Exploring touch in Primary Physical Education practicum

Physical Education (PE) is a profession in which physical contact is often considered ‘normal’ or embedded in the profession. Touching has been questioned lately and studies suggest that PE teachers are confused and... [ view full abstract ]

Physical Education (PE) is a profession in which physical contact is often considered ‘normal’ or embedded in the profession. Touching has been questioned lately and studies suggest that PE teachers are confused and worried about how to act in particular situations. The decrease of touch in the last few years has recently been explored, particularly in Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian contexts in relation to child protection discourses and current no touch policies. However, there is little research about physical contact in PE classes in Latin contexts where physical contact has usually been taken-for-granted.

The aim of this paper is to explore how pre-service PE teachers in Spain identify and negotiate touch with primary school students during their practicum. Embodied teaching journals were used to collect data among a total cohort of 40 pre-service male and female PE teachers from a university in Spain. Participants had two practicum experiences during their degree and data presented in this paper refer only to the second practicum, which is mainly focused on PE.

The findings reveal that participants attach different meaning to different touches according to physical space, age and sex of their students, or to their pedagogical practices. However, these meanings tended to change throughout the practicum. Participants considered physical contact as ‘normal’ for the profession, yet they noticed some surveillance while touching their students.

Results show that PE teachers may be more distant with their students and may try to minimise physical contact with their students. Also, this may lead to consider that all physical contact is sexualised and PE teachers may have conflicting and contradictory professional subjectivities. Finally, this topic may need to be included in Physical Education Teacher Education programmes, particularly during the practicum.