Precarity, Critical Pedagogy and Physical Education

This unflinching analysis explains the nature of precarity and its detrimental effects on the health and wellbeing of young people. It exposes physical educators’ unpreparedness to provide inclusive, fair and equitable forms of physical education that might empower young people to overcome the mal effects of precarity.Following a thorough analysis and critique of critical pedagogy, David Kirk advocates for critical pedagogies of affect as physical education’s response to precarity, providing detailed outlines of these pedagogies and their grounding in research. He argues that now more than ever physical educators need to be alive to the serious social and economic challenges that shape young people’s health, happiness and life chances.This bold and provocative book is essential reading for all researchers in the field of physical education and health education pedagogy, as well as teacher educators, curriculum policy makers, and other professionals who work with young people living in precarity.

"This important, timely contribution to the professional literature on the theory and practice of physical education is recommended to scholars of physical education, health education, and sport pedagogy and also to teacher educators and professionals who work directly with youth experiencing precarity … Summing Up: Highly recommended." - J Armstrong, University of New Mexico, CHOICE

David Kirk is Professor of Education at the University of Strathclyde, UK and Honorary Professor of Human Movement at the University of Queensland, Australia. He is also Editor of the journal, Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy.