Entering the water: outdoor aquatic education as a site for exploring participation and meaningful experiences in physical education

Pupils’ participation in physical education (PE) is considered important for physical, social, affective and cognitive reasons and should provide a foundation for lifelong enjoyment of physical activity. Challenges with pupil participation are often linked to the perception that PE fails to appreciate the diversity of pupil abilities, reflected in a narrow range of activities. In a qualitative study on outdoor aquatic education (OAE) focusing on meaningful experiences (Beni, S., Fletcher, T., & Ní Chróinín, D. (2017). Meaningful experiences in physical education and youth sport: A review of the literature. Quest (Grand Rapids, Mich), 69(3), 291–312. https://doi.org/10.1080/00336297.2016.1224192), teachers reported being pleasantly surprised by some pupils’ participation. By examining the participation of three pupils who contradicted the teachers’ expectations, we aim to answer the research question: How can the implementation of outdoor aquatic activities influence pupils’ participation in PE by supporting opportunities for meaningful experiences? Data were generated before, during and after OAE lessons and include pre- and post-teaching interviews with teachers, observations of pupils’ participation in teaching, and a post-teaching interview with a pupil who exhibited social anxiety symptoms. The analysis is grounded in the hermeneutic tradition, aiming to understand how teachers’ expectations developed throughout the study in response to pupils’ unexpected behavior in OAE. Teachers anticipated that OAE would involve factors that could make pupils hesitant to participate, and that participation would be perceived as more demanding than regular PE lessons. The examination of the three pupils’ participation shows that OAE can challenge assumptions about how pupils experience PE activities and teachers’ existing expectations of pupils. OAE can expand understanding of which pupils have skills and abilities in the PE subject and which have advantageous anthropometric characteristics. The unique features of OAE, the challenge of cold water and the urgent need to ensure safety created a special learning environment that engaged pupils who struggled with regular PE, such as those with refusal problems or social anxiety symptoms.