Embracing emancipatory troublemaking in/ through school-based OAA and dance

What are your memories of school-based Physical Education (PE)? Does such a question elicit fond recollections or resurface feelings of anxiety and vulnerability? You may recall experiences that oscillate between comfort and discomfort depending on what was being taught and how? Regrettably stories attributing a negative connotation to PE are commonplace (e.g. Miller, 2002) with a narrow sport-centric focus (Ferry & McCaughtry, 2015; Kessell, 2016) and practices that entrench rather than challenge inequalities (Castro-Garcia et al., 2023) being cited as some of the contributory factors. Experiencing PE through a negative filter can stymie the embracement of post-school active lifestyles and realization of holistic health benefits often attributed to effective PE provision (physical, psychological, social, cultural and emotional). With many voicing a troubled relation to PE, it came as little surprise to witness the social media backlash towards calls for PE to be a key player in improving the rising “ill effects on young peoples” mental health and well-being (Kirk, 2018)....