This discussion is part of a research project that focuses on understanding ways of engaging girls in physical education and the way teachers respond to the challenges of disengagement. The data from the first blog (see the discussion 'Girls' Engagement in PE - A Research Study'). The second blog (below) has been developed from analysis of the tweets that occured as part of the initial PE chat. Ashley Casey (Loughborough University), Vicky Goodyear and Joanne Hill (both University of Bedfordshire) have created an anonymous teacher to represent over 1000 tweets that were gathered from posts made to Twitter. We ask you to help us to understand ways teachers might respond to girls' disengagment in physical education by responding to our blogger (see the blog below this statement). However, by posting to this blog you are consenting to your comments being used for research. In other words, the comments made will be analysed and presented in formats such as a book chapter, a conference presentation and a research paper, to inform the wider physical education community. Since the comments are already in the public domain, we aim to use your names, although we ask you not to identify your school, colleagues or the names of your students. If you would not like to have your name identified you can create an anonymous profile on PEPRN and still engage with the discussion. Alternatively, if you make a post and then decide that you would not like to be involved in the project, or if you would like to engage in the discussion but your post or name not to be used for research, then please contact Ashley Casey via: A.J.B.Casey@lboro.ac.uk, who will remove any information about yourself from the study. If you have any concerns about the project you can speak to Toni O’Donovan, who is independent contact from the research team and would be happy to help with your queries. Toni’s contact address is: toni.odonovan@beds.ac.uk .

Thanks for reading this - below we present our fictional blog (constructed from our analysis of over 1000 tweets)

A cry for help

I’m not normally given to public reflection, let alone blogging – in fact when it comes to my practice I am fairly inward facing and rarely share what happens in my classes with anyone – but this time I felt I had to. Something rocked me to the core a few weeks ago and I am forced to admit that I’ve been getting things wrong – badly wrong - and I’m now seeking help.

So what happened?

Well, I was happily minding my own business when I received an email from a colleague basically saying, “Have you seen this?” with a link below it. I followed the link – out of idle curiosity and came across a blog by someone called the “litmus test blogger”. I started reading the blog because I was fascinated why Jack would send me the link, but as I read on I became increasingly convinced that this was one of my students - a girl I taught to be precise. The bleacher run, Ms B…lots of things of things that were mentioned just stacked up.

At first I was angry but then I got scared. Then I got angry because I was scared. How dare this girl say such things and put my job at risk. I complained to my colleagues and then to my friends but it seems things are not as straightforward as I thought. Apparently what was considered good when I trained as a teacher is outdated now. After that we just talked and I started to seek out those who I could trust and whom I knew would tell it to me straight. Once I realized that this kid was right and that I was at least partially to blame for her poor PE experiences then I had to make some changes and find a better way forwards. That or quit.

So that is what this blog is, I suppose, a plea for help and a hope that you – the World Wide Web – can help me. I’ve already gone back to my friends for help, and my old Professor’s notes –that’s been useful - and my alumni and everyone has been great. It seems I’m not alone and that my ideas of what makes for good teaching (indeed my practices) are not as outdated as many others they have told me about. So there’s hope. Still, it’s not been a good few weeks and I’ve been forced to call my entire future career into question. I thought I was good and the kids were the problem but that now seems like a naïve and misjudged conception. I need to rethink all of it (my teaching that is) and go back to the drawing board. But the long and the short of it is - I’ve got three ideas (garnered from my discussions) – which I will discuss in turn – and I still need some help.

1. Student-centeredness –Talking to others there seems to be a need to move the focus of learning from me (as the teacher) and towards the students. People seem to suggest that students need to be key decision makers in the development of a student sensitive curriculum. But how? These seems a little out of left field to me and – as I will show later – are a good idea that needs some further investigation.

2. Apparently I’m supposed to have - Theories not just hunches of learning. But does this mean I have to go back to school? Apparently, as a teacher, I needed to use these theories of learning to help me create a student-centred experience 

3. Finally I am not the provider of learning anymore but, indeed, I should act as a gatekeeper instead. I shouldn’t tell students what to do but should create and facilitate learning because this (student-centredness) doesn’t happen by chance. My Professor would have said I should “cultivate environments…for learning” but what is the role of the teacher in all this?

Some people I talked to talked about student-centeredness – suggested, well, Choice. Choice would lead, they said, to greater levels of engagement by girls. When I asked what sort of choices I was told that girls should be afforded the opportunity to choose what activity they did, their clothing - indeed their very form of engagement – and in allowing this I would help the girls to value PE as a subject.

However, not everyone agreed. Some felt that choice in activity, clothing or forms of engagement were almost impossible to achieve, since some girls were so disconnected from PE that it wouldn’t make a difference anyway. Choice, they said, would be better if girls were given the opportunity to discover solutions for themselves. Yet choice also needs only to be given at the appropriate time and in the appropriate facility that allows it to be kept within, for example, the department’s PE program. Choice in this way was more representative of the realities of PE in school rather than teachers’ aspirations.

I have a problem with some of this though. I like the idea of ‘girl-friendly’ curricula, where activities are relevant to what these girls might do when they become adults – it seems stupid that I didn’t think of it before - but should they just replicate the fitness industry? These are activities that girls seem to associate with adult participation but shouldn’t student-relevant learning put adult choice behind student need? Surely, sometimes, they need to learn things that are developmentally appropriate? Also people talked about choice with older girls but isn’t it too late by then? Should this be choice for all?

In my conversations people talked about theories –something called Self-Determination Theory (SDT) came up a lot – that looks at ‘autonomy, competence and relatedness’. These are all ideas that I can relate to and I do want my students to engage in physical activity as a life choice but how do I learn about these things? I would love, as my friends suggested, to help these girls develop over years of interaction that allowed them to learn about community, gain an appreciation of others, and feel included. I do feel that learning with others is important and that helping them develop their self-esteem and self-confidence are vital but how can I do this when I have classes of 80 in one gym space and I only see them once a week? Relationships, as one friend suggested, might be key but where do I build them? How do I build them when I see new groups every year?

How do I build them when I am told that, with the right approach, I can get the boys dancing and the girls playing in goal? Am I out of date and out of touch, and as someone suggested, shouldn’t I really be considering  both the type of teacher I want to be and whether teaching was right for me? I worry that some of the people were so anti ‘bad teachers’ that – if I am one – I should be ashamed for ruining the efforts of so many good teachers. I know now that I am a gatekeeper to positive and student relevant learning but the blame cannot lie solely with me. Can it?

In some respects though, don’t I know what is best for these kids? I know they should be fit and I know what activities will help them learn and I know what they should learn. That’s my job…isn’t it? Isn’t some of fitness about experiencing discomfort and knowing how it benefits us? Or is it more than that? Should I set aside my agendas so I can help my students to find solutions to the issues and concerns that they have in their lives? In this way, they (as students) could drive the decision-making process and I would be left to create student sensitive curricula that are better positioned to serve my students’ needs.

Thanks for reading the blog. Before responding please consider the following questions:

1. Was the teacher's response radical?

2. Should she/he be blaming him/herself?

3. How do we create an effective PE environment for ALL learners?

4. What do we need to do to move this situation forwards?

These question don't need to frame your response but they may serve as useful prompts.