Teachers’ sensemaking in implementation of Meaningful Physical Education

Background While PE has arguably changed little since the 1960s, there is a rich history of the development of innovations in PE pedagogy. A key challenge lies in the sustained and broad use of these innovations. Researchers have sought to understand how teachers implement these innovations in their classrooms and the factors that lead to their sustained use. The concept of sensemaking offers an avenue for considering the processes by which teachers make sense of innovations in relation to a broad variety of personal and situational factors, which influence teachers' conceptualizations and implementation of innovations. Much of the research to date on teachers' sensemaking has centered on the use of innovations which have been mandated through policy and reforms. However, in this research, we take a different approach by beginning with a group of teachers who have voluntarily adopted the Meaningful PE innovation and integrated it into their regular teaching practice for a sustained period of time. The purpose of this research is to understand how these teachers have made sense of Meaningful PE in their local contexts.