The health and physical education creative pedagogies class: experiences and learnings from international doctoral students, scholars and curricular contexts

ABSTRACT

Utilising globalisation theory, the purpose of this paper is to present our experiences and learnings as an instructor and doctoral students from an innovative doctoral pedagogies class involving international scholars and curricular contexts. A self-study design was implemented utilising interviews and focus groups which were collaboratively analysed, with the following themes constructed as findings: Teasing out the theories; playing with pedagogies; contesting curriculum; bridging the gaps; and taking off the blinders. Findings demonstrate how we were introduced to, recognised and critiqued, a variety of theories, pedagogies and curricular contexts which challenged our opinions, pre-held beliefs and dispositions. Doing so, we came to further appreciate the value of engaging in boundary crossing and interdisciplinarity to realise and consider current and future practices and possibilities. Similar doctoral teaching and learning initiatives are needed which go beyond immediate settings and expertise to explore international content, context and pedagogies from a problematising and interdisciplinary stance.

KEYWORDS:

• Health and physical education
• higher education
• pedagogy
• curriculum
• assessment

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank all the scholars from their respective institutions who kindly agreed to participate in classes and share their knowledge and expertise with us. We would especially like to thank Risto Marttinen, George Mason University USA and everyone else involved in the Playing with Pedagogies in Health and Physical Education Podcast for helping us to edit and open-source disseminate class recordings internationally (See supplementary file and https://www.thehpewebsite.com, https://www.thehpewebsite.com, https://anchor.fm/pwrhpe and https://twitter.com/TheHPEpodcast [@TheHPEpodcast]).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ben Dyson

Ben Dyson is a Professor in the Department of Kinesiology at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Ben is an internationally recognised researcher in Health and Physical Education in the areas of research on innovative curriculum and pedagogy, Cooperative Learning as a pedagogical practice and scholarship in Social and Emotional Learning. Ben’s area of scholarship has always involved school-based qualitative research with teachers and with students, which has contributed to the evidence base on effective pedagogy for children’s PE, health and well-being. He has carried out research and taught at McGill University, Montreal, Canada, the University of New Hampshire, the University of Memphis, and the University of Auckland, New Zealand.

Donal Howley

Donal Howley is an Assistant Professor in Physical Education Teacher Education at Towson University, Maryland, USA. He completed his doctoral studies at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro USA. Prior to this, he worked as a secondary school PE and English teacher in Ireland for six years while also completing part-time research at the University of Limerick. Donal conducts research implementing traditional and innovative qualitative methods which elicit and gather participant perspectives and experiences of teaching and learning in K 12 physical education, physical activity and youth sport settings. His areas of interest include student voice, social and emotional learning, curriculum and pedagogy.

Yanhua Shen

Yanhua Shen is an Assistant Professor of Exercise Science at the University of Virginia at Wise, USA. He completed his doctoral studies at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro USA. He previously worked as a professional soccer player as well as a university instructor in China.

Seunghyun Baek

Seunghyun Baek is a PhD candidate specialising in PE curriculum and pedagogy in the Department of Kinesiology at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, USA. She previously worked as an elementary school teacher and a teacher-researcher in South Korea.

Judy Fowler

Judy Fowler is an Associate Professor and the Physical Education Health Teacher Education (PEHTE) Concentration Program Coordinator at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She is a Ph.D. candidate at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro in the School of Education’s Department of Teacher Education and Development. A board-certified elementary PE teacher for 18 years, Professor Fowler has experience supervising teacher candidates both as a cooperating teacher during her tenure as an elementary physical education specialist and as the university coordinator at UNCG.

Jennifer Lingle

Jennifer Lingle is a Lecturer & Cohort Supervisor for Teacher Education and is a Ph.D. candidate at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro in the School of Education’s Department of Teacher Education and Development. A middle grades Mathematics teacher and curriculum coach for 20 years, Jennifer’s research interests include educational theory, middle grades teacher education and teaching methods, creative teaching/learning and creative pedagogy.