A transformative learning journey of a teacher educator in enacting an activist approach in Physical Education Teacher Education

Abstract

Over the past decades, a body of scholarship has highlighted the benefits of an activist approach in Physical Education Teacher Education (PETE). This body of research shows that an activist approach enables teacher educators, student teachers and young people to work together in order to become conscious of the power structures in society that lead to social inequities. Although we have a body of research on social justice and critical pedagogy in PETE, there is much to learn about physical education teacher educators’ learning journeys in enacting activist approaches. By using a critical autoethnography approach, this study explores a transformative learning journey experienced by the lead author in enacting an activist approach based on young people’s voices. The PETE educator’s learning journey emerged from the reflexive process in the last 8 years with the second author. A critical theoretical framework based on critical pedagogy and feminist studies is employed to discuss the transformative learning journey presented in this paper. By establishing a collective meaning, we aim to provide rich instances of critical pedagogies that add to the project of identifying various approaches to social justice in PETE contexts. This is a relevant story to PETE practitioners who might be attempting to take a critical stance in contemporary university contexts.