Social Justice in Physical Education: A Thematic Analysis of Pre-Service Teachers’ Open-Ended Responses

Social justice has become a cornerstone of contemporary educational systems, serving as both an ethical principle and a criterion for evaluating equity in learning opportunities. In the field of Physical Education (PE), its bodily and relational nature makes social hierarchies regarding ability, gender, and body image highly visible. This study adopted a qualitative descriptive design to explore how pre-service PE teachers conceptualize social justice and how they envision its didactic implementation within the Spanish curricular context. The findings provide a critical roadmap for teacher education programs, suggesting that fostering social justice requires moving beyond theoretical discourse toward specific pedagogical tools that address power dynamics and inclusion within Physical Education contexts.