need to be addressed to provide more equal opportunitiesfor all junior players regardless of birth date. Resolving ongoing problems associated with RAEin competitive sports such as tennis is important both in term of prolonged participation in thesport and increased performance. Suggestions made in this article include recognising RAE whendesigning the format of competitions/tournaments, not using official rankings until the juniorsget older, addressing RAE in a “gender sensitive” way, and conducting further in-depth studiesin which RAE is understood/examined as being associated with environmental factors. Althoughthese findings show the RAE effect in Swedish tennis players, thus pointing at the need for furtherconsideration in terms of ranking and selection procedures to ensure equal opportunities for playerdevelopment, the study also concludes by reasserting an emphasis on a holistic approach to playerdevelopment in which coaches focus on the developmentally appropriate needs and potential of eachindividual player regardless of their biological age.

Pleasure is often a key feature of school physical education (PE) and, indeed, a lot of students find pleasure in and through PE while others do not. However, pleasure is rarely considered to be of educational value in the subject. Further, since pleasure is linked to power it is in fact not entirely straightforward to legitimise the educational value of PE in relation to pleasure. In this paper, we will explore how a group of boys derive pleasures from their involvement in PE, but also how these power-induced pleasures are integral to gender normalisation processes.

The paper draws on ethnographic data from a single-sex, boys’ secondary school in New Zealand involving 60 Year 10 (age 14-15) students. Using a visual ethnographic approach (Pink, 2007) consisting of observations and video recordings of boys participating in PE, the boys’ representations and interpretations of the visual data were explored during both focus groups and individual interviews. The data was analysed using (a visually oriented) discourse analysis (Foucault, 1980; Rose, 2007).

By elucidating the discursive practices of PE in this setting and employing Butler’s (1993) concept of ‘materialisation’, we argue that boy’s bodies materialise as productive and pleasurable or displeasurable bodies through submitting/subjecting to certain bodily regimes, developing embodied mastery when it comes to certain sports, and displaying bodies in particular ways. The analysis indicates that the discursive practices of PE contribute to boys’ bodies materialising as pleasurable or dis-pleasurable and the (re)production of gender in the subject as shaped by discourse and the productive effect of power.

We conclude that the focus on certain discursively constructed bodily practices at the same time continues to restrict the production of a diversity of bodily movement pleasures. Hence, traditional gender patterns are reproduced through a selection of particular sports/physical activities that all the students are expected to participate in. We propose that the ongoing constitution of privileged forms of masculinity, masculine bodies and masculine pleasures as related to fitness, health and sport and (certain) boys’ subsequent exercise of power in PE needs further critical examination.

Background: Pleasure is often a key feature of school physical education (PE) and, indeed, a lot of students find pleasure in and through PE while others do not. However, pleasure is rarely considered to be of educational value in the subject (Pringle, 2010). Further, since pleasure is linked to power (Foucault, 1980; Gerdin & Pringle, 2015) it is in fact not entirely straightforward to legitimise the educational value of PE in relation to pleasure.

Purpose: In this paper, we explore how a group of boys derive pleasures from their involvement in PE, but also how these power-induced pleasures are integral to gender normalisation processes. The findings presented are particularly discussed in terms of inclusive/exclusive pedagogical practices related to gender, bodies and pleasures.

Research setting and participants: The research setting was a single-sex, boys’ secondary school in Auckland, New Zealand. Participants in this study were 60 Year 10 (age 14-15) students from two PE classes.

Data collection and analysis: Using a visual ethnographic approach (Pink, 2007) involving observations and video recordings of boys participating in PE, the boys’ representations and interpretations of the visual data were explored during both focus groups and individual interviews. The data was analysed using (a visually oriented) discourse analysis (Foucault, 1998; Rose, 2007).

Findings: By elucidating the discursive practices of PE in this setting and employing Butler’s (1993) concept of ‘materialisation’, we suggest that boy’s bodies materialise as productive and pleasurable or displeasurable bodies through submitting/subjecting to certain bodily regimes, developing embodied mastery when it comes to certain sports, and displaying bodies in particular ways. The analysis indicate that the discursive practices of PE contribute to boys’ bodies materialising as pleasurable or dis-pleasurable and the (re)production of gender in the subject as shaped by discourse and the productive effect of power.

Discussion and conclusions: In line with Gard (2008) we conclude that the focus on certain discursively constructed bodily practices at the same time continues to restrict the production of a diversity of bodily movement pleasures. Hence, traditional gender patterns are reproduced through a selection of particular sports/physical activities that all the students are expected to participate in. We propose that the ongoing constitution of privileged forms of masculinity, masculine bodies and masculine pleasures as related to fitness, health and sport and (certain) boys’ subsequent exercise of power in PE needs further critical examination.

A focus on equity and social justice in school health and physical education (HPE) is pertinent in an era where there are growing concerns about the impact of neoliberal globalization and the precariousness of society. The aim of the present study was to identify school HPE teaching practices that promote social justice and more equitable health outcomes. Data were generated through 20 HPE lesson observations and post-lesson interviews with 13 HPE teachers across schools in Sweden, Norway, and New Zealand. The data were analysed following the principles of thematic analysis. In this paper, we present and discuss findings related to three overall themes: (i) relationships; (ii) teaching for social cohesion; (iii) and explicitly teaching about, and acting on, social inequities. Collectively, these themes represent examples of the enactment of social justice pedagogies in HPE practice. To conclude, we point out the diculty of enacting social justice pedagogies and that social justice pedagogies may not always transform structures nor make a uniform difference to all students. However, on the basis of our findings, we are rearmed in our view that HPE teachers can make a difference when it comes to contributing to more socially just and equitable outcomes in HPE and beyond.

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.

Many contemporary international school Physical Education (PE) curricula are underpinned by inclusive intentions that seek to provide personalised and meaningful psychomotor, cognitive and affective learning experiences (and gains) for students. Central here are beliefs that PE has a key role to play in students’ affective development (Kirk 2018) during formal/informal opportunities to develop interpersonal and social skills in team, sport-related activities and through a sense of personal achievement in physical pursuits and successes.  Such activities are often espoused as promoting social connectedness, belonging and wellbeing for their ‘team-building’ capacities. As such, educative practices that promote wellbeing and belonging in contemporary times, otherwise referred to as an era of ‘precarity’ in UK, Europe and beyond (Standing, 2016) where lifestyles and futures for young people are viewed as ‘uncertain, unstable, risky and hazardous’ (Kirk, 2018, p. 16), become important vehicles in realising more equitable, inclusive experiences and promising futures for students. Despite recent calls for ‘physical educators to develop ‘pedagogies of affect’ (Kirk, 2018, p. 25) that promote wellbeing, connectedness and inclusion, research continues to establish PE as a site of heteronormative and masculinising practices that potentially “damage” participants (Atkinson & Kehler, 2010; Gerdin, 2018). Notwithstanding Jackson’s (1996) assertion over two decades ago that theorising about gender, sexuality and subjectivities has become more sophisticated, we still lack theoretical tools and nuanced accounts that provide answers to the fundamental question, “How did I/it get this way?”. This we argue holds the key to conceptualising experiences in PE, and schooling more broadly, beyond a heteronormative paradigm and has potential to reveal spaces and practices that can promote more agentic and desirable expressions of masculinity, important for youth wellbeing in precarious times. As such the key questions guiding this paper were: (i) In what ways do pedagogic practices in PE influence masculinities, wellbeing and belonging? and (ii) How might theorising the practices that boys’ construct as ‘pleasurable’ in PE shape identity, wellbeing and belonging?   This paper draws on data from two ethnographic studies on boys, schooling and PE in New Zealand and Australia. The PE curricula in both these countries emphasize students’ interrogations of discourses and power relations that shape student subjectivities/identities. The New Zealand PE curriculum states that students will, “analyse the beliefs, attitudes, and practices that reinforce stereotypes and role expectations, identifying ways in which these shape people’s choices at individual, group, and societal levels” (Ministry of Education, 2007, p. 17). In Australia, the Victorian PE curriculum requires students to “evaluate factors that shape identities and analyse how individuals impact the identities of others” (Victorian Curriculum & Assessment Authority, 2016, p. 73). In this paper, we employ a pleasure lens to interrogate the particular “games of truth” (Foucault, 1988) that boys negotiate in their experiences of PE, sport and broader school cultures. As Foucault (1997) argues, by playing a particular game of truth, that is, engaging with the socio-historical discourses and power relations that perpetuate some ways of being, “by showing its consequences, by pointing out that there are other reasonable options, by teaching people what they don’t know about their own situation, working conditions…” (pp. 295-296), we consider the role pleasure plays in preserving dominant embodied masculinities and power relations.  We argue that pleasure is the glue that (re)produces heteronormative schooling cultures and existing (unequal) power relations between different identities/subjectivities, wellbeing and belonging. We suggest interrogations of the interrelationship/s between masculinity, sexuality and sport through a pleasure lens, a (re)theorising of inclusive practice in boys’ PE offers new theoretical perspectives to explore normalised cultural practices and offer potential to make visible spaces in which these can be productively disrupted.

In this paper, we draw on data generated through (visual) ethnographies conducted in two all-boys’ schools in New Zealand and Australia to inform our discussion of the ways in which performances of gender and sexuality are interwoven with pleasure(s). Building on European contributions that draw on visual methodologies to interrogate identities and practice in education (Allan & Tinkler, 2015) and after obtaining ethics approvals, across both school sites at Kea College (New Zealand) and St. John’s College (Australia), 132 boys’ PE classes were observed, video-recorded and analyzed, with selected clips drawn on in subsequent focus groups with students (four to six students in each) or individual interviews with teachers and students involved with the lesson in focus. Collectively, across the two data-sets, 84 individuals (80 students and four teachers) participated and of those, 68 participants agreed to take part in the interviews. The ethnographic work commenced with both researchers observing the teacher’s PE classes (recorded in field notes) and the purpose of these observations was for the researchers to familiarize themselves with the context and participants. The focus groups and individual interviews attended to select themes and issues identified as a salient part of the observations and video recordings of the PE lessons. An interview guide containing open-ended prompts based on themes identified during observations and video recordings was used. Although the interviews did not progress in a linear fashion, they were typically initiated by asking the boys or teacher to talk about something that had been observed during class or recorded in the video clips. Once a topic had been introduced, the interviews then attempted to discuss/negotiate the boys’ and teacher’s views (in separate interview contexts), perceptions and experiences of these particular situations. Data was analysed using Foucault’s (1980, 1985) theoretical conceptualization of discourse/power/pleasure to understand students as gendered/sexualized subjects and to interrogate the discourse-power relations that perpetuate these subjectivities. Differing discourses produce variable forms of knowledge or truths about boys and their subjectivities. We followed Foucault’s assertion that our aim as researchers was not to discover truth/s, but to understand how discursive practices/formations bring forth various truths in particular ways. In this manner, we explored how the games of truth (Foucault, 1988) associated with boys, gender/sexuality and pleasures in boys’ schooling and PE are played out.

Our findings and analysis demonstrate how boys in these school settings are immersed in a power/discourse nexus (Markula & Pringle, 2006) which simultaneously enables/restricts performances of gender, sexuality and pleasures. In this sense, boys can be seen as both privileged and marginalised by certain pedagogical practices, belonging is thus not something you obtain and keep but rather something that is dynamic, changeable and happenstance, and that even in one lesson boys can experience moments of belonging and non-belonging. The games of truth (Foucault, 1988) in boys’ schooling highlights how pleasures derived from discursive practices/formations operating within these school cultures can be seen as linked to performing/conforming to dominant notions of being a boy at these schools.  In an era or risk and precarity, we argue that re-theorising the intersections between boys, masculinity, wellbeing and belonging can more productively be thought about through a pleasure lens (Allen & Carmody, 2012). We contend boys enter these games of truth for the pleasures they derive from the activities and practices delivered through PE, and as such we argue a key implication is that teachers need to adopt ‘affective pedagogies’, where there is an explicit focus on teaching about emotions, interactions, feelings of belonging and wellbeing.  This should, in particular, focus on how the ongoing normalization of privileged and marginalized bodies and identities in PE and the broader physical culture reproduces inequalities in terms of physical activity and health outcomes in precarious times. It is often the taken-for-granted practices of everyday PE, left unchallenged and uncritically adopted, that present the most significant barriers to achieving more inclusive pedagogies – this we argue, is a key imperative for teacher education and professional learning programs.

The spaces of schooling are not mere settings or backdrops where students’ learning take place, but are implicated in the production of knowledge and identities/subjectivities - spaces embody specific values, beliefs and traditions. In this paper we draw on visual ethnographic data from an all-boys school in New Zealand to examine how the spaces of schooling and PE perform health work in relation to the all round development of healthy young masculinities. By drawing on a complexivist philosophy we draw attention to how school policies, spaces, bodies, students, teachers all intersect to provide the boys with a socio-spatial context in which knowledge and learning about healthy young masculinities is constructed. We demonstrate how stereotypical notions of what boys should be doing and what they like doing is, for instance, materialised by the design and provision of schooling and PE as sporting spaces, based on a form of ‘healthism’, which privileges individualistic notions of health and the assumption that sport = fitness = health. We conclude that although the design and provision of schooling and PE spaces based on healthism is an important source of pleasures for young men, it also reinforces narrowly defined and even problematic forms of healthy young masculinities.

The way school Health and Physical Education (HPE) is conceptualized and taught will impact on its ability to provide equitable outcomes across gender, sexuality, ethnicity, religion and social class. A focus on social justice in HPE is pertinent in times when these ideals are currently under threat from neoliberal globalization. This paper draws on data from the initial year of an international collaboration project called ‘Education for Equitable Health Outcomes – The Promise of School Health and Physical Education’ involving HPE and Physical Education Teacher Education researchers from Sweden, Norway and New Zealand. The data in this paper record the researchers’ presentations and discussions about issues of social justice and health as informed by school visits and interviews with HPE teachers in the three different countries. The analysis of the data is focused on what is addressed in the name of social justice in each of the three countries and how cross-cultural researchers of social justice in HPE interpret different contexts. In order to analyse the data, we draw on Michael Uljens’s concepts of non-affirmative and non-hierarchical education. The findings suggest that researching social justice and health (in)equality across different countries offers both opportunities and challenges when it comes to understanding the enactment of social justice in school and HPE practices. We conclude by drawing on Uljens to assert that the quest for social justice in HPE should focus on further problematizing affirmative and hierarchical educational practices since social justice teaching strategies are enabled and constrained by the contexts in which they are practised.

A rapidly growing body of literature focuses on inclusion, equity and social justice in health and physical education (HPE) (see e.g., Lynch, Walton-Fisette & Luguetti, 2022; Walton-Fisette, Sutherland & Hill, 2019). At the same time research continues to show how school HPE is complicit in the reproduction of inequities as related to for instance gender, sexuality, ethnicity, religion and social class (e.g., Fitzpatrick, 2019; Landi, 2019; Walseth, 2015). Indeed, despite long standing calls for HPE teachers to infuse social justice into their teaching and learning programmes, there is limited research that explores how this might be done and the challenges faced by HPE teachers when doing so.This proposed symposium will report on the ongoing work of the so-called EDUHEALTH project. The aim of the EDUHEALTH project, which brings together researchers from different contexts, is to identify, compare, co-design and support the enactment of social justice pedagogies in HPE that promote equitable learning experiences and outcomes. This project builds on the findings and outcomes that called on HPE teacher observations and post observation critical incident interviews (Philpot et al, 2021) to identify pedagogies that promote social justice, and identify how broader curricular and school policy interact to facilitate the enactment of social justice pedagogies in HPE. These pedagogies include building good relationships, teaching for social cohesion and explicitly teaching about and acting on socialinequities (Gerdin et al., 2021).  EDUHEALTH 2.0 builds on this previous research by exploring how HPE curricula serves to enable pedagogies for social justice and the students’ perspectives and experiences of such pedagogical practices as well as further developing and supporting the enactment of social justice pedagogies across different contexts through action-research with teachers.The session will begin with a brief introduction to the symposium and overview of the project. This overview will be followed by four separate presentations; three from researchers in three of the participating countries (Sweden, Spain, New Zealand) in the EDUHEALTH 2.0 project and followed by the findings of a PhD that examines how PE teachers in Austria understand and enact social justice pedagogies. At the conclusion of the fourth presentation we will present the future direction and intended goals of the project. Finally, a discussant will reflect on the work presented and the nature of the project before opening the floor to the audience for the final 15 minutes of the symposium.

Paper 1 – Understandings and Enactments of Social Justice Pedagogies in Swedish Physical Education and Health Practice

In this paper we present findings from a participatory action-research (PAR) project with 11 teachers of PEH at two upper-secondary schools in Sweden aimed at enhancing understandings and enactments of social justice pedagogies. Although the findings draw attention to productive understandings and enactments of social justice pedagogies, we also argue that the teachers to a great extent continue to focus on managing inequalities within the framework of taking for granted knowledge within the subject.

Paper 2 – Plan, do, study, act: Creating a community of secondary school Health and Physical Education teachers for social justice

With a backdrop of empirical research demonstrating that professional learning is most effective when it is involves collaboration, active learning and reflection (Darling-Hammond et al., 2017), this paper reports on a collaborative critical inquiry into enacting pedagogies for social justice between five New Zealand HPE teachers and two HPE researchers. In collaboration with the researchers, and through a process of “plan, do, study, act” (Lawson et al., 2015, p. ix), each teacher developed, implemented and reflected on their own plan to address a social justice issue specific to their own teaching context.

Paper 3 – Teachers’ Enactment of Freirean Democratic Pedagogies in Spanish Primary School Physical Education

The aim of this paper was to explore how specialist primary school teachers in Spain teach for social justice in Physical Education and how contextual factors enable and constrain such teaching practices. The findings drawing on Freire (1970) demonstrate how the PE teachers’ enactment of social justice pedagogies are built on: (1) Using student voice, (2) Learning through questioning and exploration, (3) Learning with and from other students.

Paper 4 – PE Teaching Practices for Social Justice in Austria – What PE Teacher Do (Not) Indicate to Do for Diversity and Social Justice

This paper focuses on PE teachers’ indicated realizations of social justice pedagogies in Austria. 20 secondary school PE teachers were interviewed concerning their PE teaching practices (teaching goals, content, didactic-methodical approaches, teacher-student(s) interactions and assessment). The findings point towards conducive as well as counterproductive teaching practices with regard to enacting social justice pedagogies.

References

Darling-Hammond, L., Hyler, M. E., & Gardner, M. (2017). Effective teacher professional development. Research brief. Learning Policy Institute.

Fitzpatrick, K. (2019). What happened to critical pedagogy in physical education? An analysis of key critical work in the field. European Physical Education Review, 25(4), 1128-1145.

Freire, P. (1970). Cultural Action for Freedom. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Educational Review.

Gerdin, G., Smith, W., Philpot, R., Schenker, K., Mordal Moen, K., Linnér, S., Westlie, K., & Larsson, L. (2021). Social Justice Pedagogies in Health and Physical Education. London, UK: Routledge.

Landi, D. (2019). Queer men, affect, and physical education. Qualitative Research in Sport Exercise and Health, 11, 168–187.

Lawson, H., Caringi, J., Pyles, L., Jurkowski, J., & Bozlak, C. (2015). Participatory action research. Oxford Press.

Lynch, S., Walton-Fisette, J., & Luguetti, C. (2022). Pedagogies of Social Justice in Physical Education and Youth Sport. New York: Taylor Francis.

Philpot, R., Smith,W., Gerdin, G., Larsson, L., Schenker, K., Linnér, S., et al. (2021). Exploring social justice pedagogies in health and physical education through critical incident technique methodology. European Physical Education Review. 27(1), 57-7

Walton-Fisette, J., Sutherland, S., & Hill J. (2019). Teaching About Social Justie Issues in Physical Education. Charlotte, NC: Information Age.

As a compulsory school subject in most Western societies, Health and Physical Education (HPE) is charged with providing important health outcomes for children and young people. The world summit on HPE in 1999, for example, stated that HPE provides the most effective means of providing all young people, regardless of their ability, disability, sex, age, culture, race, ethnicity, religion, or social background, with the skills, attitudes, knowledge, and understanding for lifelong health and well-being (Doll-Tepper & Scoretz, 2001). Morgan and Burke (2008) similarly argued that school HPE can make a unique contribution to the physical, cognitive, emotional and social health of children and young people. The authors of this proposed symposium share this vision for HPE but believe that positive health outcomes are accelerated when teachers of HPE are critically conscious and engage in socially-critical pedagogies that foreground inclusion, democracy, social justice and equity. The aim of this proposed symposium is to present and discuss the findings of a three-year international, collaborative research project called Education for Equitable Health Outcomes - The Promise of School Health and Physical Education (EDUHEALTH) consisting of Physical Education Teacher Education (PETE) teachers and HPE researchers from Sweden, Norway and New Zealand.The EDUHEALTH project sought to identify school HPE teaching practices that promote social justice and more equitable health outcomes across the three different participating countries. A focus on equity, democracy and social justice in HPE is pertinent when education is in an era of risk where, for instance, these ideals are currently under threat from neoliberal globalization (Azzarito et al., 2017). Neoliberal approaches to health and education also tend to negatively impact on the most marginalized and/or minority groups in society (France and Roberts, 2017; Rashbrooke, 2013). Azzarito et al. (2017) further caution that school HPE curricula based on principles of global neoliberalism have emphasized competitive-based rather than equity-based goals, that in turn lead to the marginalization of the social justice project. In fact, research shows (Sirna, Tinning & Rossi, 2010) that many HPE teachers tend to be insensitive to such social justice issues.The session will begin with a brief introduction to the symposium and overview of the project, followed by the first paper which will discuss our conceptualisation of social justice in relation to HPE and present the methodology of the project with a focus on the analysis. This paper examines the concept of social justice in HPE as constituted and addressed across the three different countries. As part of the methodological discussion we will describe how our tri-country research teams completed structured classroom observations informed by the principles of Critical Incident Technique (Tripp, 2012) and Stimulated Recall Interviews (Lyle, 2003). In this paper, we also explicate our iterative process of thematical analysis of the data generated. The second paper will represent findings that elucidate how HPE practice can support social justice on three different levels: individual, group and society level. Additionally, the paper demonstrates how such teaching practices in HPE can relate to social justice in different ways as shaped by the context within which they occur. Employing new institutional theory (Scott 2007), we draw attention to how social justice pedagogies are informed differently by institutionalised governing systems and may act differently in different societies and teachers’ work. The third paper will represent and discuss findings relating to HPE teaching practices about and forsocial justice. The findings presented in this paper will be analysed by drawing on the principles of social justice pedagogies (Tinning, 2016) and transformative pedagogy (Ovens & Philpot, in press). This paper will also address the implications of the EDUHEALTH project for HPE and PETE practice. 

The role that school health and physical education (HPE) plays in the making of physically active and healthy citizens continues to be rearticulated within the field of HPE practice. In Australasia, for example, this is evident in HPE curricula changes that now span almost two decades with ongoing advocacy for greater recognition of socially-critical perspectives of physical activity and health. This paper reports on one part of a larger collaborative project that focussed on how HPE teachers understand and enact socially-critical perspectives in their practice. The paper draws on interview data obtained from 20 secondary school HPE teachers, all of whom graduated from the same physical education teacher education (PETE) programme in New Zealand, a programme that espouses a socially-critical orientation. The teaching experience of the study participants ranged from 1 to 22 years of service. The preliminary analysis involved deduction of common themes in relation to the research questions and then, drawing on the theoretical framework of Bourdieu (1990), these themes were analysed in more detail to gain insight into how and why the graduate teachers’ expressed their particular understanding of HPE and critical pedagogy. The findings suggested that this PETE programme did have some impact on the participant teachers’ perceptions of physical activity and health, and the role of socially-critical thinking. However, there was also evidence to suggest that many of them did not have a clear understanding of the transformative agenda of critical pedagogy. We conclude by suggesting that although this PETE programme did plant ‘seeds’ that had an impact on the graduate teachers’ awareness and thinking about socially-critical issues in relation to physical activity and health, it did not necessarily turn them into critical pedagogues.

We currently find ourselves living in precarious times (Kirk, 2020), with old and new social inequities on the rise due to the challenges associated with an unprecedented rise of global migration and neoliberalism, amplified in our post COVID-19 world. Wilkinson and Pickett (2010) have demonstrated that there is a high correlation between inequality at the societal level and the overall health and wellbeing of individuals within those societies. We believe that school health and physical education (HPE) has a significant role to play in addressing and acting on social inequities that impact on the wellbeing of both students and society as a whole. Based on the findings of an international research project called EDUHEALTH which explored pedagogies for social justice in school health and physical education (HPE) across Sweden, Norway and New Zealand, this paper aims to highlight the addressing of (in)equality and student wellbeing through HPE practice. In particular, the paper presents nine different but complementary pedagogies for social justice that we believe can improve individual, collective and societal wellbeing. We conclude by proposing that, if adopted across a whole school curriculum, these nine pedagogies for social justice could form the basis of a holistic school-wide community approach aimed at improving both student and societal wellbeing.

As a compulsory school subject in most Western societies, Health and Physical Education (HPE) is charged with providing important health outcomes for children and young people. However, as HPE teacher educators and researchers, we recognise and acknowledge that the way HPE is often taught and conceptualised in schools does not always provide equitable health outcomes across gender, sexuality, ethnicity, religion and social class (Fitzpatrick, 2019). Although HPE has the potential to contribute to lifelong health and well-being, it can be counter-productive and in fact be unhealthy for some students (Schenker, 2018). That is, despite decades of research and curricula reform, HPE continues to make both friends and enemies (Evans, 1986). Öhman et al. (2014), for instance, highlighted how HPE is often strongly influenced by neoliberal individualism, where students are seen to be responsible for their own health and the students themselves rather than society are solely blamed for their ‘failure’ to achieve health. Unfortunately, the role of HPE in contributing to, or challenging, such an ideological perspective is seldom considered. Neoliberal approaches to health also tend to negatively impact on the most marginalised and/or minority groups in society (France & Roberts, 2017). Azzarito et al. (2017) further cautioned that school HPE curricula based on principles of neoliberal individualism have emphasised competitive-based rather than equity-based goals, that in turn lead to the marginalisation of the social justice project. In fact, research shows that many HPE teachers tend to be insensitive to such social justice issues (Sirna, Tinning & Rossi, 2010).A focus on equity and social justice in HPE is therefore pertinent in an era where there are growing concerns about the impact of neoliberal globalization and the precariousness of society (Kirk. 2020). The aim of the EDUHEALTH project was to identify successful school HPE teaching practices that promote social justice and equitable health outcomes. In this paper will provide a summary of the project and its findings including critical commentary and reflections on the implications of the project for future HPE practice and research.

Data were generated through 20 HPE lesson observations and post-lesson interviews with 13 HPE teachers across schools in Sweden, Norway, and New Zealand.The data collection was based on the principles of critical incident technique (CIT) methodology (Tripp, 2012) and stimulated recall interviews (Lyle, 2003). CIT was developed to capture not only the actions, but also the thought processes and the perspectives of teachers in relation to critical incidents. In the EDUHEALTH project, we employed CIT to explore the thought processes and actions of HPE teachers with a narrow focus on teaching for equity and social justice (Philpot, et al., 2020).The study participants were 13 teachers purposively selected (Bryman 2016) from four schools in Aotearoa New Zealand, four in Sweden and three in Norway. The teachers were known by the research team to be examples of teachers who embrace a social justice agenda in their pedagogy. The seven male and six female teachers ranged in age from 25 to 55 with between 3- and 25- years teaching experience.The classroom observations, which focused on incidents that appeared to be addressing issues of social justice, were restricted to compulsory HPE classes with 13–15-year-old students in co-educational schools. To gain a deeper understanding of the teachers thinking, we questioned the teacher about what we had observed through subsequent stimulated recall interviews. The interviews lasted 40-70 min and took place immediately after, or almost immediately after, the observed lessons. These stimulated-recall interviews created a nuanced and shared understanding of the teachers’ practices related to social justice pedagogies in HPE.Data were analysed through a six-phase thematic analysis approach that consisted of familiarisation with data, initial and advanced coding, identifying and naming themes and reporting findings (Braun and Clarke 2013).

The findings presented in this paper will show how pedagogies for social justice in HPE were enacted through building relationships, teaching for social cohesion and explicitly teaching about, and acting on, social inequities. Collectively, these findings represent the enactment of the pedagogies for social justice that we observed in the EDUHEALTHproject. Based on these findings and as implications for HPE practice we then outline what we call the ‘nine pedagogical pillars of social justice in HPE’ which include: pedagogies of care for all students; pedagogies of understanding; pedagogies of inclusion; pedagogies that build relationships; pedagogies that foster reciprocal respect; democratic pedagogies; pedagogies for social cohesion; culturally relevant pedagogies; and explicit pedagogies for social justice. We argue that pedagogies for social justice can have elements of humanism  that attend to the needs of students within the structures of each society, but also challenge these structures and scaffold students to reflect and act and provide them with the agency to address equity issues in their lives and the lives of those around them. Weconclude by calling for the further development of pedagogies for social justice in HPE, which involve the problematising knowledge construction and how the dominant ways of thinking about physical activity, health, the body and self, have come to be, and where students are challenged to change the structures that create social inequities (Tinning, 2012).

Understandings of genders and sexualities are rapidly changing in most Western countries due to increasingly mobile and diverse populations, new digital technologies and a growing acceptance of, and backlash to, multiple and diverse sexualities and genders. In this changing context, the delivery of quality relationship and sexuality education is important. Within Aotearoa New Zealand, sexuality education is a key learning area within the Health and Physical Education (HPE) Curriculum (Ministry of Education, 2007). The broad aims within this learning area are to help students develop a healthy range of relationships, promote positive self-understandings, encourage support for diversity and respect for others, and critically examine sexualities and genders. Ellis and Bentham (2021) revealed, however, that sexuality education is not taught at all schools and when taught, the broad focus remains narrowly on heterosexuality, biological function, pregnancy and STIs. Topics such as consent, respect for others, sexual pleasure, diverse sexualities/genders and online pornography are rarely discussed. Moreover, sexuality education was almost exclusively located within the classroom-based ‘health education’ part of HPE (Ellis & Bentham, 2021). In other words, sexuality education does not often form part of the ‘formal' learning within the more practical ‘physical education’ (PE) classes. Yet this does not mean that students are not learning about sexualities in PE. Indeed, the visibility of the body in PE, combined with close bodily interactions, and the requirement to get changed in locker rooms results in students learning about sexualities and genders. Yet this learning is not structured in a coordinated manner or with concern about promoting respect, wellbeing and healthy relationships. So what do students learn about gender and sexuality in school PE?This entry presents an overview of current understandings of boys, masculinities, sexualities and school PE. In particular, it highlights PE as a prime space where heteronormativity and heterosexual masculinities are (re)produced as the norm. The entry is informed by research drawing on Connell’s (1987; 1995) concept of hegemonic masculinity and the poststructural works of Foucault (1980; 1995) and Butler (1990; 1993) that demonstrates how power and the workings of discourse through boys’ bodies and the spaces of PE shape performances of masculinities and sexualities. The entry concludes with a discussion of what the implications are for schooling boys, masculinities and sexualities and offers some suggestions for how PE can become a site of transformation that destabilises dominant understandings of masculinities and sexualities.

Kirk (2010) warns that physical education (PE) exists in a precarious situation as the dominance of the multi-activity sport-techniques model, and its associated problems, threatens the long-term educational survival of PE. Yet he also notes that although the model is problematic it is highly resistant to change. In this paper, we draw on the results of a year-long visual ethnography at an all boys-secondary school in Aotearoa New Zealand to examine the workings of power that legitimate this model of PE. Our findings illustrate that the school conflates PE and sport, to position PE as an appropriate masculine endeavour and valued source of enjoyment, as it articulates with good health, social development and competitiveness. We argue that student experiences of pleasure within PE – as co-constitutive with discourses of fitness, health, sport and masculinity – (re)produce the multi-activity sport-based form of PE as educationally appropriate and socio-culturally relevant, thus making the model somewhat resistant to change. We stress that our study should not be read as a vindication of this PE model.

We currently find ourselves living in precarious times of segregation with old and new inequities on the rise. One space where such segregation is (re)produced is school physical education (PE). Despite decades of critical research and curriculum reforms, PE is still typically delivered with an emphasis on skill learning associated with competitive sport. Relatedly, PE continues to make ‘friends and enemies’ which leads to inequitable educational outcomes and issues that can transcend beyond the PE classroom. So, what makes PE and its practices so resistant to change? Our interest as critical PE scholars lies in examining power: the nature of power, how power works, how unequal power relations are constructed and maintained but ultimately how PE can become a space for more equal power relations. That is, we believe that critical research on PE practice can make a difference. In this paper, we will discuss what makes PE seemingly resistant to change and how unequal power relations are (re)produced through the theoretical lens of Foucault. Through doing so we draw attention to the opportunities for resistance and social transformation which could shift and rearticulate prevailing power relations making PE a more inclusive and socially just educational space for all students.

In this paper we draw from Foucault, particularly his writings on the technologies of self, to problematize and reimagine understandings of what it means to coach effectively andethically. In recognising the difficulty of operationalising Foucauldian ideas, we provide a narrative-of-self to reveal how an elite tennis coach, Göran Gerdin, adopted Foucauldian ideas in a process of ethical self-creation. The narrative reveals how Göran experienced the tragedy of youth player suicide and how he critically reflected on his coaching role in relation to this tragedy. Through specifically problematizing the insidious influence of technologies of dominance on athletic subjectivity, Göran reveals how he drew from Foucault to develop alternative coach practices and a related telos. We conclude by reflecting on pragmatic issues associated with coaching with Foucault.

Education for Equitable Health Outcomes - The Promise of School Health and Physical Education (EDUHEALTH), was a three-year international, collaborative research project that sought to identify school HPE teaching practices that promote social justice and more equitable outcomes. Data was generated through 20 HPE lesson observations and interviews with 13 HPE teachers across schools in Sweden, Norway and New Zealand as informed by critical incident technique methodology (Tripp, 2012). The thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2013) revealed three main themes as associated with pedagogies for social justice: (i) building relationships, (ii) teaching for social cohesion, (iii) and explicit teaching about, and acting on, social inequities.The EDUHEALTH project provided us with unique opportunities to broaden our horizons both as researchers and people. In this paper, we present our reflections about being involved in the EDUHEALTH project. Rather than presentingthese reflections separately, we do this as a shared narrative, or what Willis (2019) calls a ‘composite narrative’ where our individual reflections are combined and presented as a story from a single individual around a number of central themes. Composite narratives ‘allow research to be presented in a way that acknowledges the complexities of individual motivations and outlooks, whilst drawing out more generalised learning and understanding’ (Willis, 2019, p. 476). The themes involve: embodied learning; making connections with new people and places; developing as a teacher educator and an academic; the challenges of EDUHEALTH; productive tensions and constructive debates; similarities and differences between contexts; making the familiar (context) strange; the importance of contexts; and reaffirmed belief in social justice pedagogies and that HPE can make a difference. We hope that the narrative(s) can provide some insights for other researchers who may (want to) be embarking on international research projects.

Despite being ubiquitous in education discourses, the concept of social justice and what it is that teachers can do in the name of teaching for, and about social justice remain a conundrum. If social justice is meant to be a key aim of education, understandings of this concept is critical as it will inevitably inform the pedagogical work of teachers. This presentation draws on data from an ongoing international collaborative study that explores teaching for social justice in the subject of Health and Physical Education (HPE). In this presentation, we report on HPE teachers’ perceptions of social justice and social justice pedagogies. Participants were HPE teachers from New Zealand and Sweden, two countries where social justice is an espoused orientation of national health and Physical Education curricula. Participants were selected through purposive sampling (Denzin & Lincoln, 2000), with a requirement to be fully registered secondary school HPE teachers with at least three years teaching experience, who were interested in sharing their perspectives on social justice.  Data were collected though individual semi structured online interviews and face to face focus groups. All interviews were conducted in English or translated into English. Data were analysed through a six-phase thematic analysis approach (Braun & Clarke, 2013) that drew on principles of critical pedagogy (Tinning, 2016) and social justice pedagogies (Gerdin et al., 2021). Although the participant teachers were not able to articulate a clear understanding of social justice, they provide insights into how issues of inclusion and equity can/are addressed in everyday HPE practice. In this presentation we report three themes. The first theme, ‘Social justice – good question,’ highlights that HPE teachers are not only unclear of the meaning of social justice, but it is language that is rarely used; replaced instead with a focus on inclusion, equity and culturally responsiveness. The second theme ‘ Disposition over curriculum’ suggests that the main driver of teaching for social justice is based on one’s own values and beliefs rather than a curricular imperative. The final theme, ‘Acting on difference’ conveys how teachers endeavour to teach for equity in their classrooms. We conclude this paper by discussing the implications of these findings for both physical education teacher education and Inservice teacher education.

Like in many countries around the world, such as the UK, Australia and the US, a broader notion of ‘health’ was introduced in the Swedish Physical Education and Health (PEH) curriculum several years ago. In the current Swedish PEH curriculum, this broader notion of health, which includes a focus on physical but also mental health, as well as social well-being, along with aspects of democracy and societal values, is directed towards enhancing pupils’ capacity to contribute to the development of society, where the core Swedish societal values of democracy, equity and social justice are particularly emphasised. Furthermore, the focus of Swedish PEH is not only on being physically educated but also enhancing pupils’ awareness of, and critical reflection on, how their participation in different movement contexts impacts on others’ health. In this chapter, we provide an overview and critical interrogation of Swedish PEH with a particular focus on how notions of health underpinned by societal values of democracy, equity and social justice work together to produce PEH curriculum and practice in Sweden. At the same time, we provide a critique of such curricula and practices related to health within Swedish PEH by illustrating how this can still, at times, result in pupils being positioned as solely responsible for their own health. Towards the end of the chapter, we report on and discuss an international research project that has explored what PEH that embraces democracy, equity and social justice in relation to health can look like, before offering points for reflection.

Research continues to show that school physical education and health (PEH) is complicit in the reproduction of inequities related to, for instance, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, religion and social class. In this paper, we present findings from a participatory action research (PAR) project with 11 PEH teachers at two upper-secondary schools in Sweden, aimed at enhancing understandings and enactments of social justice pedagogies. Data generated through observations, interviews, focus groups, workshops and teacher reflections were analysed through a thematic analysis (Braun and Clarke, 2022) and informed by the concept of teaching for equity and social justice (Freire, 1970). The findings highlight how the teachers associated social justice pedagogies in PEH with an emphasis on: (1) ‘inclusion’; (2) ‘equity/equality’; (3) ‘adaptations to teaching and assessment’; and (4) ‘relationships’. The findings also demonstrate how, based on the importance they placed on relationships, the teachers developed pedagogies that aimed to create: (1) ‘conditions for building relationships’; (2) ‘continuous engagement from teachers and students’; (3) ‘student involvement and reflection’; and (4) ‘connections with and within the subject’. Although the findings draw attention to productive understandings and enactments of social justice pedagogies, we also argue that the teachers, to some extent, conflated equality of opportunity with equity of outcome and continued to focus on managing inequities within the framework of taken-for-granted practices and knowledge within the subject. We conclude that more work is needed to support teachers in not only addressing the inequities students bring to the classroom, but also in challenging the norms that make these inequities matter.

Introduktion I kursplanen för ämnet idrott och hälsa för grundskolan i Sverige betonas bland annat att undervisningen ska ge förutsättningar för alla elever att kontinuerligt kunna delta och lära sig (Skolverket, 2020). Trots det visar Skolinspektionens (2018) senaste kvalitetsgranskning att var femte elev på högstadiet inte deltar regelbundet i undervisningen. Även om många unga uttrycker entusiasm för skolämnet idrott och hälsa, känner andra sig exkluderade och till och med hatar ämnet (Robinson & Randall, 2016). Traditionella former av innehåll och det sätt undervisningen genomförs på innebär att eleverna försätts i priviligierade eller marginaliserade positioner (Gerdin & Pringle, 2017; Thorjussen & Sisjord, 2020). Det handlar både om att rådande samhälleliga sociala ojämlikheter reproduceras i ämnet (Evans, 2014) och att implicita för givet tagna föreställningar om ämnet genomsyrar undervisningens utformning (Flintoff & Dowling, 2017). Syfte och teoretisk ram Syftet med studie var att öka förståelsen för hur lärare i idrott och hälsa kan bedriva en inkluderande undervisning som kännetecknas av social rättvisa och där alla elever har möjlighet att delta och lyckas. Studien genomfördes inom ramen för ett internationellt samarbetsprojekt EDUHEALTH mellan forskare från Sverige, Norge och Nya Zeeland som undersökte hur lärare i idrott och hälsa hanterar frågor om inkludering, jämlikhet och social rättvisa i undervisningen.

Metod I den del av studien som redovisas här ingår data från observationer av fem lärares undervisning i idrott och hälsa i åk 7–9 på olika skolor i södra Sverige. Totalt genomfördes 7 observationer och 8 intervjuer. Den insamlade data från observationerna och intervjuerna analyserades sedan med hjälp av tematisk analys (Braun & Clarke, 2006). Resultat Resultat och analysen av observationer och intervjuer visar att lärarna i denna studie, i linje med Tinnings (2012) förståelse av inkluderande undervisning, använde sig av flera olika strategier och en hel verktygslåda av olika didaktiska handlingar för att motverka de ojämlika förutsättningar som elever omgärdas av när de kommer till undervisningen. De tre huvudteman som konstruerades baserat på resultat och analysen är: (1) skapa goda relationer med och mellan elever, (2) anpassningar för att utjämna ojämlikheter och (3) stötta de som behöver. Diskussion och slutsatser Att iscensätta en inkluderande undervisningsmiljö är komplex process, en process som handlar både om erkännande (North, 2008), ha kunskap om eleverna och det sociala sammanhanget (Tinning, 2012) och om att bryta mönster av förtryck och dominans (Young, 1990). Det handlar om att det varken är ämnets syfte eller innehåll som är ojämlikt (Røset, Green & Thurston, 2020) utan om att ständigt ”göra” val som innebär att alla elever inkluderas. I linje med Youngs (1990) tankar om social rättvisa, räcker det alltså inte med en omfördelning av resurser utan det krävs medvetna, aktiva didaktiska handlingar och val för att motverka de ojämlika förutsättningar som eleverna omgärdas av när de kommer till undervisningen i idrott och hälsa. Resultaten av denna studie ger dock exempel på hur detta är möjligt, där lärarna genom medvetna didaktiska val och handlingar och reflektion visar lärarna hur man kan ”göra” (Young, 1990) undervisning i idrott och hälsa mer socialt rättvis och inkluderande.

Research and policy statements suggest that school Health and Physical Education (HPE) can make a unique contribution to the physical, cognitive, emotional and social development of young people (Opstoel et al., 2020; UNESCO, 2015). It can also provide opportunities for young people to develop the knowledge and skills needed to navigate and respond to the inequities and precarity (Kirk, 2020) that have been amplified in our post COVID-19 world. Despite the aforementioned potential of HPE, it does not always provide equitable opportunities for all students, and often excludes on the basis of gender, sexuality, ethnicity, religion and social class (see e.g., Gerdin & Larsson, 2018; Landi, 2019).The aim of the EDUHEALTH 2.0 project, which brings together researchers from Sweden, Norway, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand, is to identify, compare, co-design and support the enactment of social justice pedagogies in HPE that promote equitable learning experiences and outcomes. This project builds on the findings and outcomes of our previous EDUHEALTH project that called on HPE teacher observations and post observation critical incident interviews (Philpot et al, 2020), and identified how broader curricular and school policy interact to facilitate theenactment of social justice pedagogies in HPE. These pedagogies include building good relationships, teaching for social cohesion and explicitly teaching about and acting on social inequities (Gerdin et al., 2020).  EDUHEALTH 2.0 will build on this previous research by exploring how HPE curricula serves to enable pedagogies for social justice and the students’ perspectives and experiences of such pedagogical practices as well as further developing and supporting the enactment of social justice pedagogies across different contexts through action-research with teachers.This proposed symposium will outline the methodological framework for EDUHEALTH 2.0 and report on some initial findings of the project to date.

In this third part of the symposium we aim to present the findings of a research project that examined PE teachers' perspectives about the nature of HPE and how critical pedagogy (CP) is enacted through their pedagogies in secondary school contexts, if at all. While previous literature has addressed the importance of critical perspectives in physical education we specifically sought to address the level of understanding and attitudes of teachers towards CP and their interpretation of how they enacted CP in their PE practice. Our findings showed that for these participant teachers, there are multiple influences that impact on how they come to view their role as teachers of HPE and the nature of HPE. CP is often reflected implicitly rather than explicitly in their practice. Their initial PETE experience is just one of a number of influences that have impacted on them as teachers of HPE.

Although school Health and Physical Education (HPE) has the potential to contribute to lifelong health and well-being, the way HPE isconceptualized and taught will impact on its ability to provide equitable outcomes across gender, sexuality, ethnicity, religion and socialclass. The genesis of this symposium comes from the ongoing international collaboration project - Education for Equitable HealthOutcomes - The Promise of School Health and Physical Education (EDUHEALTH) consisting of Physical Education Teacher Education(PETE) teachers and researchers from Sweden, Norway and New Zealand. The aim of the EDUHEALTH project is to contribute to theunderstanding of how teachers of HPE teach for social justice by examining the teaching practices of teachers. A focus on equity,democracy and social justice in HPE can be seen as particularly pertinent in times when these ideals are currently under threat fromneoliberal globalisation (Azzarito, Macdonald, Dagkas & Fisette, 2017). The research question guiding this project are: (i) How do HPE teachers’ practices address democracy and social justice? (ii) How may HPE practice contribute to greater inclusion and equitable health outcomes for all students? The session will begin with an introduction to the symposium followed by the first part of paper one which will provide a brief overview ofthe background and implementation of the EDUHEALTH project to date.The second paper will then explicate our conceptualisation of the term social justice as concerned with equity, taking account of many variables including gender, sexuality, socioeconomic, and ethnicity, and within the context of HPE, physicality. The discussion on this paper will draw on Bell’s (1997) concept of social justice as both a process and a goal along with Wright’s (2004) claim that a pedagogy focused on social justice embraces emancipatory practices or processes that have the goal of helping students identify, challenge and transform existing unequal power relations relating to physical activity and health. In this paper we will also discuss the different theoretical perspectives that we are considering in relation to understanding and subsequently analysing social justice in HPE as informed by the works of, for instance, Habermas, Bourdieu, Foucault and Uljens. The third paper will then discuss our methodology and methods for generating data involving HPE class observations and teacher interview in the three different countries and employing a critical incident technique (Tripp, 2012) along with stimulated-recall interviews toexplore HPE teaching practices that enact socially-critical perspective of physical activity and health. At the conclusion of the third paper we will return to the first paper and draw on some initial findings of this project to date in terms of the potential, and difficulties, of researching social justice and health (in)equality across different school health and physical education contexts. The potential comes from having outsiders critically examining the societal, educational, and HPE context and offering new insights. The difficulties are in reaching a shared understanding of what it means to be socially critical and applying this understanding in each of the three different contexts. At the end we tentatively suggest that in our ongoing work with this project and by drawing on Freire (2000) and Tinning (2010) that there is no ‘holy grail’ in terms of a social justice teaching method for HPE practice since teaching strategies are enabled and constrained by the contexts in which they are practiced. Finally, a discussant will reflect on the work presented and the nature of the project before opening the floor to the audience for the final 20 minutes of the symposium.