A Connected Future for Primary Physical Education Teacher Education

It is well understood that teacher competency is a central component of pupil achievement (Hattie, 2003). In recent years successive English governments have attempted to address the competency of primary physical educators... [ view full abstract ]

It is well understood that teacher competency is a central component of pupil achievement (Hattie, 2003). In recent years successive English governments have attempted to address the competency of primary physical educators through a series of high profile policies. With increased funding, a change in the English National Curriculum and revised teacher standards, teachers are now required to provide lessons which are deemed to be good or better (Ofsted, 2013). Despite good intentions, policy drivers have tended to valorise societal issues over professional concerns. In this symposium we put forward a concept of ‘unhealthy fixations’ to frame an erosion of subject specific teacher professionalism through a failing process of ‘policy translation’ in England since 2012. Amidst a period of rapid educational change, we argue that the teacher has been seen as a commodity, implicitly considered rather than foregrounded. Our aim is to address a trend that deprioritises the agency, effect and influence of teachers and teacher educators by hearing contextualised experiences as one connected profession. In the first paper we will start by outlining three ‘unhealthy fixations’ from physical education English policy: health, sport and policy analysis, where we argue that these global obsessions have influenced how the subject is enacted and who is best placed to teach it. The three remaining papers will consider a connected understanding of physical education practice in England, through a range of theoretical lenses that include teacher perspectives from initial teacher education, in-service teacher development and subject specialism. With a growing policy-practice gap emerging, we hope to evoke discussion about a positive future for primary physical education and to increase the agency of the professional within it.