Exploring pupils' and physical education teachers' views on the contribution of physical education to health and wellbeing in the affective domain

Physical education is expected to play a significant role in developing pupils' health. This is the case in Scotland, where physical education is located in a prioritised cross-curricular area of Health and Wellbeing (HWB). However, there is a lack of evidence on the extent to which physical education contributes to pupils’ HWB under the new curriculum. Given that there is a growing interest in exploring how teachers enact pedagogies as a response to mental health issues, this study seeks to examine the practices of teachers who identify as being committed to pedagogies of affect within a sample of Scottish secondary schools. The purpose of this study was to report how pupils and teachers talk about the contribution of physical education to pupils' HWB, with a particular focus on the affective domain. The study on which this paper is based used qualitative methods within a grounded theory approach. Six physical education teachers who were from four different secondary schools participated in semi-structured interviews. Pupils were selected by the teachers and participated in focus group interviews. We outlined two main themes: (1) teachers' and pupils' practices in building confidence in pupils, which was exclusive to the female pupils and teachers; (2) teachers' concerns with building relationships with pupils. A notable finding was that teachers who had an explicit and direct intention for affective learning among their pupils sought to build a trusting relationship with pupils as a basic concern to implement teaching for affective learning, rather than the need for an emphasis on lesson contents and specific teaching approaches. This study could be a valuable resource for teacher professional learning as the findings referred to teachers' regular practices and their knowledge of the curriculum, especially for those who recognise a need to enact pedagogies of affect.