Oliver Hooper
Biographic Data
| ID | 4598197 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Oliver Hooper |
| GIVEN NAMES | Oliver |
| FAMILY NAME | Hooper |
| SIGNATURE | HOOPER O |
| AFFILIATIONS | Loughborough University |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-6303-6017 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 23 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 41 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 23 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2019 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
‘Here, PE is sick!’
A growing number of young people are attending alternative provision schools, with limited research considering how they, from their perspective, experience this and particularly the subject of physical education (PE). The aim of this unique paper is therefore to (i) spotlight the voices of pupils from alternative provision schools and illuminate their experiences of PE and, in doing so (ii) share the realities of conducting research in such sett…
Pov
Physical education (PE) lessons can be heteronormative and exclusionary spaces for LGBTQIA + students, with their experiences often marked by homophobia and discrimination. This paper adopts an interdisciplinary approach, drawing on perspectives from sociolinguistics and the sociology of education, to explore how queer users articulate their experiences of PE through the social media platform TikTok. Using digital ethnography, and drawing on a co…
New (materialist) perspectives on becoming trauma-aware in physical education
There is an emerging expectation for physical education teachers to become trauma-aware. Yet despite some progress, how this process unfolds is not well understood. In this paper, we make a novel contribution to this area of scholarship by thinking about the socio-material processes through which teachers become trauma-aware in physical education. Drawing on new materialism, we develop an understanding of becoming trauma-aware that describes an i…
Feeling the lesson
Trauma-informed education has gained attention across schooling, yet physical education (PE) remains under-developed in this area. This study examines how educators in a Scottish Educational Support Centre understood and enacted trauma-informed pedagogies in PE following the school-wide adoption of the neurosequential model in education (NME). Using conversational inquiry, semi-structured interviews were conducted with six educators trained in th…
Physical education (PE) in Northern Ireland
Physical education (PE) in Northern Ireland (NI) is positioned within a complex and separated educational context. While we know something about the PE curriculum within this landscape, we know little about how PE teachers navigate this complexity. Consequently, we recruited secondary PE teachers from different school types in NI ( n = 8) to take part in individual, semi-structured interviews to explore how they understand and structure their PE …
Co-creating strategies for enacting trauma-aware pedagogies with pre-service physical education teachers
Background In Physical Education (PE), trauma may manifest in a range of different actions/behaviours (e.g. small fouls escalating into physical conflict, students refusing to be part of a team, and struggling to adhere to the rules of the game). Without knowledge of the effects of trauma, teachers often defer to punitive responses, which exacerbate rather than mediate the needs of trauma-affected youth. It is therefore critical that prospective …
Leaving no child behind? Exploring the developmental potential of physical education and school sport for left-behind children in China
Mapping physical education in Northern Ireland
This paper is the first study that exclusively explores the structure and discourses evident within the physical education (PE) curriculum in Northern Ireland (NI). In doing so, it highlights the opportunities and challenges of the PE curriculum within this unique segregated school system, addressing a gap in the literature. For decades, research has recognised that many PE curricula are organised and delivered around units of games with a focus …
Exploring the factors that influence the delivery of physical education in alternative provision schools in England
There is currently no literature that considers the practicalities of delivering physical education (PE) in alternative provision schools, nor the challenges that this might entail. As such, this paper offers a unique contribution to knowledge by highlighting the key factors that influence the delivery of PE within alternative provision schools in England from the perspectives of practitioners (i.e. those tasked with delivering it). Following a F…
Culture, power, and ideology
Much has been said and written about the purpose and value of mainstream education generally and physical education (PE) specifically. However, in contrast, little attention has been given to the purpose and value of alternative provision, and none about PE in those education settings. In this article, we draw upon the concepts of culture, power, and ideology to address this shortcoming. To do so, we conducted individual interviews with eight PE …
Physical education in alternative provision schools
Physical education has the potential to achieve the desired outcomes of alternative provision schooling by re‐engaging young people in learning, supporting their social and emotional development and facilitating their reintegration into mainstream schooling. To do so, however, it requires sufficient and appropriate space because, unlike other subjects, its focus on embodied curriculum, embodied pedagogy and embodied learning requires the mind–bod…
Theorising the potential of physical education and school sport to support the educational engagement, transitions and outcomes of care‐experienced young people
Much research highlights the potential of physical education and school sport (PESS) to provide personal, social and educational benefits for young people. As such, it is suggested that PESS contexts could be particularly relevant to pupils who might be considered marginalised or ‘at risk’—including care‐experienced young people—affording opportunities to gain skills, connections and experiences to aid a positive educational trajectory. This pape…
Exploring the re-legitimisation of messages for health and physical education within contemporary English and Welsh curricula reform
This paper explores how messages for health and PE ([H]PE) within English and Welsh curricula are being re-legitimised through distinct performance and competence pedagogic models. Drawing upon Bernstein’s sociology of knowledge (Bernstein, Citation1996. Pedagogy, symbolic control and identity: Theory, research, critique. Taylor and Francis; 2000. Pedagogy, symbolic control and identity: Theory, research and critique (revised ed.). Rowman and Lit…
Working with trauma-affected young people in secondary schools
Working with trauma-affected youth in physical education (PE) can be a challenging and, at times, stressful and emotionally demanding process. Whilst little is known about how student trauma affects in-service teachers, even less is known about how it might impact pre-service PE teachers. The aims of this paper are therefore to (1) explore pre-service PE teachers’ experiences of working with students affected by trauma, and (2) consider the poten…
Exploring pre-service physical education teachers' trauma-related learning experiences in schools
This paper explores pre-service physical education (PE) teachers' experiences of working with trauma-affected young people whilst on placement in schools. It involved an online professional learning programme which facilitated reflective discussions to explore their experiences. The pre-service teachers revealed that the school context influenced their trauma-related learning, which took place across multiple sites throughout the school, with bot…
Developing evidence-informed principles for trauma-aware pedagogies in physical education
Background: More and more children are experiencing what have been termed adverse childhood experiences. An individual's response to these stressful events determines whether or not they are considered traumaticwhereby the experience is so overwhelming that it engulfs their coping mechanisms leading to lasting negative effects on wellbeing. Notably, childhood trauma is now recognised as a global health epidemic. Physical education (PE) is a uniqu…
Nurturing children's development through healthy eating and active living
Fostering the growth, development, health, and wellbeing of children is a global priority. The early childhood period presents a critical window to influence lifelong trajectories, however urgent multisectoral action is needed to ensure that families are adequately supported to nurture their children's growth and development. With a shared vision to give every child the best start in life, thus helping them reach their full developmental potentia…
A health(y) subject? Examining discourses of health in physical education curricula across the UK
In this paper, we present the findings from our critical analysis of the health discourses evident with physical education (PE) curricula in each UK home nation—England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. We carried out a critical discourse analysis of those curriculum documents that talk directly to PE teachers about how to organise, enact and assess PE curricula in schools. The results from our analysis uncovered that, with the exception of …
Narratives and marginalised voices
Existing research has so far failed to provide opportunities for the stories of care-experienced young people to be heard, especially regarding their perspectives on sport and physical activity. As such, a key aim of this paper was to showcase the stories of three care-experienced individuals; stories that focus specifically on the role of sport and physical activity in their lives and highlight the complexities of being in care and the challenge…
A comparative analysis of discourses shaping physical education provision within and across the UK
Set within the context of a longitudinal project that seeks to engage physical education teachers from the four countries of the UK in cross-border curriculum analysis, dialogue and learning, the current study lays the foundation by mapping and comparing curriculum discourses that currently shape how physical education is conceptualised in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. As a team of researchers with affiliations to each of the fou…
Prompting Pedagogical Change through Promoting Active Lifestyles Paradoxes
This study explored approaches to promoting active lifestyles (PAL) in schools which aimed to inform and develop physical education (PE) trainees and teachers' health-related philosophies and pedagogies. Thirty-two secondary school PE trainees and teachers involved in a University-based Initial Teacher Education partnership in England participated in this study during the period 2015-2019. The participants were involved in professional developmen…
Get(ting) to the Start Line – the evaluation of an innovative intervention to address adolescents’ school-related stress and anxiety
There are growing concerns over young people’s mental health, the academic pressures they face, and the association between school-related stress and health. Given this, alongside the known benefits of physical activity for psychological health, the need for school-based interventions with a physical activity focus seems justified. This paper reports on findings from the evaluation of a pilot of ‘Get to the Start Line’, an innovative school-based…
Navigating complex social landscapes
Internationally, there has been growing interest in the experiences of care experienced youth and their engagements with activities that can support positive development. Despite the acknowledged potential of sport/physical activity (PA) to act as a vehicle for positive development, there remain concerns about the piecemeal nature of sport/PA opportunities for care experienced youth at a local level and their capacity to access these. To date, re…
A comparative analysis of discourses shaping physical education provision within and across the UK
Set within the context of a longitudinal project that seeks to engage physical education teachers from the four countries of the UK in cross-border curriculum analysis, dialogue and learning, the current study lays the foundation by mapping and comparing curriculum discourses that currently shape how physical education is conceptualised in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. As a team of researchers with affiliations to each of the fou…
Theorising the potential of physical education and school sport to support the educational engagement, transitions and outcomes of care‐experienced young people
Much research highlights the potential of physical education and school sport (PESS) to provide personal, social and educational benefits for young people. As such, it is suggested that PESS contexts could be particularly relevant to pupils who might be considered marginalised or ‘at risk’—including care‐experienced young people—affording opportunities to gain skills, connections and experiences to aid a positive educational trajectory. This pape…
Nurturing children's development through healthy eating and active living
Fostering the growth, development, health, and wellbeing of children is a global priority. The early childhood period presents a critical window to influence lifelong trajectories, however urgent multisectoral action is needed to ensure that families are adequately supported to nurture their children's growth and development. With a shared vision to give every child the best start in life, thus helping them reach their full developmental potentia…
Navigating complex social landscapes
Internationally, there has been growing interest in the experiences of care experienced youth and their engagements with activities that can support positive development. Despite the acknowledged potential of sport/physical activity (PA) to act as a vehicle for positive development, there remain concerns about the piecemeal nature of sport/PA opportunities for care experienced youth at a local level and their capacity to access these. To date, re…
A health(y) subject? Examining discourses of health in physical education curricula across the UK
In this paper, we present the findings from our critical analysis of the health discourses evident with physical education (PE) curricula in each UK home nation—England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. We carried out a critical discourse analysis of those curriculum documents that talk directly to PE teachers about how to organise, enact and assess PE curricula in schools. The results from our analysis uncovered that, with the exception of …
Culture, power, and ideology
Much has been said and written about the purpose and value of mainstream education generally and physical education (PE) specifically. However, in contrast, little attention has been given to the purpose and value of alternative provision, and none about PE in those education settings. In this article, we draw upon the concepts of culture, power, and ideology to address this shortcoming. To do so, we conducted individual interviews with eight PE …
Physical education in alternative provision schools
Physical education has the potential to achieve the desired outcomes of alternative provision schooling by re‐engaging young people in learning, supporting their social and emotional development and facilitating their reintegration into mainstream schooling. To do so, however, it requires sufficient and appropriate space because, unlike other subjects, its focus on embodied curriculum, embodied pedagogy and embodied learning requires the mind–bod…
Exploring the re-legitimisation of messages for health and physical education within contemporary English and Welsh curricula reform
This paper explores how messages for health and PE ([H]PE) within English and Welsh curricula are being re-legitimised through distinct performance and competence pedagogic models. Drawing upon Bernstein’s sociology of knowledge (Bernstein, Citation1996. Pedagogy, symbolic control and identity: Theory, research, critique. Taylor and Francis; 2000. Pedagogy, symbolic control and identity: Theory, research and critique (revised ed.). Rowman and Lit…
Working with trauma-affected young people in secondary schools
Working with trauma-affected youth in physical education (PE) can be a challenging and, at times, stressful and emotionally demanding process. Whilst little is known about how student trauma affects in-service teachers, even less is known about how it might impact pre-service PE teachers. The aims of this paper are therefore to (1) explore pre-service PE teachers’ experiences of working with students affected by trauma, and (2) consider the poten…
Exploring pre-service physical education teachers' trauma-related learning experiences in schools
This paper explores pre-service physical education (PE) teachers' experiences of working with trauma-affected young people whilst on placement in schools. It involved an online professional learning programme which facilitated reflective discussions to explore their experiences. The pre-service teachers revealed that the school context influenced their trauma-related learning, which took place across multiple sites throughout the school, with bot…
Navigating complex social landscapes
Internationally, there has been growing interest in the experiences of care experienced youth and their engagements with activities that can support positive development. Despite the acknowledged potential of sport/physical activity (PA) to act as a vehicle for positive development, there remain concerns about the piecemeal nature of sport/PA opportunities for care experienced youth at a local level and their capacity to access these. To date, re…
Prompting Pedagogical Change through Promoting Active Lifestyles Paradoxes
This study explored approaches to promoting active lifestyles (PAL) in schools which aimed to inform and develop physical education (PE) trainees and teachers' health-related philosophies and pedagogies. Thirty-two secondary school PE trainees and teachers involved in a University-based Initial Teacher Education partnership in England participated in this study during the period 2015-2019. The participants were involved in professional developmen…
Get(ting) to the Start Line – the evaluation of an innovative intervention to address adolescents’ school-related stress and anxiety
There are growing concerns over young people’s mental health, the academic pressures they face, and the association between school-related stress and health. Given this, alongside the known benefits of physical activity for psychological health, the need for school-based interventions with a physical activity focus seems justified. This paper reports on findings from the evaluation of a pilot of ‘Get to the Start Line’, an innovative school-based…
Narratives and marginalised voices
Existing research has so far failed to provide opportunities for the stories of care-experienced young people to be heard, especially regarding their perspectives on sport and physical activity. As such, a key aim of this paper was to showcase the stories of three care-experienced individuals; stories that focus specifically on the role of sport and physical activity in their lives and highlight the complexities of being in care and the challenge…
A comparative analysis of discourses shaping physical education provision within and across the UK
Set within the context of a longitudinal project that seeks to engage physical education teachers from the four countries of the UK in cross-border curriculum analysis, dialogue and learning, the current study lays the foundation by mapping and comparing curriculum discourses that currently shape how physical education is conceptualised in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. As a team of researchers with affiliations to each of the fou…
Developing evidence-informed principles for trauma-aware pedagogies in physical education
Background: More and more children are experiencing what have been termed adverse childhood experiences. An individual's response to these stressful events determines whether or not they are considered traumaticwhereby the experience is so overwhelming that it engulfs their coping mechanisms leading to lasting negative effects on wellbeing. Notably, childhood trauma is now recognised as a global health epidemic. Physical education (PE) is a uniqu…
Nurturing children's development through healthy eating and active living
Fostering the growth, development, health, and wellbeing of children is a global priority. The early childhood period presents a critical window to influence lifelong trajectories, however urgent multisectoral action is needed to ensure that families are adequately supported to nurture their children's growth and development. With a shared vision to give every child the best start in life, thus helping them reach their full developmental potentia…
A health(y) subject? Examining discourses of health in physical education curricula across the UK
In this paper, we present the findings from our critical analysis of the health discourses evident with physical education (PE) curricula in each UK home nation—England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. We carried out a critical discourse analysis of those curriculum documents that talk directly to PE teachers about how to organise, enact and assess PE curricula in schools. The results from our analysis uncovered that, with the exception of …
Exploring the re-legitimisation of messages for health and physical education within contemporary English and Welsh curricula reform
This paper explores how messages for health and PE ([H]PE) within English and Welsh curricula are being re-legitimised through distinct performance and competence pedagogic models. Drawing upon Bernstein’s sociology of knowledge (Bernstein, Citation1996. Pedagogy, symbolic control and identity: Theory, research, critique. Taylor and Francis; 2000. Pedagogy, symbolic control and identity: Theory, research and critique (revised ed.). Rowman and Lit…
Working with trauma-affected young people in secondary schools
Working with trauma-affected youth in physical education (PE) can be a challenging and, at times, stressful and emotionally demanding process. Whilst little is known about how student trauma affects in-service teachers, even less is known about how it might impact pre-service PE teachers. The aims of this paper are therefore to (1) explore pre-service PE teachers’ experiences of working with students affected by trauma, and (2) consider the poten…
Exploring pre-service physical education teachers' trauma-related learning experiences in schools
This paper explores pre-service physical education (PE) teachers' experiences of working with trauma-affected young people whilst on placement in schools. It involved an online professional learning programme which facilitated reflective discussions to explore their experiences. The pre-service teachers revealed that the school context influenced their trauma-related learning, which took place across multiple sites throughout the school, with bot…
Theorising the potential of physical education and school sport to support the educational engagement, transitions and outcomes of care‐experienced young people
Much research highlights the potential of physical education and school sport (PESS) to provide personal, social and educational benefits for young people. As such, it is suggested that PESS contexts could be particularly relevant to pupils who might be considered marginalised or ‘at risk’—including care‐experienced young people—affording opportunities to gain skills, connections and experiences to aid a positive educational trajectory. This pape…
Co-creating strategies for enacting trauma-aware pedagogies with pre-service physical education teachers
Background In Physical Education (PE), trauma may manifest in a range of different actions/behaviours (e.g. small fouls escalating into physical conflict, students refusing to be part of a team, and struggling to adhere to the rules of the game). Without knowledge of the effects of trauma, teachers often defer to punitive responses, which exacerbate rather than mediate the needs of trauma-affected youth. It is therefore critical that prospective …
Leaving no child behind? Exploring the developmental potential of physical education and school sport for left-behind children in China
Mapping physical education in Northern Ireland
This paper is the first study that exclusively explores the structure and discourses evident within the physical education (PE) curriculum in Northern Ireland (NI). In doing so, it highlights the opportunities and challenges of the PE curriculum within this unique segregated school system, addressing a gap in the literature. For decades, research has recognised that many PE curricula are organised and delivered around units of games with a focus …
Exploring the factors that influence the delivery of physical education in alternative provision schools in England
There is currently no literature that considers the practicalities of delivering physical education (PE) in alternative provision schools, nor the challenges that this might entail. As such, this paper offers a unique contribution to knowledge by highlighting the key factors that influence the delivery of PE within alternative provision schools in England from the perspectives of practitioners (i.e. those tasked with delivering it). Following a F…
Culture, power, and ideology
Much has been said and written about the purpose and value of mainstream education generally and physical education (PE) specifically. However, in contrast, little attention has been given to the purpose and value of alternative provision, and none about PE in those education settings. In this article, we draw upon the concepts of culture, power, and ideology to address this shortcoming. To do so, we conducted individual interviews with eight PE …
Physical education in alternative provision schools
Physical education has the potential to achieve the desired outcomes of alternative provision schooling by re‐engaging young people in learning, supporting their social and emotional development and facilitating their reintegration into mainstream schooling. To do so, however, it requires sufficient and appropriate space because, unlike other subjects, its focus on embodied curriculum, embodied pedagogy and embodied learning requires the mind–bod…
‘Here, PE is sick!’
A growing number of young people are attending alternative provision schools, with limited research considering how they, from their perspective, experience this and particularly the subject of physical education (PE). The aim of this unique paper is therefore to (i) spotlight the voices of pupils from alternative provision schools and illuminate their experiences of PE and, in doing so (ii) share the realities of conducting research in such sett…
Pov
Physical education (PE) lessons can be heteronormative and exclusionary spaces for LGBTQIA + students, with their experiences often marked by homophobia and discrimination. This paper adopts an interdisciplinary approach, drawing on perspectives from sociolinguistics and the sociology of education, to explore how queer users articulate their experiences of PE through the social media platform TikTok. Using digital ethnography, and drawing on a co…
New (materialist) perspectives on becoming trauma-aware in physical education
There is an emerging expectation for physical education teachers to become trauma-aware. Yet despite some progress, how this process unfolds is not well understood. In this paper, we make a novel contribution to this area of scholarship by thinking about the socio-material processes through which teachers become trauma-aware in physical education. Drawing on new materialism, we develop an understanding of becoming trauma-aware that describes an i…
Feeling the lesson
Trauma-informed education has gained attention across schooling, yet physical education (PE) remains under-developed in this area. This study examines how educators in a Scottish Educational Support Centre understood and enacted trauma-informed pedagogies in PE following the school-wide adoption of the neurosequential model in education (NME). Using conversational inquiry, semi-structured interviews were conducted with six educators trained in th…
Physical education (PE) in Northern Ireland
Physical education (PE) in Northern Ireland (NI) is positioned within a complex and separated educational context. While we know something about the PE curriculum within this landscape, we know little about how PE teachers navigate this complexity. Consequently, we recruited secondary PE teachers from different school types in NI ( n = 8) to take part in individual, semi-structured interviews to explore how they understand and structure their PE …
Physical Education and Pedagogy (16 works) · Physical education (15 works) · Psychology (15 works) · Inclusion and Disability in Education and Sport (13 works) · Pedagogy (12 works) · Medicine (11 works) · Sociology (10 works) · Medical education (7 works) · Political science (7 works) · Qualitative research (6 works)