Sport coaching can be seen as an interdisciplinary endeavour, where coaches integrate multiple disciplinary knowledges to support participants achieving a variety of desirable outcomes (e.g. learn new skills, meet new people, develop greater confidence). Limited research however has considered "what" knowledge has been used as the basis…

Subject marginalisation is an on-going concern across the primary education sector, particularly for the arts and humanities. This poses issues for pre-service teacher partnerships and for higher education institutions (HEIs) evaluating the role of subjects within their teacher training courses as they reform their curricula to prepare students to…

What kind of knowledge informs the practice of English teachers? Recent policy developments, in England and elsewhere, have sought to specify a knowledge base for teachers. Drawing on case studies produced by pre-service English teachers, this essay explores the complex, multifaceted and situated character of the knowledge that teachers develop in…

Subject knowledge enhancement (SKE) is considered an essential part of initial teacher training (ITT) for secondary school roles. The article gives an insight into trainee teachers' different experiences and approaches they used to expand and acquire Physics and Mathematics subject knowledge, alongside other forms of knowledge. The unique feature…

Previous studies have reported that generalist primary teachers lack the confidence and competence to teach Physical Education (PE). In response, schools have outsourced PE to external providers. This paper examines data from an online survey of 175 pre-service teachers (PSTs) in England and their perceived confidence to teach primary PE. Findings…

This paper argues that professional discourse relating to subject knowledge for primary teaching is less than coherent in the context of initial teacher training (ITT). This study explored the ways in which the term subject knowledge was conceptualised and interpreted by beginning primary teachers. The research was conducted across two ITT…

Teaching, irrespective of its geographical location, is fundamentally a relational practice in which unique ethically complex situations arise to which teachers need to respond at different levels of ethical decision-making. These range from "big" abstract questions about whether or not what they teach is inherently good, through to…

The present study examined preservice teachers' (PSTs) knowledge of basic language constructs across four different English-speaking teacher preparations programs. A standardized survey was administered to participants from Canada (n = 80), England (n = 55), New Zealand (n = 26), and the USA (n = 118). All participants were enrolled in…

Background: The role that content knowledge, an important component of practical subject matter knowledge, plays for pre-service teachers (PSTs) in physical education teacher education (PETE) remains contested and unclear. Whilst some researchers emphasise the facilitative nature of such knowledge, others criticise that too much focus on content…

This paper reports on the reflections of twenty-one primary preservice teachers following a microteaching experience that focused on the use of talk and collaborative group work, as part of a primary mathematics specialist education programme. Based on the didactic strategies of exploratory talk, the experience intended to develop knowledge for…

This paper presents a comparative critique of key education and teacher education policies in England adopted by New Labour (1997-2010) and the Coalition government (2010-2015). It focuses on direct measures intended to alleviate the effects of poverty on young people's educational outcomes, and on teacher education policies with implications for…

This paper reports research that responded to my experience of teacher trainees' perception of a polarity between knowledge and skill in English post-compulsory education and training (PCET). I developed a model of knowing designed to promote an alternative to this binary conceptualisation. The research set out to operationalise "Dimensions…

This article uses a conceptual approach to understand how qualified teachers in England with occupational experience use pedagogic and occupational knowledge and experiences in their teaching practices. The conceptual approach consists of two parts: (1.) "Putting Knowledge to Work" (PKtW), a generic concept which uses…

The UK Coalition Government has recently introduced a number of education policies that aim to reform initial teacher development in England. It has argued that the training of new teachers will be improved by giving greater priority to the development of "key teaching skills". This narrowly practical and overly managerial approach to…

Despite growing consensus that dualistic thinking and hierarchically organised binary categorisations must be challenged if inclusion is to be achieved, advice on the design and implementation of non-dualistic pedagogies is less readily available. The role of teacher educators should therefore include: the modelling of possible actions that…