The PEP-4-QPE in Action: My Research Residency at the University of Lorraine – dr jenna lorusso.

What is policy and why does it matter?

These were the two central questions that myself and third year undergraduate physical education students at the University of Lorraine considered together during my research residency there from 11 to 25 October.

These students were the first to officially engage with parts of the Policy Engagement Programme for Quality Physical Education (PEP-4-QPE), an Open Educational Resource developed from the research conducted in my Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) fellowship.

The lessons were held in a mix of English and French and, among other things, engaged students in the stories of real physical education stakeholders’ policy work at micro, meso, and macro levels and had them map the physical education policy landscape in their own French context. 

Focus groups with students before and after the lessons provided insight into students’ conceptualizations of policy and their impressions of engaging in policy-focused professional learning. These topics signal my post-MSCA fellowship research directions and collaborations with University of Lorraine researchers. 

During my visit I was also invited to deliver a public lecture to the university’s Faculty of Sport Sciences on the topics of the MSCA fellowship opportunity, the MSCA research underpinning the PEP-4-QPE, as well as research ethics in Ireland.

Finally, I was invited to share the PEP-4-QPE with sport stakeholders at the conference of ‘Development of Sport for All: Current Challenges and Future Directions”. Engaging questions from the audience highlighted some of the key features of the resource such as the intricacies of the citizen science used to develop it.

A massive thank you to Prof Aurélie Van Hoye, a former PESS MSCA fellow, and the University of Lorraine’s Faculty of Sport Sciences for their hospitality during my stay and French Embassy in Ireland ‘s French Excellence Research Residency program for facilitating.  

Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union. The European Union cannot be held responsible for them.