Academic publishes new book about Covid-19 and Physical Education

Principal Lecturer Dr Gary Stidder has published a new book that addresses the teaching of physical education.

The book specifically assesses the landscape of physical education today and the issues that shape it as a curriculum subject, particularly in the era of COVID-19. It explores the processes of transformation and change that follow government policy and considers what this means for physical education practitioners in schools.

The book covers a wide range of important issues, across (micro-) political, social-cultural, historical and post-modernist categories. Bringing together current research with auto-biographical and anecdotal reflections on the realities of PE teaching, it considers the significance of issues such as the emphasis on competitive sport in schools; the socialisation of teachers; the influence of politics and policy on the classroom; colonisation and decolonisation of the curriculum; digital technologies; the health and wellbeing agenda, and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dr. Gary Stidder said: “In 2015, I published ‘Becoming a Physical Education Teacher’. I was not expecting to write a second book, but so much has changed in the world of physical education in such a short period of time that I felt duty bound to do so.

“The concept of this book literally began days into the first UK lockdown in March 2020 caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and was inspired by my teenaged children who were forced to learn for home for fifty percent of the academic year.”

Teaching Physical Education is published by Routledge on 25 October and can be pre-ordered.