Re-thinking bodies in cross-border physical education teacher education policies: a posthuman perspective

Abstract

While posthumanist studies have increased in Physical Education Teacher Education (PETE), traditional analytical approaches are still often employed for the analysis of policy documents, which limits the ways that we can understand policy work. The aim of this paper is to explore how bodies are conceptualised and assembled in PETE policies in one institution from Sweden and one from Australia using a posthumanist perspective. We understand these policies as material doings and enactments of the world that can allow us to think differently about PETE. By using the concepts of assemblage and plugging in, three result categories are presented: (1) Moving (human) bodies, (2) Teaching (human) bodies and (3) (The lack of) Non-human bodies. We then discuss these results in relation to our own historicities and previous research, and we advocate for new ways of analysing policy work in PETE.