Background: Activist approaches engage learners in order to create spaces in which youth will actively participate in their education and feel responsible for their own and others' learning [Cochran-Smith, M., and S.L. Lytle. 2009. "Teacher research as stance". In "The sage handbook of educational action research," edited by Susan Noffke and Bridget Somekh, 39-49. Washington, DC. Sage]. While there are consistent favorable findings from activist research in PE and physical activity settings, there is a need to further explore the challenges teachers/researchers face learning to use an activist approach to teaching [Oliver, K. L., and D. Kirk. 2015. "Girls, physical education and gender: An activist perspective." London: Routledge Publishers]. Purpose: This study explores how educators, in different contexts, learn to use an activist approach called Student-Centered Inquiry as Curriculum (SCIC) [Oliver, K.L., and H.A. Oesterreich. 2013]. Student-centered inquiry as curriculum as a model for field-based teacher education. "Journal of Curriculum Studies" 45 (3), 394-417. doi: 10.1080/00220272.2012.719550.), in order to better facilitate students' interest, motivation and learning in physical education and physical activity settings. Research setting and participants: Participants included a university professor, a college instructor, a postdoctoral student, a doctoral student, and a pre-service teacher. Data were collected between January-May 2016. Data collection and analysis: Data collection included weekly field notes and debriefings following observations, teacher artifacts, weekly collaborative group meetings, and two individual interviews per teaching participant. Discussion and conclusions: The main challenge that emerged was learning how to move from a theoretical understanding of student centered pedagogy to the practice of student centered pedagogy. Specifically, the amount of time that was necessary to build a foundation that allowed for student and teacher understanding, respect, and comfort, negotiating teacher and student assumptions that were embedded in the status quo of PE, and the struggle to gather and use meaningful data to guide pedagogical decisions. We negotiated these challenges through our professional learning community whereby we worked to all be able to see and name what was happening in our individual classes and collectively planned what was needed to move forward through these challenges.