PhysEd-Academy: Facilitating radical change in physical education through international collaboration – Dr. Marina Castro García.

What is the PhsyEd-Academy project and what are its goals?

PhysEd-Academy is an Erasmus+ teacher Academy that has been granted €1.5 million for a period of 36 months.

Our university is among the partner institutions led by colleagues from the Norwegian School of Sports Sciences. The primary objective of PhysEd-Academy is to promote equitable physical education for both pre-service and in-service teachers and school children. The project aims to deliver high-quality resources for the development of physical education teachers’ initial and ongoing professional learning. PhysEd-Academy is committed to establishing a sustainable and global collaboration between physical education and physical education teacher education (PETE) that will result in equitable outcomes in education for pre-service and in-service teachers, school children, and youth. PhysEd-Academy is developing PETE pedagogy by creating, testing, and identifying a set of signature pedagogies that can be applied across PETE programs in Europe and worldwide.

In order to improve the quality of physical education and physical education teacher education (PETE), PhysEd-Academy addresses the current challenges in school physical education and PETE through the improvement of four quality factors: (a) the purposes and content of physical education, (b) school teaching, (c) teacher education, and (d) continuous professional development (CPD). The project plans to achieve this through mobility initiatives between PETE institutions and physical education teachers. By directly addressing the four quality factors, and based on current evidence in physical education and teacher education research, practice, and theory, PhysEd-Academy has developed innovative strategies and programs for initial PETE and teachers’ ongoing CPD across Europe. This effort is leading to the development of a set of ‘signature pedagogies’ for learning across different PETE programs, which have the potential to improve the quality of physical education and PETE. Currently, PhysEd-Academy partners are testing the signature pedagogies in our respective initial teacher education and CPD programs subsequently boosting the attractiveness of the physical education teaching profession.

What will be the outputs of PhsyEd-Academy?

The PhysEd-Academy aims to achieve three main outcomes, namely (a) the establishment of a sustainable international network of physical education teachers and teacher educators, (b) the development of a set of signature pedagogies for learning across initial, induction and in-service physical education teacher education, and (c) the creation of a framework for strategic planning, policy development, proactive leadership, and adaptive design. These outcomes are expected to result in the creation of a sustainable international PhysEd-Academy that will connect and align teachers and teacher educators across Europe, thus ensuring continuous improvement of school physical education and initial, induction, and in-service physical education teacher education.

What institutions are part of the project and why do they want to be part of it?

Apart from the Norwegian School of Sport Sciences in Norway, which is leading the project, there are five other higher education institutions partnering with us. These institutions are:

• Hacettepe University, Turkey
• Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences, Sweden
• Oviedo University, Spain
• University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg
• University of Ljubljana, Slovenia.

Moreover, there are four partner schools involved:

• Haugerud Skole, Norway
• Viksjöskolan, Sweden
• Canakkale Sehitleri Ortaokulu, Turkey
• Colegio La Inmaculada, Spain

Finally, two relevant institutions in the field of physical education are also part:

• AIESEP (International Association for Physical Education in Higher Education)
• EUPEA (European Physical Education Association)

Who is the UL team, and why are we interested in the project?

On behalf of the University of Limerick, our teams consist of five people from the PESS department: Dr. Antonio Calderón and Professor Ann MacPhail are leading the project, Dr. Carmen Barquero and Dr. André Moura are collaborating as teachers and critical friends, and myself, Dr. Marina Castro, working as a post-doctoral researcher for the project. We are thrilled to be part of an international community that provides a space for relevant stakeholders to contribute and discuss the quality of PETE. We believe that discussing in collective spaces is essential to improving the field of physical education. Our team is interested in constructing bridges between initial teacher education and physical education, and learning from other colleagues from different institutions and school physical education teachers. We hope that this collaboration will lead to a better understanding of the complexities of enacting pedagogies and signature pedagogies and their potential contribution to the physical education and teacher education field. We recognize that there are various discussions about the differences between initial teacher education and physical education, and we are excited to be part of a community that can contribute to these discussions and help improve the field.