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We explored how a physical education teacher education (PETE) programme at an Australian university influenced physical education pre-service teacher (PEPST) sport teaching identities. Our methodology utilised Elias’s [2012a [1970, 1978]. What is sociology? Collected works (Vol. 5). University College Dublin Press] personal pronouns as a figurational model which shows how social group (‘we’) identity relates to outsiders (‘they’) as well as individual members (‘I’) within communities. We also drew upon the concepts of figuration [Elias, N. (2012b [1939]). On the process of civilisation, collected works (Vol. 3). University College Dublin Press], habitus [Elias, N. (2010 [1987]). The society of individuals, collected works (Vol. 10). University College Dublin Press] and established and outsider theory [Elias, N., & Scotson, J. L. (2008 [1965]). The established and the outsiders. Collected works (Vol. 4). University College Dublin Press]. By examining if and how the ‘I’ pronoun was used in a written assessment task, we sought to ascertain the extent PEPSTs might apply the concept of ‘PE-for-sport-literacy’ (PE4SL) in their future careers. Just over half the participants wrote ‘I’ statements about how they would enact sport teaching in convincing and believable ways, the remaining PEPSTs provided descriptive narratives, suggesting a limited engagement with PE4SL, using writing styles more akin to academic writing, with little or no use of the ‘I’ pronoun. Our findings are important because, there have been limited studies about the process of teacher identity formation in teacher education [Beauchamp, C., & Thomas, L. (2009). Understanding teacher identity: An overview of issues in the literature and implications for teacher education. Cambridge Journal of Education, 39(2), 175–189] and fewer studies about the construction of PEPST identity [Liu, J., & Keating, X. D. (2022). Development of the Pre-service Physical Education Teachers’ Teacher Identity Scale. European Physical Education Review, 28(1), 186–204] and PE teacher identity [Virta, J., Hökkä, P., Eteläpelto, A., & Rasku-Puttonen, H. (2019). Professional identity among student teachers of physical education: The role of physicality. European Journal of Teacher Education, 42(2), 192–210]. Our findings then, add to the finite stock of knowledge concerning PEPST teacher identity development, by drawing attention to the varied ways our participants engaged with PE4SL. This study reinforces previous research that highlighted that as teacher educators, the knowledge we teach does not automatically translate into beginning teacher practices [Brown, D. (2005). An economy of gendered practices? Learning to teach physical education from the perspective of Pierre Bourdieu's embodied sociology. Sport, Education and Society, 10(1), 3–23; Fernández-Balboa, J.-M. (2009). Bio-pedagogical self-reflection in PETE: Reawakening the ethical conscience and purpose in pedagogy and research. Sport, Education and Society, 14(2), 147–163]. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contemporarily Australian Indigenous peoples are portrayed by white Australians according to deficit understandings. As well as being inaccurate, this depiction, as part of a long-term civilising process, is an expression of 'fantasy-laden thinking' [Mennell, S., & Goudsblom, J. (1998). Introduction. In S. Mennell & J. Goudsblom (Eds.), Norbert Elias on civilization, power, and knowledge: Selected writings (pp. 1–45). The University of Chicago Press]. Such reasoning, apart from being false, serves to create and reinforce stereotypes, while promoting the 'superiority' of the Western world. Sport was used by the British as part of the process of civilisation to globally promote such reality inadequate accounts of Indigenous peoples, through its use as a 'civilizing' instrument. Sport, including rugby league and Australian football (AFL), was used in Australia to teach British values and gentlemanly behaviour to show Aboriginal people their 'place'. This study explains how both sports have meaning for high school students, as an unintended outcome of their introduction to Australia's Indigenous peoples. Figurational sociology, through its concern with long-term processes, is used to examine the importance of AFL and rugby league to 12 Year 7–10 (age 12–16 approximately) participants. Data were collected using six semi-structured interviews and were interpretively analysed. Instead of experiencing a sense of being 'civilized' or enlightened through their involvement in AFL and rugby league, participants instead spoke about both sports offering: (i) personal meaning through enjoyment and identity creation; (ii) family and community connections; (iii) support networks from family members, peers and others; and (iv) opportunities to continue their culture. It would seem then that the introduction of rugby league and AFL to Australia's Indigenous peoples has resulted in the adaption of both sports for cultural and other reasons. It is possible that similar reconstruction of meaning is experienced by Indigenous groups beyond Australia who were similarly colonised by Western nations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This project investigated how Australian Capital Territory (ACT) teachers of physical education (PE) assess games and sports as a Focus Area in the Australian curriculum health and physical education (AC: HPE). Figurational sociology, including the concept of habitus was used to inform the study and make sense of the findings. The figuration we examined was ACT primary and secondary school teachers across the government, independent, Catholic and private sectors who are mutually oriented towards assessing their students in PE. There were two sources of data: Semi-structured group interviews and current and historical PE curricula. Interview data were collected by each of the authors, from 19 teacher participants split into three groups, comprising two groups of six participants and one of seven participants. Our other data sources were the current AC: HPE curriculum and four historical ACT PE curricula. We used the interview data and the said curriculum documents to reconstruct the macro, micro and sociogenesis levels of the figuration and thematic and content analysis were used to analyse the data. We found that participants used approaches to assess games and sports that were not fit for purpose, were not evidence-based and that were typically based on subjectivity. Further, participants had limited understanding of how to authentically assess games and sports, with the assessment of skills emphasised at the expense of other criteria. This prioritising of skills assessment was also identified as a long-term process within ACT PE teaching. An over-emphasis on skills assessment contrasted with the assessment of game strategy, which although a requirement in the AC: HPE and the historical curricula, received little attention. Our findings are important, because the gap in teacher knowledge we revealed, led to teacher professional learning to upskill ACT teachers in the use of evidence-based approaches to assessing games and sports. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]