Lessons learned about school-based teacher professional learning in the context of becoming-activist

Traditional approaches to professional learning in physical education often involve off-site workshops, criticised for their lack of integration into school contexts (Armour & Yelling, 2004; Darling-Hammond et al., 2017). Conversely, research suggests that school-based professional learning offers high ‘ecological validity’ (Kirk et al., 2017) in so far as learning in situ has direct relevance and application to teachers’ work. This study aims to explore how teachers experience school-based professional learning as they learned to enact a student-centred activist approach (Oliver & Kirk, 2015) with their physical education classes. This qualitative research project was carried out with two teachers’ in two diverse secondary schools within Glasgow over the duration of one-school year. The teachers were supported in using an activist approach within their schools, combined with occasional reflective group meetings. Data generated included semi-structured individual and group interviews with teachers and their pupils, lesson observations, and field notes, analysed using dialectical thinking. Initial coding involved versus coding, followed by concept coding (Saldaña, 2021). These concepts were woven into narratives to represent the challenges teachers faced in enacting an activist approach in their school settings (Freeman, 2017). Three main findings emerged throughout teachers’ becoming-Activist journeys: 1) the influence of traditional physical education contexts, 2) struggles with teachers’ perceptions of physical education and professional identities, and 3) lessons learned in supporting school-based professional learning. We propose that school-based professional learning offers some advantages over traditional off-site approaches given its alignment with real-world challenges teachers encounter in their unique school contexts. Nonetheless, the challenges identified also prompt considerations for future school-based professional learning programmes.