Are critical pedagogies the future for physical education?

Abstract

This paper is a response to the paper by Penney and Waring entitled ‘The absent agenda. Pedagogy and physical education’. It highlights aspects of their paper with which the author agrees, then considers aspects with which the author disagrees or has yet to be convinced. It continues by looking at a number of issues which the author considers to be important in taking forward the debate about the future development of physical education. These issues are: • what is physical education?; • how can descriptions of physical education be interpreted?; • what is unique about the subject and what does it contribute to the general education of pupils?; • what are the advantages and disadvantages of prioritising either of these?; and • what should the physical education curriculum look like? The paper stresses that this debate: • needs to include the whole profession; • is part of the ongoing debate about the development of physical education over time; and • should be open and not start from the premise that something is wrong with physical education.