Materialising Physical literacy: rethinking physical education

The indications in previous research are that the Scottish Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) is not implemented consistently in primary physical education (PE) (such as 'teaching to the benchmarks') and that overreliance on one or two aspects of learning is a narrow approach which does not foster development of the whole child. Physical literacy (PL) is introduced as a different way to approach teaching PE. This investigation followed student teachers into their placements, to find out whether, how and why PL was being enacted. The second aim of this study was to invite multiple ways of doing these investigations, which chimed with the dynamic nature of PE, but also built on current philosophical understandings of PL by including the material. Based on a philosophy of immanence, multiple worlds and the idea of becoming, sociomaterialism and posthumanism brought insights into student practices, for example, showing that these were often holistic even though students did not name them as such. The research approaches brought light into the oftentimes 'scripted' activities of education, by showing how seemingly fixed states of affairs can be undone. PL enriches how physical activities might be perceived across stakeholder groups, including primary teacher education, secondary PE teaching, nurse education, urban planning, sport coaching, and active transport. The research has opened ways of coming to understand nuances in materialist practices as well as heralding braver ways of doing postqualitative research.