PUBLICATION: EMBEDDING PRACTITIONER RESEARCH AS A PEDAGOGY FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE IN PHYSICAL EDUCATION TEACHER EDUCATION.

Research impact: This study contributes to the growing field of social justice in PETE by positioning practitioner research as a pedagogy for social justice with potential to support PSTs in navigating the complex journey from awareness to action in their school placement and future teaching practice. It is another example of evidence-informed teaching and assessment in the BSc in Physical Education and the PME Physical Education at the University of Limerick. Specifically, we aim to explore pre-service teachers’ (PSTs’) experiences with practitioner research as a pedagogy of social justice. Methods: The context of this study is the SRASI project (funded by SCoTENS), a collaboration between teacher educators and PSTs in two PETE programmes, one in the North of Ireland and one in the South of Ireland, that happened throughout the Covid-19 pandemic. The study involved three teacher educators and twelve PSTs from the North and five teacher educators and twenty-four PSTs from the South, with support from international experts in social justice and PETE. The perceived similarity of challenges across jurisdictions, as articulated by the PSTs, may stem from the limited time available to engage in more nuanced discussions that explore these local complexities. As ableism and sexism (to a lesser extent) may be considered ‘low-hanging fruit’ in the broader conversation on social justice, there is a need to delve further into other significant issues, such as colonialism, religionism, and how the legacy of conflict in Northern Ireland continues to impact contemporary educational practice.

https://doi.org/10.1080/17408989.2026.2665675

Calderón, A., Scanlon, D., Luguetti, C., Murtagh, E., Walton-Fisette, J., MacPhail, A., … Moody, B.