ABSTRACT

This chapter outlines three critical pedagogies of affect, Teaching Personal and Social Responsibility, forms of Sport Education, and activist approaches to physical education. The selection of these examples was guided by the fact that there has been a critical mass of work undertaken not just by the originators of these approaches but by other scholars also. These examples show that there is no one answer to the question of ‘What is critical pedagogy?’ in physical education. At the same time, the author argues that, in the face of precarity, it might be important for critical pedagogies to take a particular form. A focus on affect may build and maintain Sense of Coherence. Moreover, the focus on affect can be thought of as a leading edge for these pedagogies, as a way to directing teachers’ efforts and young people’s attention, but not as a means of excluding other educational benefits. Across the three examples, valuing, interest, motivation, resilience, caring, responsibility, and cooperation, among many other affective learning matters, are leading concerns of the teacher-scholars who practice these pedagogies. In all of this work, the strategy of small wins is evident in their radical intent to empower young people.