Making sense of the alignment of social justice beliefs, theory, and pedagogy: being and becoming a physical education teacher educator for social justice

Background: Amid the growing theoretical discourse on social justice in education, there are increasing calls for research on how educators integrate social justice pedagogies into their teaching. Systematic reviews emphasise the need for examining how teacher educators’ beliefs and positions shape their pedagogical practices, advocating for collaborative, reflective approaches to bridge theory and practice. Purpose: Drawing connections between the broader field of teacher education and physical education teacher education, we observed that deep theorisation on social justice often lacks alignment with practical pedagogical implications and the realities of teacher educators. In this paper, four (4) physical education teacher educators examined how we aligned our social justice beliefs with pedagogical practices. Theory: Theoretical frameworks that guided this investigation included the theory of practice [Cochran-Smith, 2009. “Toward a Theory of Teacher Education for Social Justice.” In Second International Handbook of Educational Change, 445–467] which emphasises integrating knowledge, interpretive frameworks, and pedagogical strategies for social justice and positioning theory [Harré et al., 2009. “Recent Advances in Positioning Theory.” Theory & Psychology 19 (1): 5–31] which complements this by exploring how teachers’ beliefs and experiences influence social justice practices. Methodology: Using narrative inquiry and collaborative storytelling, we examined the complexities of translating theory into practice, addressing gaps in research regarding how [teacher] educators navigate personal, socio-cultural, and professional influences on their practice. Data included personal narratives, meeting notes, recorded and transcribed online meetings. Drawing from processes used by others [e.g. Lorusso et al., 2022. “Shifting Policy Perspectives: Revelatory Incident Narratives from Physical Education Stakeholders.” Curriculum Studies in Health and Physical Education 13 (3): 284–297], data collection and analysis followed a non-linear process involving articulation, interrogation, dialoguing, reflection, probing, and revisiting parts of the process and data. In addition, inductive data analysis [Charmaz, 2014. Constructing Grounded Theory. Sage] and collaborative live coding [Parameswaran, Ozawa-Kirk, and Latendresse, 2020. "To live (code) or to not: A new method for coding in qualitative research." Qualitative Social Work 19 (4): 630–644], deepened interpretation of the data. Findings: While each of us seeks to integrate social justice into our practice, we do so through diverse yet interconnected theoretical frameworks and pedagogies rooted in social justice theory. We discuss these variations through two key themes: (1) the ongoing and complex process(es) of becoming physical education teacher educators for social justice, and (2) the inextricably interrelated and interdependent relationship between pedagogy, theory, and the personal. Discussion and considerations: This research underscores the ongoing, reflective journey of becoming socially just physical education teacher educators. We invite others interested in becoming a teacher educator for social justice to move beyond the what towards the how and why of social justice through collaborative examination of beliefs, theory, and practice. We encourage teacher educators (and pre-service teachers) to enter the activist space of social justice, a journey that can be facilitated through collaborative storytelling. What this looks like is a personal endeavour, but at its core, is being (and becoming) an activist educator.