Authorizing student voice to examine what facilitates motivation, interests, and learning has shown potential for supporting students in taking ownership of their educational contexts. This study was conducted as participatory action research to co-construct an after-school middle school dance club in a southwest border town. The purpose of this…

Over the past decades, a body of scholarship has highlighted the benefits of an activist approach in Physical Education Teacher Education (PETE). This body of research shows that an activist approach enables teacher educators, student teachers and young people to work together in order to become conscious of the power structures in society that…

In an attempt to respond to the calls for dance educators to explore alternatives to harmful authoritarian teaching practices, we propose that one such route forward is an Activist Approach to teaching, which was originally developed in physical education contexts as a student-centered, inquiry-based approach that attends to issues of embodiment…

Background: Despite the value dance can bring to people's lives, many physical educators find dance intimidating (Goodwin [2010]. "Dance is Not a Dirty Word." "Strategies" 24 (1): 10-12.). Teachers' self-consciousness becomes problematic if they negotiate this discomfort by omitting dance as a movement option (MacLean [2018].…

Social aspects among Mexican society are based on gender hierarchy influencing every decision-making process. I was taught from a young age that every decision needed to come from me. While I had the opportunity to learn an activist approach to working with youth during my doctoral journey, I never thought it would challenge the epistemology of my…

Activist research engages all participants as co-researchers in order to challenge the status quo in hopes of creating spaces in which they will actively participate in their education and feel responsible for their own and others' learning. There are a number of challenges that researchers might face when engaging in activist research with…

Several studies demonstrate the benefits of educating for social justice in physical education teacher education programs [O'Sullivan, M. (2018). PETE Academics as public intellectuals and activists in a global teacher education context. "Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy," 23(5), 536-543], which supports that pre-service teachers…

Activist research engages all participants as co-researchers in order to challenge the status quo in hopes of creating spaces in which they will actively participate in their education and feel responsible for their own and others' learning (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 2009). There are a number of challenges that researchers might face when…

Purpose: This study was a 2-phase activist research project aimed at co-creating a prototype pedagogical model for working with youth from socially vulnerable backgrounds in a sport context. This article addresses the learning aspirations (learning outcomes) that emerged when we created spaces for youth to develop strategies to manage the risks…

Background: Much research and practice in the field of physical activity and physical education for girls has been trapped in a reproductive cycle of telling the "same old story" as if it is news over and over again, since at least the 1980s. A thread running through this narrative is that despite all of this research and related…

This study explores an activist approach for co-creating a prototype pedagogical model of sport for working with boys from socially vulnerable backgrounds. This paper addresses the key features that emerged when we identified what facilitated and hindered the boys' engagement in sport. This study was an activist research project that was conducted…

Background: Student-Centered Inquiry as Curriculum (SCIC) is an activist approach [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] inspired by years of research…

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…

Purpose: This study discusses the process of co-constructing a prototype pedagogical model for working with youth from socially vulnerable backgrounds. Participants and settings: This six-month activist research project was conducted in a soccer program in a socially vulnerable area of Brazil in 2013. The study included 17 youths, 4 coaches, a…