ABSTRACT
In this chapter we trace the development of a self-study of practice research project titled pedagogical approaches to meaning-making in primary physical education, which represents Ciara Griffin’s master’s thesis research. At the time of conducting the project, Ciara was a newly qualified primary physical education teacher in Ireland. She set out to examine pedagogies she could use to foster meaningful experiences for Grade Four students in a unit of tag rugby. Because interactivity is an important element of self-study research design, Ciara worked with a critical friend (Tim Fletcher) throughout the project. We show how Ciara went through the entire self-study of practice research process from developing a research question, designing the research (including selecting and generating data sources), planning and enacting her teaching that focused on fostering meaningful experiences, through to analysing and reporting her data. We also aim to show how the results of this particular research facilitated our learning on both personal and professional levels.
