Purpose
Our proposal adopts the Meaningful PE framework as a foundational conceptual and practical guide. The personalisation and individualisation of experiences that is offered by the Meaningful PE framework has potential to reach these children who are currently being discounted.
Project Description
To achieve this overall aim, the purpose of CHAMP-INC-MPE is to support collaboration between 10 Champion teachers and teacher educator partners in five countries (Ireland, Spain, Denmark, Norway and North Macedonia) to develop, implement and share pedagogies of Meaningful PE.
Teachers will explore how the Meaningful PE approach, which consists of democratic and reflective pedagogies, can be implemented in order to specifically promote more inclusive and equitable experiences for children in physical education. Primary teachers will be supported to master these ideas towards becoming a ‘Champion’ of Meaningful PE. 'Champions' are defined as teachers who know about, successfully implement, advocate and share their experiences of Meaningful PE.
Champion teachers will contribute to evidence gathering, dissemination and multiplier activities to support other teachers to implement Meaningful PE with transformative effects on PE.
Main activities
- Year 1: Transnational project meeting; Online training of Champion teachers of Meaningful PE (n=10 total) in five countries.
- Year 1-3: Collaboration between teachers and teacher educators to implement Meaningful PE; Sharing and evidence gathering of pedagogies related to inclusion and diversity.
- Year 3: Sharing activities, development of resources and sharing events to support primary teachers to implement Meaningful PE; Transnational project meeting.
Data collection
Data collection will be conducted in each of the five countries:
- Observation of teachers’ instruction
- Individual interviews or focus group interviews
- Teachers’ blog posts
- Pedagogical case studies developed by teachers and teacher educators
Results
The project produced a series of cases that are available to teachers and educators.
These 'cases' are snapshot examples of practice and reflection provided by teachers (mic.ul.ie) as they have explored how Meaningful PE can help ensure that all children are included and feel a sense of belonging in PE.
These cases are not intended as perfect tales about inclusion or a prescriptive formula to follow. Instead, the purpose of these snapshot stories is to promote reflection on how we practice inclusion as PE educators. These cases might also be used in teacher education courses to interrogate a variety of approaches to make Physical Education work better for individuals and groups.
More
Hear more about the cases at the Meaningful Podcast Experience: S2E03 «Chasing Chickens and Mending Fences» at BuzzSprout.com