Background, purpose, and theoretical framework: According to Knorr-Cetina, the development of knowledge occurs in objectual practice within what she refers to as epistemic cultures. We assume this also applies to knowledge in movement. However, there is a lack of insight into the epistemic cultures of movement practices, which may be why physical education (PE) is sometimes reduced to recreational physical activity or ‘correct technique’ in predetermined movements. In this article, we explore educational gymnastics, a practice often perceived by PE teachers as ‘difficult’ to teach. The purpose of the article is to explore how the epistemic culture of gymnastics informs gymnastics educators’ content knowledge (CK) when they teach educational gymnastics in a PETE context. How do experienced gymnastics educators use the tools that the epistemic culture offers in teaching to support objectual practice? Method: Four TEs specialising in educational gymnastics participated in a workshop with the authors of this paper, where TEs and authors jointly explored the epistemic culture of gymnastics through deliberation and practical examples about how teaching for the development of knowledge in movement is accomplished in gymnastics. Additionally, two gymnastics lessons conducted by one of the TEs were observed, during which ethnographic interviews were held with students and TEs. Knorr-Cetina’s notion of epistemic cultures, along with Jeraj and colleagues’ aspects of gymnastics feedback, framed the analysis. Results and conclusions: The analysis demonstrated how the TEs used aspects of feedback–visual perspective, visual experience, motor experience, personal relationship, methodological knowing, and biomechanical knowing–to create an objectual practice where the exploration of various gymnastic learning objects, in this case ‘stability’ and ‘rotation’ as they are expressed in a trampette jump with rotation, was the focus. The analysis indicated that the objectual practice oscillated between a convergent approach, which provided learners with a sense of direction, and a divergent approach, which provided learners with opportunities to explore different solutions to movement problems.

Background: In the last 40 years, physical education (PE) scholars have developed an array of approaches for teaching games. This development is positive in that PE professionals now have a wealth of practically-oriented scholarship to help them teach games. Yet the widespread availability of prescriptions for teaching games potentially reduces both the need and opportunity for teachers to exercise their practical judgement when working with games. Aim: The specific aim of the current investigation is to develop an understanding of how physical education teacher education (PETE) provides preservice teachers with opportunities to develop practical judgement with respect to games teaching in one course. Theoretical framework: We rely on Joseph Dunne's (Dunne, Joseph. 1997. Back to the Rough Ground: Practical Judgment and the Lure of Technique. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Pess; Dunne, Joseph. 2005. "An intricate fabric: Understanding the rationality of practice." Pedagogy, Culture & Society 13 (3): 367-390) notion of practical judgement. Practical judgement refers to the knowledge individuals use in complex and dynamic situations, where they need to find resonance between general principles relevant to a practice and the particular characteristics of the situation they are dealing with. Methods: Nine practical PETE lessons focusing on games were observed over a period of three weeks at one university in Sweden. Three three-hour lessons took place once with approximately 44 students. Three two-hour lessons took place twice (i.e. six times in total), each time with half the student cohort. Video data were produced by one researcher. The researcher alternated between active participation and passive participation in the lessons. Findings: The PETE lessons provided the preservice teachers with four different types of opportunities to exercise their practical judgement: (1) opportunities to judge how principles of games teaching would operate in school contexts; (2) opportunities to compare different approaches and content against one another; (3) opportunities to consider the teacher educator's pedagogical decisions; and (4) opportunities for preservice teachers to take on teaching roles. Discussion: We suggest that problematic situations where different interests compete and where deliberation is necessary, are valuable in PETE contexts. We also propose that providing space for preservice teachers to exercise their practical judgement may mean that they make loosely informed decisions. The investigation thus provides insights into a common trend seen in games scholarship. Impact statement: This case study reminds physical educators of the importance of working reflectively when teaching games. In the context of a long-standing debate about effective ways to teach games, the paper provides physical education teacher educators with concrete examples of how an expert games educator encouraged the preservice teachers in his course to use their practical judgement.

Previous research has presented contrasting notions of the potential impact of physical education teacher education (PETE) on professional teaching practice. Despite growing scholarship on PETE, work is needed to better understand how PETE can matter to would-be physical education (PE) teachers and teaching in the subject. This article aims to provide insights into when and how PETE matters to further understand how programmes can prepare preservice teachers (PSTs) for their future profession. The article draws on data from two larger research projects and nine doctoral projects conducted in Sweden from 2018 to 2024. We revisit this collective dataset through a reanalysis of all the original data across the projects, complemented by a two-day collaborative analysis workshop involving all researchers to explore when and how PETE matters throughout teacher education during campus-based courses, in the transitions between campus and school-based experiences, and in the shift from teacher education into the initial years of teaching. This iterative analytical process enabled the identification of four categories of when PETE mattered: (i) when knowledge in movement and movement cultures was taught, (ii) when coherence was accommodated, (iii) when opportunities for student subjectification were provided, and (iv) when PETE constituted a driving force for educational change. In contrast to studies that question the impact of PETE, we have pointed to instances when PETE mattered and how. The article shows various ways PETE can prepare PSTs for their upcoming professional lives as teachers and be a proactive part of driving PE as a subject area forward.

This conceptual paper takes a departure in the concept of powerful knowledge, developed by Young, M., & Muller, J. (2013. On the powers of powerful knowledge. Review of Education, 1(3), 229-250. https: //doi.org/10.1002/rev3.3017). Powerful knowledge can in short be described as knowledge that people need to understand and change the world. The aim is to examine when movement capability, as theorized through empirical research, becomes powerful. To delineate our perspective on knowledge, the concept of knowledge and knowing as theorized by Polanyi, M. (1962. Personal knowledge. University of Chicago Press) and(Carlgren, I. (2020). Powerful knowns and powerful knowings.Journal of Curriculum Studies. https: //doi.org/10.1080/00220272.2020.1717634) is outlined, showing that movement capability comprises ways of knowing which are neither merely physical(the doing) nor mental (the thinking), but rather a fusion of both.With a widened understanding of powerful knowledge as including the knowing involved in the doings, we illustrate through empirical examples from previous and ongoing research, how physical education can offer students possibilities to develop powerful movement capabilities.

Scholars have expressed concern about stagnation in physical education research. Specifically, they have claimed that physical education researchers have been investigating the same topics, presenting the same solutions, and at times fail to build on-or in some cases, even acknowledge-existing scientific findings. These are serious assertions that call into question the enterprise of researching in physical education. In this paper, we evaluate the merits of these claims. Through a Bernsteinian reading of four illustrations, the thesis we develop is that physical education has a horizontal knowledge structure. This knowledge structure affects the ways that scholars make scientific contributions, or in other words, how they develop knowledge. Understanding the connection between the knowledge structure and how knowledge is developed draws attention to: (1) the modest ways in which researchers typically make contributions, (2) the routine nature of repetition in research, and (3) the responsibilities researchers have to acknowledge the work of other researchers. We suggest that more generally, a Bernsteinian interpretation of the examples may help researchers acknowledge and accept slow disciplinary development and gain clarity regarding how and in which areas they can contribute in the future.

Research about physical education teacher education (PETE) indicates that the education program attracts homogeneous groups of students, consisting mainly of young men originating from the country in question and who have academic backgrounds. The purpose of this article is, through a case study of one Swedish PETE institution, to explore a cohort of 60 students regarding background characteristics (gender, social and migration background) and secondary characteristics (school success, experience of sport and physical activity cultures, and perceived physical ability). The case study indicated that the students have slightly more diverse backgrounds than is found in previous PETE research, but at the same time, they remain fairly homogeneous regarding, e.g. such as school success, the experience of sport and physical activity, and perceived physical ability. Attracting a more diverse group of students does not mean necessarily that the students are equally diverse when it comes to experiences of movement culture, and the abilities and knowledge that they have gained from participation in this culture.

Purpose: The aim of this investigation was to describe student learning when physical education teacher and students attempted to develop movement capability.

Method: The paper reports on the implementation of a 10-lesson pedagogical sequence. Data were generated using observations, interviews and student diaries with one grade nine class (26 students aged approximately 15 years) as they developed juggling capabilities. Data were analyzed using the notion of corporeal thresholds.

Results: Results show that: (a) a 'throw-throw-catch-catch' pattern emerged as a corporeal threshold for juggling within the sequence; (b) most learners had crossed the threshold at the outset and were able to experiment with different forms of juggling during the sequence; (c) some students crossed the threshold during the sequence. These students experienced liminal phases, characterized by frustration and an initial feeling that they were juggling in the 'wrong' way; and (d) some learners became stuck, pretended to know what to do, and did not cross the threshold during the 10 lessons.

Discussion/conclusion: Three issues related to the threshold approach are discussed, student identity and group membership, the process of learning, and the emotional dimensions of movement learning. The paper is concluded with reflections on the implications of the results for scholarship.

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