Bio-pedagogical self-reflection in PETE: reawakening the ethical conscience and purpose in pedagogy and research

Abstract

What guides, in ethical terms, our teaching and research in physical education teacher education (PETE)? This is hard to say, because, by and large, the literature in this field has not addressed this question. To shed some light on this matter, in this paper (a) I analyze some reasons for this lack of analysis; (b) I draw from well-known intellectuals to argue for the need to incorporate our self back into our writings and teachings in PETE in order to enhance our ethical consciousness as the basis of our work; (c) I propose, and explain the process of, bio-pedagogical self-reflection (BPSR) as a viable means to explore the roots of our professional beliefs and actions and reawaken our ethical conscience in connection to research and pedagogy PETE; and (d) I share a personal story-reflection based on BPSR.

Keywords:

• Pedagogy
• Bio-pedagogy
• Critical self-reflection
• Ethics
• Physical education teacher education
• Research

Notes

1. My brief analysis of the biographies of Picasso, Nietzche, Kafka and Woolf have been extracted from more detailed accounts by Miller (1990a,b, 1997, 1998, 2006).

2. Needless to say, the opposite is also true. Those accustomed to being respected and cared for, will have no trouble identifying both poisonous pedagogy and institutional toxicity, and logically will seek venom-free contexts to develop their lives.

3. I use ‘(con)form’ to mean two things: what gives us form as persons and professionals and what make us accept and be resigned to our conditions complaining.

4. Bourdieu's (2006) quotes in this paper have been translated by the author.

5. I do not blame brother Máximo for the beatings. I presume that he, too, as a young kid in the seminary, had suffered the violence in his own flesh as a scapegoat of someone else's frustrations and pain. Had he been treated with love a respect, his violence would not have occurred. The same can be said for the other teachers who also beat me.

6. See Miller (1990a, 1998) and Foucault (1995).

7. See, also, Sparkes (2001, 2005).

8. I want to express my deepest appreciation to the two reviewers of this manuscript and the editor of this journal for their frank and helpful feedback.