Valeria Varea
Edith Cowan University, School of Education, Faculty Member
Research Interests: Sociology of Sport, Sports Performance, Body Image, Physical Education, Sports, and 15 moreSports Coaching, Sport Science, Educación Física, Deportes, Physical Education and Sport, Formación del profesorado de Educación Física, Deporte, Entrenamiento Deportivo, Ciencias de la Actividad Física y del Deporte, Ciencias del deporte y la educación física, CORPOREIDAD Y EDUCACIÓN FÍSICA, Elite Athlete Performance, Sports Science, educación física y deportes , and Body Shaming
Research has shown that Physical Education (PE) is a white, male, and able body-dominated profession, particularly in Spain. When some female pre-service PE teachers, who had a difficult relationship with their bodies and sports... more
Research has shown that Physical Education (PE) is a white, male, and able body-dominated profession, particularly in Spain. When some female pre-service PE teachers, who had a difficult relationship with their bodies and sports abilities, enrol in such a degree, some of these problematic relations come to light. Participants for this study were four female pre-service teachers who self-identified as lesbian, anorexic, visually impaired, and big respectively. Data were collected through participant-produced texts, graphical representations, and interviews. The authors then reconstructed the participants' stories which are presented in the form of narratives. The conceptual tool of embodying norm-criticality helped us to highlight the importance of critical reflection about own beliefs, past experiences and understandings, and their influence on pedagogical practices in PE. This study contributes to the push towards a change of the stereotypical beliefs of what a PE teacher should be or look like, and in this way, emphasises the vast benefits of diversifying PE teachers' beliefs and understandings.
Research Interests: Body Image, Physical Education, Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy, Teacher Identity Formation, Teacher Identity, and 14 moreHealth and Physical Education, Educación Física, Physical Education Sport and Exercise Science, Sports Science and Physical Education, Research Methods in Physical Education and Sport, Physical Education and Sport, Formación del profesorado de Educación Física, Imagen corporal, Physical Education Teacher Education, Las practicas corporales desde la Educacion Fisica, Educacion Fisica, Female body, Ciencias del deporte y la educación física, and CORPOREIDAD Y EDUCACIÓN FÍSICA
Research Interests: Psychology, Fat Studies, Physical Education, Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy, Cuerpo, and 10 morePre-service teachers, Health and Physical Education, Pre Service Teacher Education, Educación Física, Physical Education and Sport, Formación del profesorado de Educación Física, Educacion Fisica, Physical and health education, CORPOREIDAD Y EDUCACIÓN FÍSICA, and Pre Service Teacher Preparation
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Research Interests: Geography, Pedagogy, Physical Education, Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy, Health and Physical Education, and 15 moreBecoming, Educación Física, Physical Education and Sports, Physical Education and Sport, Curriculum and Pedagogy, Educacion Fisica, Physical and health education, Ciencias del deporte y la educación física, Pedagogik, Physical Education for Young Children, CORPOREIDAD Y EDUCACIÓN FÍSICA, Pandemic, Corona Virus, CoVid, and coronavirus outbreak
Research Interests: Psychology, Narrative, Body Image, Physical Education, Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy, and 15 moreHealth and Physical Education, Psychological Intervention, Educación Física, Scopus, Physical Education and Sports, Physical Education and Sport, Educación Física y género, Imagen corporal, Las practicas corporales desde la Educacion Fisica, Curriculum and Pedagogy, Educacion Fisica, Todo Lo Relacionado Al Deporte Educacion Fisica Y Recreacion, Ciencias del deporte y la educación física, Pedagogia En Educacion Fisica, and CORPOREIDAD Y EDUCACIÓN FÍSICA
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Research Interests: Psychology, Pedagogy, Gender and Sport, Phenomenology of Touch, Physical Education, and 15 moreSport, Sports, Health and Physical Education, Educación Física, Ciencias Del Deporte, Harassment, Educación Corporal, Formación del profesorado de Educación Física, Las practicas corporales desde la Educacion Fisica, Curriculum and Pedagogy, Educacion Fisica, Ciencias de la Actividad Física y del Deporte, Ciencias del deporte y la educación física, Sociología del deporte, and CORPOREIDAD Y EDUCACIÓN FÍSICA
The body as a professional ‘touchstone’ : Exploring Health and Physical Education undergraduates’ understandings of the body
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Research Interests: Sociology, Psychology, The Body, Body, Health Education, and 10 moreSociology of the Body, Physical Education, Cuerpo, Sociología Del Cuerpo, Undergraduate Education, Educación Física, Antropología Del Cuerpo Y Emociones, Formación del profesorado de Educación Física, Ciencias del deporte y la educación física, and CORPOREIDAD Y EDUCACIÓN FÍSICA
ABSTRACT This paper explores how a cohort of pre-service Health and Physical Education (HPE) teachers from an Australian university describe and construct their understandings of health and the body. Given that the courses that these... more
ABSTRACT This paper explores how a cohort of pre-service Health and Physical Education (HPE) teachers from an Australian university describe and construct their understandings of health and the body. Given that the courses that these undergraduates take in their degree programme present different perspectives on health and the body, a relevant question is to what extent these perspectives adequately equip these future HPE teachers to successfully teach the recently released Australian HPE curriculum. The participants in this study were 14 pre-service teachers, 11 females and 3 males, aged between 18 and 26 at the time of the first interview. The data used for this paper were taken from a larger study and were generated through interviews, the analysis of two undergraduate course profiles and an analysis of the new National HPE curriculum. Results reveal that there are some dominant discourses in health-related courses that may have a significant impact on these students. The purpose of HPE, the role of the HPE teacher and the idea of the HPE teacher as role model are also discussed. The results suggest that pre-service teachers face several challenges and dissonances between what they learn during their undergraduate programme and what the Australian HPE curriculum expects them to teach. How pre-service HPE teachers think about and relate to health and the body is important in terms of how they think about their professional practice and the influence they may have on their future pupils.
Research Interests: Sociology, Teacher Education, Pedagogy, Physical Education, Medicine, and 15 morePhysical Education and Sport Pedagogy, Curriculum, Health and Physical Education, Educación Física, Sports Science and Physical Education, Physical Education and Sport, Formación del profesorado de Educación Física, Psicomotricidad y Educación Física, Physical Education Teacher Education, Las practicas corporales desde la Educacion Fisica, Curriculum and Pedagogy, Educacion Fisica, Todo Lo Relacionado Al Deporte Educacion Fisica Y Recreacion, Ciencias del deporte y la educación física, and Pedagogia En Educacion Fisica
ABSTRACT Early career academics (ECAs) working in neoliberal universities have been recognized as a vulnerable group who experience anxiety, uncertainty, exhaustion, stress, frustration, insomnia, shame and guilt. These feelings are often... more
ABSTRACT Early career academics (ECAs) working in neoliberal universities have been recognized as a vulnerable group who experience anxiety, uncertainty, exhaustion, stress, frustration, insomnia, shame and guilt. These feelings are often intensified among academics from developing countries, such as Argentina. Using the theoretical ideas of liquid subjectivities, risk and uncertainty, this paper aims to explore what we experienced while transitioning from undergraduate students to ECAs in the field of Physical Education (PE). Collective biographies were used as a method for data collection, and three main themes were constructed from the data in relation to power relations, gender and liquid subjectivities from the transition from students to ECAs. The paper concludes by highlighting the positive side of working in academia with the hope that working conditions will be improved for the next generation of ECAs in PE.
Research Interests: Gender Studies, Gender, Physical Education, Anxiety, Early career academics, and 15 moreEstudios de Género, Precariat, Precarious Employment, Precarious Workers, Género, Health and Physical Education, Collective Biography, Feeling, Educación Física, Early Career Teachers, Formación del profesorado de Educación Física, Physical Education Teacher Education, ANXIETY, Ciencias del deporte y la educación física, and Precarious work
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Research Interests: Sociology, Sociology of Sport, Physical Education, Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy, Sport, and 15 moreCuerpo, Health and Physical Education, Educación Física, Deportes, Physical Education and Sport, Formación del profesorado de Educación Física, Psicomotricidad y Educación Física, Physical Education Teacher Education, Las practicas corporales desde la Educacion Fisica, Ciencias de la Actividad Física y del Deporte, Physical and health education, Ciencias del deporte y la educación física, Pedagogia En Educacion Fisica, Sociología del deporte, and CORPOREIDAD Y EDUCACIÓN FÍSICA
There is considerable literature that supports the proposition that the body is central concern for Heath and Physical Education (HPE) professionals. This particular group of individuals have certa ...
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People tend to ‘learn’ attitudes and construct beliefs related to what constitutes an ‘appropriate’ body, and adopt health advice from the media. Social media is more likely to have an impact on un ...
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Pre-service Health and Physical Education teachers’ discourses of the body and health in Australia and Argentina
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Covid-19 was declared a pandemic in March 2020, and the world has witnessed significant changes since then. Spain has been forced to go into extreme lockdown, cancelling all school classes and outdoor activities for children, which may... more
Covid-19 was declared a pandemic in March 2020, and the world has witnessed significant changes since then. Spain has been forced to go into extreme lockdown, cancelling all school classes and outdoor activities for children, which may have significant consequences on young people. This paper explores how young children have experienced lockdown as a consequence of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and what they think about their future lives after Covid-19. Data were collected from 73 students aged from 7 to 9 years old, using participant-produced drawings and short questions with children’s and parents’ descriptive comments. We used a children’s rights perspective and the Freirean approach of a pedagogy of love and hope to analyse the data. Results suggest that participants have been through significant changes in their routines, and that what they miss most from their lives before Covid-19 is playing outdoors with their friends and visiting their grandparents. To our knowledge, this paper is the first of its kind in investigating how the Covid-19 pandemic has influenced the ways that children lived during pandemic and its possible implications for their futures.
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ABSTRACT Conversation regarding the challenges and pressures that Early Career Academics (ECAs) face in the current context of the neoliberal university sector has begun to grow generally, and in the field of Physical Education and Sport... more
ABSTRACT Conversation regarding the challenges and pressures that Early Career Academics (ECAs) face in the current context of the neoliberal university sector has begun to grow generally, and in the field of Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy (PESP) in particular. However, the additional challenges faced by non-white PESP academics in their early careers have, as yet, been absent from the ECA conversation. In this paper, I draw upon my own experiences as a non-white, female ECA with English as an additional language (EAL), working in the field of PESP in a developed English-speaking country, to explore racialised discourses and practices in the academia. To do so, I make use of a critical whiteness lens and an autoethnographic approach. In the analysis of the narratives, I invite others to reflect on how race is socially constructed, on the ‘extra effort’ that non-white academics with EAL must expend in order to survive colour-blind academia, and on the limited options for agency among non-white ECAs. The paper concludes with reflections on how academics need to open the dialogue ‘just a bit more’ to include non-white academics in the conversation about ECAs working in neoliberal university contexts to create spaces for equitable work.
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Research among former Physical Education (PE) school students has demonstrated how fat phobia in PE classes is oppressive and makes it extremely difficult for most students to develop positive subjectivities. This study explores how a... more
Research among former Physical Education (PE) school students has demonstrated how fat phobia in PE classes is oppressive and makes it extremely difficult for most students to develop positive subjectivities. This study explores how a group of pre-service Health and Physical Education (HPE) specialist teachers from an Australian university construct fatness discourses. Taking a Foucauldian perspective, focusing particularly on the concepts of surveillance and normalisation, this paper explores the dominant discourses that pre-service HPE specialist teachers construct about fatness. Semi-structured, in-depth interviews (three interviews per participant) were conducted with 14 students (11 females and three males) aged between 18 and 26 at the time of the first interview. The results of a content analysis of the interview data suggest that students generally tend to classify certain bodies as ‘decent’ and ‘normal’, implying the existence of ‘indecent’ and ‘abnormal’ bodies. Participants also expressed a paternalistic approach and moral judgments towards people they considered to be fat. The results suggest that HPE specialist teachers have certain constructions of fatness that could be explored in their undergraduate degrees so as to minimise any possible ramifications for their teaching.
Research Interests: Psychology, Education, Fat Studies, Physical Education, Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy, and 15 moreCuerpo, Normalisation, Preservice Teacher Education, Health and Physical Education, Normalization, Paternalism, Physical Culture, Educación Física, Physical Education and Sport, Judgments, Formación del profesorado de Educación Física, Curriculum and Pedagogy, CORPOREIDAD Y EDUCACIÓN FÍSICA, Fatness, and Orthopedics and Sports Medicine
Research Interests: Narrative, Fat Studies, Discourse, Critical Discourse Analysis, Body Image, and 15 morePhysical Education, Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy, Cuerpo, Health and Physical Education, Normative, Educación Física, Physical Education Sport and Exercise Science, Physical Education and Sports, Physical Education and Sport, Formación del profesorado de Educación Física, Educacion Fisica, Ciencias de la Actividad Física y del Deporte, Instagram, gordofobia, and Commercial Services
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Social media is awash with images that women post to represent themselves: their lifestyles, bodies, communities, and aspirations. On Instagram, women’s health and fitness accounts are promoting th ...
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Given the significance of the increase of the visual phenomenon in Western Society, new research methods that include a visual component have been developed in the last few years and are growing in ...
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El cuerpo en el juego : Posibles diferencias entre el juego espontaneo y el juego de la clase de Educacion Fisica
Research Interests: Psychology and Art
Formacion y practica docente en Educacion Fisica desde las representaciones de los graduados
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This paper explores how a cohort of pre-service Health and Physical Education (HPE) teachers from an Australian university describes and constructs health and the body. The courses that these under ...
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La ensenanza de la Gimnasia en las clases de Educacion Fisica : ?una practica corporal olvidada?
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Research Interests: Mathematics Education, Physical Education, Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy, Outdoor Play and Learning, Johan Huizinga, and 15 moreHealth and Physical Education, Espacios Y Juegos, Educación Física, Juegos, Huizinga, Physical Education and Sport, Formación del profesorado de Educación Física, Las practicas corporales desde la Educacion Fisica, Curriculum and Pedagogy, Educacion Fisica, Ciencias del deporte y la educación física, Jugar, Pedagogia En Educacion Fisica, CORPOREIDAD Y EDUCACIÓN FÍSICA, and Motivacion En La Clase De Educacion Fisica
Research Interests: Sociology, Psychology, Digital Technology, Health Education, Social Media, and 15 moreBody Image, Physical Education, Medicine, Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy, Wellbeing, Redes sociales, Jóvenes, Health and Physical Education, Health and Wellbeing, Salud, Sports Science and Physical Education, Research Methods in Physical Education and Sport, Physical Education and Sport, Imagen corporal, and CORPOREIDAD Y EDUCACIÓN FÍSICA
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Research Interests: Geography, Pedagogy, Physical Education, Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy, Cuerpo, and 15 moreHealth and Physical Education, Sport and Exercise Science, Health Sciences and Sport, Sport Science, Educación Física, Sports Science and Physical Education, Physical Education and Sport, Practicum, Formación del profesorado de Educación Física, Physical Education Teacher Education, Curriculum and Pedagogy, Ciencias de la Actividad Física y del Deporte, Ciencias del deporte y la educación física, CORPOREIDAD Y EDUCACIÓN FÍSICA, and Sports Science
Research Interests: Consumerism, Consumer Behavior, Consumer Culture, Physical Education, Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy, and 15 moreConsumer, Health and Physical Education, Consumo, Educación Física, Physical Education and Sport, Formación del profesorado de Educación Física, Consumo Cultural, Panopticon, Las practicas corporales desde la Educacion Fisica, Curriculum and Pedagogy, Educacion Fisica, Physical and health education, Ciencias del deporte y la educación física, Pedagogia En Educacion Fisica, and CORPOREIDAD Y EDUCACIÓN FÍSICA
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Research Interests: Embodied Cognition, Gilles Deleuze, Pedagogy, Deleuze, Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, and 15 morePhysical Education, Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy, Critical Reflection, Health and Physical Education, Educación Física, Deleuze Studies, Physical Education and Sport, Formación del profesorado de Educación Física, Las practicas corporales desde la Educacion Fisica, Curriculum and Pedagogy, Educacion Fisica, Deleuze and Guattari, Ciencias del deporte y la educación física, Pedagogia En Educacion Fisica, and CORPOREIDAD Y EDUCACIÓN FÍSICA
The aim of this paper is to explore what we have learned during the COVID-19 pandemic in the field of Physical Education in three different countries: Argentina, Spain and Sweden. Data were generated through semi-structured interviews,... more
The aim of this paper is to explore what we have learned during the COVID-19 pandemic in the field of Physical Education in three different countries: Argentina, Spain and Sweden. Data were generated through semi-structured interviews, and the concept of field agency is used to make sense of the data. Differences were found among the three countries, regarding the content of the classes, the use of resources, the emotions of teachers, and the use of physical contact. This was also a result of the regulations and resources in place. The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated that the nature of the field of PE had been momentarily disrupted during the pandemic in these contexts. The habitus of both, teachers and students was challenged, and the economic capital of each context determined what was possible to do 'as PE'. Particular new discourses, such as the risk of getting the COVID-19 virus, interacted through agents to reshape the field of PE and modify agents' habitus. The participating teachers enacted agency and expressed their capacity to make practical and normative judgements among alternative possible trajectories of action for their classes, in response to the emerging demands, dilemmas and ambiguities of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Research Interests: Physical Education, Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy, Health and Physical Education, Educación Física, Physical Education Sport and Exercise Science, and 15 morePhysical Education and Sports, Sports Science and Physical Education, Physical Education and Sport, Formación del profesorado de Educación Física, Psicomotricidad y Educación Física, Physical Education Teacher Education, Las practicas corporales desde la Educacion Fisica, Educacion Fisica, Ciencias del deporte y la educación física, CORPOREIDAD Y EDUCACIÓN FÍSICA, Covid-19, Coronavirus COVID-19, Pandemic Coronavirus COVID19, COVID-19 PANDEMIC, and PANDEMIA Covid 19
The aim of this paper is to identify the dominant discourses of health and wellbeing that are offered in health education in Swedish schools. Issues of health and wellbeing are covered mainly in four school subjects in Sweden: physical... more
The aim of this paper is to identify the dominant discourses of health and wellbeing that are offered in health education in Swedish schools. Issues of health and wellbeing are covered mainly in four school subjects in Sweden: physical education and health, home and consumer studies, biology, and social studies, and therefore, we interviewed teachers from those subjects to generate data. Six interrelated health discourses were identified from the data. All discourses were, however, also embedded within a health discourse with a comprehensive description of health as physical, psychological and social wellbeing. Results suggest that schools offer a Western and White discourse of health and that some content is overemphasised, and some is missing in relation to other non-dominant discourses of health and wellbeing.
Research Interests: Curriculum Design, Curriculum Studies, Health Education, Health, Physical Education, and 14 morePhysical Education and Sport Pedagogy, Curriculum and Instruction, Curriculum, Sweden, Educación, Health and Physical Education, Salud, Educación Física, CIENCIAS DE LA SALUD, Physical Education and Sport, Las practicas corporales desde la Educacion Fisica, Physical and health education, Suecia, and CORPOREIDAD Y EDUCACIÓN FÍSICA
The USA Gymnastics sex abuse scandal raised global awareness about child sexual abuse (CSA) in women's artistic gymnastics. The ensuing media coverage also centre-staged victims' survivorship stories, a process that for many moved from... more
The USA Gymnastics sex abuse scandal raised global awareness about child sexual abuse (CSA) in women's artistic gymnastics. The ensuing media coverage also centre-staged victims' survivorship stories, a process that for many moved from dissociating, recognising and disclosing CSA to feeling comfort when connecting with survivors and accepting CSA as part of their life history. However, scholarship on what survivorship from CSA in sport entails, and importantly, what it means to athletes, is limited. In this article, we frame the survival of CSA using Arthur Frank's socio-narratological conceptualisation of people being able to process the devastating consequences of a lifethreatening and/or a life-altering event, and present the survivorship stories of two former gymnasts, Maria and Lucia (pseudonyms). For these two women, survivorship was facilitated by hearing others' stories of sexual abuse, purposefully facing their CSA experiences and connecting with one another later in life to raise awareness about sexual abuse in sport. Thus, in addition to presenting Maria and Lucia's stories for the purpose of providing CSA victims with a survivorship narrative, we outline and reflect on the role hearing and telling stories have in CSA survivorship.
Research Interests: Sociology of Sport, Sexual Abuse, Sports Management, Sports, Sports Coaching, and 15 moreChild Sexual Abuse, Sport Management, Sport and Exercise Science, Sports Coaching and Training, Sport Science, Gymnastics, Educación Física, Deportes, Las practicas corporales desde la Educacion Fisica, Ciencias de la Actividad Física y del Deporte, Sociology of Sports, Abuso Sexual Infantil, Sociology of Sport and Leisure, Sports Science, and Artistic Gymnastics
Research has shown that Physical Education (PE) is a white, male, and able body-dominated profession, particularly in Spain. When some female pre-service PE teachers, who had a difficult relationship with their bodies and sports... more
Research has shown that Physical Education (PE) is a white, male, and able body-dominated profession, particularly in Spain. When some female pre-service PE teachers, who had a difficult relationship with their bodies and sports abilities, enrol in such a degree, some of these problematic relations come to light. Participants for this study were four female pre-service teachers who self-identified as lesbian, anorexic, visually impaired, and big respectively. Data were collected through participant-produced texts, graphical representations, and interviews. The authors then reconstructed the participants' stories which are presented in the form of narratives. The conceptual tool of embodying norm-criticality helped us to highlight the importance of critical reflection about own beliefs, past experiences and understandings, and their influence on pedagogical practices in PE. This study contributes to the push towards a change of the stereotypical beliefs of what a PE teacher should be or look like, and in this way, emphasises the vast benefits of diversifying PE teachers' beliefs and understandings.
Research Interests: Women's Studies, Research Methods in Physical Education and Sport, Body Image, Physical Education, Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy, and 15 moreTeacher Identity Formation, Teacher Identity, Health and Physical Education, Educación Física, Physical Education Sport and Exercise Science, Sports Science and Physical Education, Physical Education and Sport, Formación del profesorado de Educación Física, Imagen corporal, Physical Education Teacher Education, Las practicas corporales desde la Educacion Fisica, Educacion Fisica, Female body, Ciencias del deporte y la educación física, and CORPOREIDAD Y EDUCACIÓN FÍSICA
Research among former Physical Education (PE) school students has demonstrated how fat phobia in PE classes is oppressive and makes it extremely difficult for most students to develop positive subjectivities. This study explores how a... more
Research among former Physical Education (PE) school students has demonstrated how fat phobia in PE classes is oppressive and makes it extremely difficult for most students to develop positive subjectivities. This study explores how a group of pre-service Health and Physical Education (HPE) specialist teachers from an Australian university construct fatness discourses. Taking a Foucauldian perspective, focusing particularly on the concepts of surveillance and normalisation, this paper explores the dominant discourses that pre-service HPE specialist teachers construct about fatness. Semi-structured, in-depth interviews (three interviews per participant) were conducted with 14 students (11 females and three males) aged between 18 and 26 at the time of the first interview. The results of a content analysis of the interview data suggest that students generally tend to classify certain bodies as ‘decent’ and ‘normal’, implying the existence of ‘indecent’ and ‘abnormal’ bodies. Participants also expressed a paternalistic approach and moral judgments towards people they considered to be fat. The results suggest that HPE specialist teachers have certain con- structions of fatness that could be explored in their undergraduate degrees so as to minimise any possible ramifications for their teaching.