Celebrating the 2026 AIESEP Early Career Scholar Awardees
AIESEP is proud to celebrate the recipients of the 2026 AIESEP Early Career Scholar Award, an award that recognises emerging scholars who are shaping the future of sport pedagogy, physical education, physical activity, and related fields through innovative, rigorous, and impactful research.
The 2026 award cycle reflects both the vitality and the competitiveness of our field. This year, AIESEP received 11 high-quality applications from early career scholars working across different countries, institutions, and research traditions. The selection process was rigorous, and the review panel was deeply impressed by the depth, originality, and social relevance of the submissions. From this strong pool, three awardees were selected, each representing distinctive yet complementary contributions to the field.
We are delighted to announce the 2026 AIESEP Early Career Scholar Awardees:
- Dr Carla Valerio (Southern Cross University, Gold Coast, Australia)
- Dr Craigory V. Nieman (College of Education, University of South Florida, USA)
- Dr Taemin Ha (Department of Family, Nutrition, and Exercise Sciences, City University of New York – Queens College, USA)
Each of these scholars exemplifies the spirit of the AIESEP Early Career Scholar Award. Their research demonstrates methodological rigour, theoretical insight, and a strong commitment to addressing contemporary challenges in education, sport, health, and physical activity. Importantly, their work also reflects AIESEP’s core values: international collaboration, social responsibility, and the pursuit of research that matters—both within academia and beyond it.
Congratulations to the 2026 AIESEP Early Career Scholar Awardees! 🎉
Get to Know the Award Winners!
Dr Carla Valerio is a Senior Lecturer and researcher in Health and Physical Education at Southern Cross University, Gold Coast, Australia. Carla is Portuguese and completed her PhD at the University of Porto, where she conducted a two-year ethnographic study examining the cultivation of Communities of Practice within a Physical Education Teacher Education programme, with a particular focus on pedagogical innovation through student-centred approaches.
After moving across the world, Carla has remained actively researching professional learning communities and social learning spaces, particularly exploring how meaning and value are negotiated amongst community members and how social learning strategies can act as catalysts for pedagogical change, supporting more collaborative and reflective approaches to teacher education and professional learning. Her research is underpinned by a strong commitment to cultivating collaboration with a focus on participatory research, predominantly employing ethnographic designs to examine the social processes that shape learning across initial teacher education, professional learning contexts, and the implementation of innovative pedagogical approaches in both higher education and school-based settings. In recent work, Carla has extended her research into additional contexts, including outdoor and adventurous learning, to further explore how to cross the boundaries of teacher learning and professional growth across diverse schooling contexts, from outdoor settings to mainstream classrooms, and she has since been engaged in co-design research with school teachers.
Alongside this, Carla engages in self-study and autoethnographic research to critically examine her own practice as a teacher educator and her development as an international early-career academic and researcher. This reflective strand of her work is grounded in a strong orientation towards continuous improvement and professional learning, and has focused on cultivating a sense of community among ECRs in the field through sharing her experience. Carla’s research approach is inherently collaborative and internationally oriented. She prioritises scholarly connections with academics worldwide, with AIESEP serving as a key platform for these collaborations. Carla considers this work central to both her research and her capacity to serve effectively in her role as Co-Chair of the AIESEP Early Career Researcher Special Interest Group.
Dr. Craigory V. Nieman is an Assistant Professor of Instruction in Physical Education in the College of Education at the University of South Florida. He earned his B.S. in Physical Education from Ohio University, an M.Ed. in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Tampa, and a Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction with a concentration in Teacher Education
from the University of South Florida. His work centers on preparing future teachers for diverse educational settings and promoting culturally responsive approaches to physical education.
At USF, Dr. Nieman teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in physical education and athletic coaching and supervises pre-service teachers during their clinical and internship experiences. Beyond teaching, he serves as Undergraduate Program Coordinator for the Physical Education program and coordinates the Science of Physical Activity and Athletic Coaching minors.
Dr. Nieman’s research focuses on culturally responsive pedagogy, teacher preparation, and equity in physical education. He has published articles in leading journals, such as the Journal of Teaching in Physical Education and Curriculum Studies in Health and Physical Education. He regularly presents at state, national, and international conferences such as SHAPE Florida, SHAPE America, AERA, and AIESEP, and has even co-chaired the local organizing and was a member of the scientific committees for the 2025 AIESEP Conference. His contributions to the profession have been recognized with awards such as the 2025 USF Undergraduate Teaching Award (top 3 awardee), 2025 SHAPE Florida Educational Leadership Award, and the 2022 SHAPE America Ruth Abernathy Presidential Scholarship. He is an active member of SHAPE America, SHAPE Florida, AIESEP, and AERA, where he has held multiple leadership and service roles.
Twitter/X: @nieman_PE
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/craig-nieman-062946b8/
Dr. Taemin Ha is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Family, Nutrition, and Exercise Sciences at the City University of New York–Queens College. Originally from South Korea, he earned his Ph.D. from the University of Northern Colorado (UNC), specializing in Physical Education and Physical Activity Leadership with a minor in Applied Statistics and Research Methods. During his doctoral studies, he served as a Research Associate at the UNC Active Schools Institute, where he refined his scholarly
foundation and developed specialized expertise in physical education teacher education (PETE) and K-12 physical activity promotion.
As an interdisciplinary researcher, Dr. Ha focuses on enhancing youth health through a “whole-of-school” approach. His work explores innovative ways to leverage technology in K-12 settings, specifically through the design and implementation of technology- infused interventions that maximize movement opportunities across the entire school day—spanning physical education classes, academic classrooms, and extracurricular settings. To bridge the gap between innovation and practice, he also examines the factors influencing technology adoption among pre-service and in-service teachers. An active contributor to the field, Dr. Ha has authored over 40 peer-reviewed articles and delivered more than 70 presentations at international, national, and regional conferences.
