My presentation at the British Educational Research Association's (BERA) International Conference, University of Warwick, 1-4 September 2010. This was part of practitioner research in physical education symposium.

1. Practitioner research in physical education Chair: A. Casey, University of Bedfordshire EDUCATIONAL ACTION RESEARCH: A MEANS OF COPING WITH THE SYSTEMIC DEMANDS FOR CONTINUAL PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN PHYSICAL EDUCATION? Ashley Casey, University of Bedfordshire PHYSICAL EDUCATION TEACHERS’ LEARNING, GENDER KNOWLEDGE, AND PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE Lori Beckett,Leeds Metropolitan University RECREATING THE MAN IN THE MIRROR: REFLECTIONS ON THE USE, MISUSE AND NON-USE OF DANCE WITHIN PHYSICAL EDUCATION Saul Keyworth, University of Bedfordshire Discussant: D. Tannehill, University of Limerick

2. Educational action research:A means of coping with the systemic demand for continued professional development in physical education Ashley Casey University of Bedfordshire

3. CPD is about the giving and receiving of a set body of knowledge

4. Practitioner Research a sustainable and personally involved alternative

5. Practitioner research as sustained, sustainable and meaningful CPD Professional Developmentas a Systemic Requirement Towards an alternative means of CPD Three Themes

6. CPD as aSystemic Requirement

7. Schön (1983) referred to the swampland of professional practice which has quagmired practitioners in a year-on-year cycle of proving they were competent to work in their chosen profession.

8. “CPD has become the yard stick against which competence is measured ” Edwards and Nicoll (2006)

9. One day, out of context courses are, at best, ineffective Armour, (2010); Muijs and Lindsay (2008)

10. This has created a ‘Nike’ philosophy around CPD Just do it Adapted from Brookfield (1995)

11. Created a CPD Doxa

12. Up-skilling through one-day courses Systemically Driven

13. “Common sense” doxa emphasises the procurement of technical expertise learnt away from the workplace and later applied within it. Edwards and Nicoll (2006)

14. In Physical Education that means National Governing Body Awards

15. Three Teachers Edwards & Nickle (2008)

16. Parallel Discourses Talked About Actioned

17. Technical Expert

18. Competent Practitioner

19. Parallel Discourses Talked About

20. Reflective Practitioner

21. Towards an alternative means of CPD

22. Teacher-as-researcher Stenhouse (1975)

23. an ‘extended professional ’ “ a creative and autonomous individual within a broader community of teacher-scholars working in the classroom as a living laboratory and striving for continuing development through thoughtful experimentation. ”

24. Teachers have heavier workloads than most contemporaries PricewaterhouseCooper (2001)

25. “ Where teachers are able to reflect, access new ideas, experiment and share experiences within school cultures and where leaders encourage appropriate levels of challenge and support, there is greater potential for school and classroom improvement ” Muijs and Lindsay (2008, 195)

26. Educational Action Research

27. Practitioner research has the potential to challenge the current doxa and help education in becoming a reflective profession.

28. sustaining factors for effective professional development Opportunities to work with other educators in professional communities Differentiated leadership, advancement prospects and good pay School conditions that support and make them feel successful Morgan, Ludlow, Kitching, O'Leary and Clarke (2010)

29. Teaching is not simply about educating. It is instead about understanding and working within the micropolitics of school Ball (1987)

30. Emancipating Practitioners

31. " a deliberative process for emancipating practitioners from the often unseen constraints of assumptions, habit, precedent, coercion and ideology " Carr and Kemmis (1986, 192)

32. Adapted from Kemmis (2009)

33. Practitioner Research as sustained, sustainable and meaningful CPD

34. Case Study

35. Previous CPD Taught every lesson in similar ways

36. Action Research CPD Taught developmentally appropriate and progressive lessons

37. action research allowed me to change my understanding of my practices the conditions in which I practised my practice Adapted from Kemmis(2009)

38. my practice

39. “dominant competitive, aggressive, not-too-bright individual… (the) companionable ‘man (sic) of action’, but not someone with whom to engage in professional dialogue” Whitehead & Hendry (1976, p.75)

40. My classrooms were private places where the only valued contributions were mine

41. I adopted a non-traditional approach to teaching and learning as a result of my action research.

42. my understanding of my practices

43. “rapid socialisation into a redundant occupational culture and the obsolete practices it sustains” Elliott (1991, p. 7).

44. My way out of this institutional socialisation was to explore alternatives to the ‘infallible expert model.’ Elliott (1991)

45. Practitioner research helped me, as a practitioner, to do something ‘outside the box’ within the context in which I taught.

46. the conditions in which I practised

47. There are aspects of school life that teachers must master

48. These institutional demands require staff to adopt coping strategies.

49. The curriculum is a noticeable way through which the academic demands of the school are managed

50. New terms of engagement

51. Practitioner research as sustained, sustainable and meaningful CPD Professional Developmentas a Systemic Requirement Towards an alternative means of CPD

52. There is no beginning or end in action research only a reporting of the findings to date.

53. I continue to de-privatise my classrooms, locating my reflections, my practice and me within my new institution and within the theories that I read and write

54. References Armour, K.M. (2010). Keynote Address at the 16th International Reflective Practice Conference -“Reflection in Action”, University of Bedfordshire, 23-25th June 2010. Ball, S.J. (1987). The mirco-politics of school: towards a theory of school organization. London: Routledge. Brookfield, S. (1995). Becoming a critically reflective teacher. San Francisco: Jossey Bass. Carr, W., & Kemmis, S. (1986). Becoming Critical: Education, knowledge and action research. London: Falmer. Edwards, R., & Nicolls, K. (2006). Expertise, competence and reflection in the rhetoric of professional development. British Educational Research Journal, 32, 115-131. Elliott, J. (1991). A model of professionalism and its implications for teacher education. British Educational Research Journal, 17(4), 309-318. Kemmis, S. (2009). Action research as a practice-based practice. Educational Action Research, 17, 463-474. Morgan, M., Ludlow, L., Kitching, K., O'Leary, M. & Clarke, A. (2010). What makes teachers tick? Sustaining events in new teachers' lives. British Educational Research Journal, 36, 191-208. Muijs, D., & Lindsey, G. (2008). Where are we at? An empirical study of levels and methods of evaluating continuing professional development. British Educational Research Journal, 34 (2), 195-211. PriceWaterhouseCoopers. (2001). Teacher workload study. London: Department for Education and Skills. Schön, D. A. (1983). The reflective practitioner: How professionals think in action. New York: Basic Books. Stenhouse, L. (1977). An introduction to curriculum research and development . London: Heinemann. Whitehead, N. J., & Hendry, L. B. (1976). Teaching physical education in England - description and analysis. London: Lepus Books.

55. Image Credits Slide 3 – Stavros Kamma (almost anyway)’s flickrstream Slide 6 - mizuumi21's flickrstream Slide 7 - Travis S.'s flickrstream Slide 8 - Tina M’s flickrstream Slide 9 - Cavendish Conference Venues‘ flickrstream Slide 10 - AHXAА Peter Pan Welcome to my photostream'sflickrstream Slide 11 - Timothy Schenck'sflickrstream Slide 12 - Samvida'sflickrstream Slide 13 - Rudisillart’sflickrstream Slide 14 - Neil Ennis‘ flickrstream Slide 17 - talulahgosh'sflickrstream Slide 19 - tegebug'sflickrstream Slide 20 - sharply_done’sflickrstream Slide 21 -raisinsawdust's and naturgucker.de'sflickrstream

56. Image Credits (cont.) Slide 24 - ilovedrywell'sflickrstream Slide 25 - Malena_c'sflickrstream Slide 26 - superkimbo in BKK's flickrstream Slide 29 - emilylemsip'sflickrstream Slide 28 - Historyboy‘sflickrstream Slide 34 - esanatha'sflickrstream Slide 39 – RinkRatz’sflickrstream Slide 40– Smart Went Crazy’s flickrstream Slide 43 – abluedude’sflickrstream Slide 44 – From flickrstream Slide 45 – Steve FE’s flickrstream Slide 47 – Bob Merco’sflickrstream Slide 48 – Mina Sherif’sflickrstream Slide 50– Edward Niskarka’sFlickrstream Slide 53 – Buddista’sFlickrstream