Unlearning in Health, Sport and Physical Education

About the SIG

The Unlearning in Health, Sport and Physical Education (HSPE) SIG brings together researchers, educators and practitioners interested in exploring how we might learn differently about, through and with movement. Drawing on post-human, post-qualitative, critical feminist and non-representational theoretical perspectives, the SIG explores HSPE as a dynamic and relational field in which people, bodies, environments, materials, more-than-human others and cultural contexts continually shape one another.

What does unlearning mean for HSPE?

Unlearning is not about forgetting knowledge or abandoning established pedagogical practices. Rather, it invites us to ask:

• What might we notice when we loosen our attachment to what we already know?
• What becomes possible when movement is not reduced to performance, technique or measurable outcomes?
• How might teaching and learning emerge through bodies, affects, materials, environments and relationships?
• What happens when we allow ourselves to remain with uncertainty rather than immediately seeking the right answer?

Through these questions, the SIG seeks to expand what counts as learning, knowledge and pedagogical practice in HSPE.

Our purpose

The SIG provides a collaborative and experimental space for members to:

• explore unlearning as a pedagogical and research practice;
• reimagine how movement, learning and teaching are understood in HSPE;
• experiment with embodied, affective, aesthetic, creative and arts-based approaches;
• explore relational and ecological dimensions of movement and pedagogy;
• engage with ambiguity, uncertainty and the unknown as productive spaces for inquiry;
• connect perspectives across health, sport, physical education, education, arts, philosophy, ecology and related fields;
• share experimental practices and emerging ideas across geographical, cultural and disciplinary contexts; and
• support intergenerational exchange, particularly between experienced scholars, early-career researchers, postgraduate students and practitioners.

Areas of interest

The SIG welcomes work exploring, among other areas:

• affective, embodied and relational pedagogies;
• post-human and post-qualitative inquiry;
• critical feminist approaches to movement and education;
• arts-based, aesthetic and creative methodologies;
• improvisation and experimental pedagogies;
• intergenerational learning and encounters;
• slow scholarship and alternative academic practices;
• ecological and more-than-human approaches to movement;
• sensory and material dimensions of teaching and learning;
• curriculum, teacher education and professional learning;
• social, cultural and geographical diversity in HSPE; and
• new ways of researching, teaching and experiencing movement.

Our vision

We envision an international community in which HSPE can become a space for curiosity, experimentation, relationality and possibility, where established ways of knowing can be revisited and new pedagogical forms can emerge.

The SIG is committed to geographical, cultural, linguistic, disciplinary and intergenerational diversity. A particular commitment of the SIG is to create meaningful opportunities for early-career researchers, postgraduate students and practitioners, including mentoring, collaborative projects and intergenerational exchange.

Who is the SIG for?

The SIG welcomes researchers, teacher educators, teachers, coaches, practitioners, postgraduate students and early-career scholars from HSPE and related fields who are interested in questioning established assumptions and experimenting with new ways of thinking, researching, teaching and learning.

You do not need to identify as a post-humanist, post-qualitative researcher, or to work explicitly with the concept of unlearning, to participate. The SIG is intended as an open, collegial and exploratory space for anyone interested in expanding the possibilities of movement, pedagogy and learning.