‘Am I an easy unit?’ Challenges of being and becoming an activist teacher educator in a neoliberal Australian context

Abstract

Over the past decades, a body of scholarship has highlighted the possibilities of critical pedagogies in Health and Physical Education Teacher Education (HPETE) (Fitzpatrick, 2018; O'Sullivan, 2018; Walton-Fisette & Sutherland, 2018). Although we have a body of research on social justice and critical pedagogy in HPETE, there is much to learn about the challenges activist teacher educators face in the process of being and becoming activists, especially in neoliberal contexts. This collaborative self-study explores the challenges of being and becoming an activist teacher educator in a neoliberal Australian context and how those challenges were negotiated. Participants included the lead researcher and a critical friend. Data collected included: (a) lead researcher observations collected as field notes; (b) lead researcher reflective diaries after each teaching episode; (c) meetings between the lead researcher and the critical friend; (d) material produced in the lead researcher's classes. Data analysis involved induction and constant comparison. The lead author faced internal and external challenges. First, the lead author had to negotiate her struggles to share power with students. The teacher educator started to be seen as a 'very cool person', teaching 'an easy unit'. Second, the teacher educator struggled to understand the complexities of teaching in a neoliberal context. The teacher educator [with the help of the critical friend] negotiated those challenges by understanding the importance to set expectations for learning within an activist approach and understanding the power of activist approaches to challenge a neoliberal system. Future studies should continue to explore the challenges activist teacher educators face in a context where students are socialized in neoliberal context, and educator's performance is measured in the same system.

The (im)possibilities of praxis in online health and physical education teacher education

“…Rather, the starting point for this paper was our increasing unease about threats to critical pedagogical work in Initial Teacher Education (ITE) (Cochran-Smith et al, 2018;Enright et al, 2018), and our commitment to continue resisting dominant accountability regimes that undermine rather than serve the critical democratic project in Health and Physical Education Teacher Education (HPETE). Although we are based in Australia where advocacy for critical pedagogy has grown in HPETE (Enright et al, 2018), as teacher educators, we have faced challenges in advocating for equity and democracy as necessary moral constituents in our pedagogies (Enright et al, 2018;Luguetti and McLachlan, 2021). That being said, the unique challenges posed by having to transition one HPETE unit online did shape our study; it necessitated our engagement with new research questions and new literature, and included serious consideration of how we might construct and reconstruct critical pedagogies online (Boyd, 2016;Caruthers and Friend, 2014;Schneider and Smith, 2014).…”

“…Critical pedagogy underpins our activism and praxis; it is an essential characteristic of our pedagogy and activism. For us, critical pedagogy is an umbrella term for pedagogies underpinned by critical theory and orientated to action (Enright et al, 2018;Luguetti and McLachlan, 2021). As described by Freire (1987), it brings together activism and praxis.…”

A transformative learning journey of a teacher educator in enacting an activist approach in Physical Education Teacher Education

“…Acknowledging those previous studies, we believe that there is a need to explore the transformative learning journey PETE educators face when enacting an activist approach that considers young people’s voices. Few studies have analysed how PETE educators conceptualise and practice activist approaches considering young people’s voices (Oliver & Oesterreich, 2013; Oliver et al ., 2015; Luguetti & McLachlan, 2019; Nuñez Enriquez & Oliver, 2020). In these studies, the authors have argued that PETE educators should challenge their stereotypes and assumptions about the students they are working with.…”

“… 8 8 This collaborative self‐study explored the challenges of being and becoming an activist teacher educator in a neoliberal Australian context and how those challenges were negotiated. For more information, see Luguetti & McLachlan (2019). …”