‘(Dis)empowered by what we see … ’: exploring the use of video-stimulated reflection in physical education pedagogy and practice

ABSTRACT

Reflexive accounts of physical education (PE) pedagogy and practice offer potential to reveal much about the intended and unintended learning, for both students and teachers, that can result from certain pedagogic encounters. Despite the promotion of reflective practice/s as a possible ‘panacea’ for improved teaching and learning, there is widespread concern that such approaches have relatively little influence in ‘shaking or stirring’ the deep-seated notions of effective pedagogy that are held by many physical educators [Mordal-Moen, K., & Green, K. (2014). Neither shaking nor stirring: A case study of reflexivity in Norwegian PE teacher education. Sport, Education and Society, 19(4), 415–434]. Inherent here are concerns that an increase in critical awareness alone does not necessarily lead to pedagogic translation [Hickey, C. (2001). “I feel enlightened now, but … ”: The limits to the pedagogic translation of critical social discourses in PE. Journal of Teaching in Physical Education, 20(3), 227–246]. Against that backdrop, we continue to support the use of reflective practice techniques as tools through which to interrogate the socio-cultural conditions and power relations that install enduring notions of effective pedagogy and dominant professional identities [Coia, L., & Taylor, M. (2017). Let’s stay in the swamp: Poststructural feminist reflective practice. In R. Brandenburg, K. Glasswell, M. Jones, & J. Ryan (Eds.), Reflective theory and practice in teacher education (pp. 49–62). Singapore: Springer Singapore]. In this paper, we explore PE pedagogy and practice through reflective practice with two female teachers in all-boys’ schools. Specifically, we critique the use of video-stimulated reflections from a feminist poststructuralist perspective to make visible the possibilities, challenges and tensions inherent in this methodological approach.

KEYWORDS:

• Reflective practice
• physical education
• pedagogy
• professional identity
• gender
• video-stimulated reflection

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Amanda Mooney has a PhD in Education from Deakin University. Her research draws on qualitative methodologies to explore the ways in which cultural and societal factors, particularly gender, shape identities, professional practice and pedagogies in Physical Education, Health and Sport.

Chris Hickey is Professor in Health and Physical Education, and Chair of the Academic Board at Deakin University. His research is focused on young people and the links between identity and issues of social cohesion and exclusion, with a particular focus on gender and the place of sport and education.

Notes

1 At the time of the study female PE teachers in Victoria were a rare commodity – only six female PE teachers were employed in boys’ schools and the schools in which they were employed were all Catholic all-boys’ schools governed by the Christian Brothers Education Commission who granted permission for this research.

2 ‘International rules’ is a code of football that is played in Australia and Ireland that combines the skills of Australia Rules Football (AFL) with Ireland’s national football code of Gaelic football.