Implications and Recommendations for Practice

From this research study, recommendations and implications for practice are suggested for further research into young, disaffected people in relation to PESS’s role in including these young people in PE along with effective types of PE-CPD for PE teachers to assist their work with these young people.

134 PESS for disaffected young people

PESS’s role in youth has been researched widely and PESS programmes aiming at young people have been numerous (e.g. Erasmus+, 2014; Designed to Move, 2012; Cale et al., 2012; Cale and Harris, 2011). Data relevant to PESS’s role in supporting disaffected youth has indicated that there is real potential for a positive impact on the through PESS. The data presented in this study provides a deeper insight into a step further for examining PESS’s role. Apart from all the positive characteristics of PESS (e.g. promotion of health, ‘letting-off steam’, out of class activity), this study serves to confirm that perhaps there is a need to reform the nature and current practice of PESS, as this is experienced especially by disaffected pupils. This study suggested that, by using the ‘lenses’ of youth disaffection and problematising the relationship between PESS and disaffected youth, normative practices of PESS negatively influencing these young people would be clearly apparent and exposed. Examples illustrating this were the provision of the PE activities based on gender, the process of changing and PE kit and the prevalence of competition in PE activities for disaffected youth. Indeed, PESS, as it was experienced by the PE teachers and the disaffected pupils, reflected also its positive role as well as reinforced differences and possible gaps between pupils, teachers and PE structure and practice. In this respect, a number of initiatives could be undertaken through interventions and/or PESS programmes. In addition, what was mentioned in the section of disaffected youth in PE, future PESS programmes could be organised in close cooperation with community settings (e.g. families, schools, municipalities and/or cities), policy administrators, PE teachers and educational contexts, such as schools. Additionally, in these PESS programmes, perhaps PE activities according to the disaffected pupils’ needs and views (as they were reported in the findings) should be introduced. Thus, primarily these programmes should include a modern PE kit along with modern PE activities, in which pupils would play an active role with regards to its ‘making’ (i.e. active role in the ‘decision making’). Also, team PE activities should take place without competition holding a prominent role. Fun, enjoyment, participation, cooperation, teamwork and the boosting of self-esteem should be the main priorities for the activities of such programmes. In addition, interventions that draw upon cornerstones of sport projects of the past and adopt their significant points will probably be successful and effective, since they use past knowledge, experience and effectiveness in order to create a new project. Last but not least, it would be very interesting to implement a programme, which combines PESS and Art.

135 In this study, the disaffected young children argued that the lessons they feel to have a positive impact on them are PESS and Art. Since the ancient years, and especially in Ancient Greece, every city had a stadium and a theatre built one next to each other; sport and art were inseparable parts of society and were considered to go hand-in-hand for the wellbeing of the man. A suggestion of this study is that teachers of these two subjects should work together and collaborate, exchange ideas on what works with disaffected young people and create an innovative and appropriate programme for eliminating disaffected behaviours in PESS and general, in the school environment.

PE teachers and their PE-CPD for disaffected youth in PESS

In parallel to what was earlier mentioned, research should aim at enabling PE professionals to achieve a clear and realistic view of what youth disaffection in PE consists of and how PESS’s role could be enhanced in tackling disaffection in youth in PE. Furthermore, PE teachers should be prepared and perhaps trained to be as objective as possible and to have a positive attitude when teaching disaffected young people in PE. On the one hand, PE-CPD projects should be implemented where PE professionals, who have been involved in leadership roles and further initiatives with disaffected young people, should be identified in order for tutoring and further support effective PE-CPD relevant to disaffected youth. On the other hand, newly qualified young teachers should be taken into consideration and work alongside experienced leaders to benefit from their ‘experience’. Thus, all PE professionals of various ages, gender, ethnicities (i.e. cultural background) should work in collaboration in order to blend their experiences and views so as to communicate them through PE-CPD provision in terms of informal or formal learning providing practical suggestions based in theoretical and experiential knowledge. It is further suggested that PE-CPD providers should enhance the ways of working with PE teachers with knowledge based on situative practices and progress the ways of learning. For example, teachers may need support to develop school networks on working with disaffected youth and design appropriate learning experiences within their schools in order to effectively engage with them. Nevertheless, this study has attempted to address issues of PE-CPD and highlighted the need for effective PE-CPD relevant to issues of disaffected youth in PE. Research suggests constructivist and situated learning are theories that can inform and encourage active and meaningful learning in order to promote responsibility and autonomy within the PE profession (Armour and Yelling, 2007). Due to the benefits of

136 constructivist theories in achieving desirable educational goals, it would appear important for teachers to grow professionally and adapt constructivist as well as situated practices when they learn.

In terms of practical recommendations and implications for practice, these explicitly outline possible impacts that earlier suggestions are likely to have when implemented. To begin with, when further research is conducted on disaffected youth in PE more specific and long-term identification of factors linked to disaffected youth in PE could be established. All factors explored could play a crucial role on identifying specific types of schools, areas, and populations (e.g. immigrants; urban populations) and their relevance to disaffection. Furthermore, shedding light on PE activities commonly employed for disaffected youth - such as Outdoor Education - can inform projects to be designed and further implemented in order to be made very attractive to disaffected youth so they are effective and successful. Moreover, researching young people in such contexts may establish what factors affect an individual’s behaviour and attitude in PE; what provokes them and what the factors are that may give them enjoyment and allow them to boost their self-esteem and confidence as well as be able to ‘let off steam’. Finally, PE teachers as tutors of PESS programmes would enhance their knowledge through appropriate and relevant training and further be able to use their work experience to ensure the success of the project.

In parallel, when future PE programmes for disaffected youth are appropriately designed and successfully delivered they could enhance and establish the role of PE in projects aiming at disaffected youth. Such programmes therefore, may reinforce rather than disrupt normative paradigms and discourses that currently place great value on PE. Further, PE teachers’ role and training could be established and secured in order to be appropriately trained to effectively deliver the sport projects. In addition, they will be able to undertake effective PE-CPD specific to disaffected youth; when, this PE-CPD is situated in their school context and previous knowledge and experience, as well as when it is practice-based, reflective and collaborative, it is most likely that their further training would be effective and appropriate. Such initiatives could therefore build communities of practice which, apart from facilitating learning, would reinforce relations between disaffected youth, teachers, schools and parents.

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