Heidi J Ferreira is a physical education teacher and lecturer at the Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology of South of Minas Gerais (IFSULDEMINAS) in Poços de Caldas, Brazil. With a particular academic trajectory as a physical education teacher who engaged in quality research, she completed her PhD in 2019 under supervision of Dr. Alexandre Drigo at the São Paulo State University, Brazil; with a visiting research period under the tutelage of Dr. David Kirk at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, UK. Heidi´s main research and teaching interests revolve around the topics of health pedagogies and teachers´ continuing professional development. Specifically, her research focuses on changing and developing health pedagogies from a comprehensive and critical perspective in schools and other settings, and on understanding the development of teachers´ communities of practice in physical education. More recently, she became a member of the supervisors committee of a Brazilian Professional Master´s Program in Physical Education, directed at the preparation of in-service teachers as researchers. Heidi is highly motivated to contribute to connecting quality research with school practice, as well as to strengthening dialogue and collaboration with scholars from Latin America. At the AIESEP World Congress 2022 she will present her research on teachers´ professional development in two presentations: (i) “Being in and out: enablers and challenges to the development of a teacher-facilitator of a community of practice” and (ii) “The developmental process of a community of practice using a virtual format”. Her recommendation for the young scholar award came from Dr. Carla Luguetti.
