School Physical Education and Teacher Education: Collaborative Redesign for the 21st Century

Setting a common international agenda for physical education, this book asks how physical education and physical education teacher education can be reconfigured together so that they are responsive to changes in today’s fast-paced, diverse and uncertain global society.

It argues that only a revolutionary move away from national policy silos can reinvigorate physical education and lead to improved, equitable outcomes for children and youth, and both novice and veteran teachers. Drawing on developing success stories in diverse places, this book emphasizes three important strategies:

• international-comparative analyses, which facilitate cross-border knowledge generation, innovation, professional learning and continuous improvement;
• solid, dynamic partnerships between teacher education programmes and exemplary school physical education programmes; and
• knowledge-generating teams consisting of exemplary teachers and teacher educators.

Each chapter provides viable alternatives and rationales framed by unique national and local contexts. Significantly, these chapters announce that the work that lies ahead – and starts now – is a collective action project. It necessitates collaborative research and development among policy leaders, researchers, teacher education specialists, physical education teachers and, in some cases, school-age students.

This is essential reading for all researchers with an interest in physical education or teacher education, and an invaluable source of new perspectives for physical education students, pre-service and in-service teachers, and educational administrators and policymakers.

Ann MacPhail is a Physical Education Teacher Educator in the Department of Physical Education and Sport Sciences at the University of Limerick, Ireland.

Hal A. Lawson is Professor of Social Welfare and Educational Policy and Leadership at the University at Albany-SUNY, USA.