Research project In the HED-project we seek to understand how health education in physical education teacher education can be developed. HED is a four-year professional development and research project in which physical education teacher educators at Umeå University learn together in a professional learning community. The project follows how participants’ understandings of health and health education develop over time.
HED combines collaborative professional development with research. Through recurring meetings, joint reflection and practical work, physical education teacher educators develop their teaching about health. The research explores participants’ experiences of the learning community, conditions for successful professional development, and how perspectives on health and health education change during the four-year project.
Health is a central yet multifaceted area of knowledge in physical education. HED creates a shared, long-term space in which teacher educators can examine what health may mean, how health is enacted in teaching, and which values and assumptions underpin different educational choices.
The professional learning community brings together educators teaching in physical education teacher education at Umeå University. Over four years, recurring meetings include dialogue, discussion of research literature, contributions from internal and external participants, and practical teaching activities. The content is developed together with the participants.
The research follows the process longitudinally and examines participants’' experiences, understandings of health, and development of health education. Data include group interviews at the beginning, midpoint and end of the project, brief individual reflective memos after meetings, and research journals kept by the project leaders.
By combining development work and research, HED aims to contribute knowledge about how professional learning communities can be designed as pedagogical environments for learning. In the longer term, the ambition is to strengthen health education in physical education teacher education and support future teachers' teaching in, about and through health in school physical education.
