ABSTRACT Background Each year, at the Invisible College – a one-day physical education and sport pedagogy (PESP) special interest group conference hosted prior to the main British Educational Research Association’s annual conference – a scholar is honoured with the Scholar Lecture in recognition of their significant contribution to the PESP field. This paper represents the 2024 Scholar Lecture. Purpose The purpose of this Scholar Lecture is to reflect on my contributions to the field of PESP, offering a modest overview of the development, current state, and future possibilities of Models-based Practice as seen through my research. Key concepts This paper draws inspiration from Charles Dickens’ novel, A Christmas Carol. In this work, the miserly protagonist is visited by three spirits – the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future – to warn him of the consequences of leading a parsimonious life. In the paper, the metaphor of research ghosts is used to explore the past, present, and a possible future of Models-based Practice (MbP) research. I argue that, over a research career, ideas and concepts not only evolve and mature but also go in and out of vogue. Despite this, ideas are often grasped and used by other researchers to ‘make a point’ without regard to the evolution of the same idea. As a result, researchers with a significant ‘back catalogue’ are left to live with the echoes of their past research. Consequently, I argue that both the genesis and the evolution of ideas need to be considered if we are to give due recognition to the work in the field of physical education and sport pedagogy. Discussion and conclusion Moving from the past to the present and a possible future of MbP research, I explore the ideas of model fidelity and hybrid pedagogical models, consider the dissonance that exists between my ghosts of research past and present and acknowledge that the fault for any (mis)interpretation of my ideas lies with me. Finally, I consider what I believe is missing from MbP research and reflect on the Whiteness, able-bodied-ness, lack of social justice-ness and Eurocentric nature of MbP. I note that there are, for example, few, if any, people of colour in models’ scholarship, and argue that we need to better understand the unique experiences of different groups in this space. Fundamentally, we need to consider the different bodies that might be impacted by our research and better acknowledge that the global crisis of school physical education is far more nuanced and far less global than we might imagine. Finally, we must ensure that we are not haunted by our own ghosts but instead see them as reminders of our oversights and assumptions, and ultimately as a vehicle through which to understand the ways in which our thinking quite rightly evolves over time.
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