(no title)

Welcome to the LAMPE home page, the online presence of the Learning About Meaningful Physical Education research project. This is a longitudinal research and teaching project funded in part by the Social Science and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) of Canada and the Irish Research Council, and through several seed grants from Mary Immaculate College and Brock University.

The first phase of our research focused on ways that teacher educators can prepare future physical education teachers and coaches to foster meaningful engagement in physical activity through PE and youth sport. Conducted in two leading PE teacher and coach preparation programs (Brock University, Canada and Mary Immaculate College, Ireland) and building directly on a two-year pilot project, this ethnographic research explored future teachers’ and coaches’ experiences of learning through an approach whereby teacher educators position meaning-making and personally meaningful engagement in physical activity as the priority goals of PE and youth sport – we call this the LAMPE approach. This research was supported by SSHRC and the Irish Research Council. 

The second phase of our research represented a new direction, where we developed an approach to Meaningful Physical Education (or the MPE Approach) that was implemented and refined by a sample of teachers working mainly in primary/elementary schools in Canada, Ireland, and Saudi Arabia. When supported by strong professional learning, the MPE Approach was shown to provide teachers with a coherent set of principles and strategies to support meaningful learning experiences in PE. The research was supported by SSHRC.

The third and current phase of our research aims to build on previous work we have done by considering ways in which Meaningful PE is implemented by teachers across time and in different global contexts. We will work with teachers whose use of Meaningful PE is exemplary and support them in sharing their practice with other teachers in Canada, Ireland, and Brazil. This research is supported by SSHRC through to 2027.

On this website, you will find information about the project and members of the research team. You can also access our Twitter feed and pre-print versions of our presentations and publications.

This research was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and the Irish Research Council.