Feeling the lesson: Affect, attunement and trauma-informed physical education

Trauma-informed education has gained attention across schooling, yet physical education (PE) remains under-developed in this area. This study examines how educators in a Scottish Educational Support Centre understood and enacted trauma-informed pedagogies in PE following the school-wide adoption of the neurosequential model in education (NME). Using conversational inquiry, semi-structured interviews were conducted with six educators trained in the NME, including PE teachers, classroom teachers and support staff. Analysis generated three findings: relationships were understood as the foundation of trauma-informed practice in PE, flexibility was central to responding to daily unpredictability and contextual constraints, and the NME functioned primarily as a reflective framework rather than a guide for lesson planning. Educators rarely planned lessons around the NME. Instead, they relied on knowing students well, adapting activities in the moment, and responding to shifts in the affective atmosphere of the gym. The study suggests that trauma-informed PE is enacted less through fidelity to models and more through context-responsive, relational practice that requires sustained structural support.