My research focuses on teaching about health and promoting physically active lifestyles within secondary school Physical Education. Specifically, teachers’ and pupils’ experiences of fitness testing in Physical Education.
I hope my research will encourage physical educators to reflect on their fitness testing practices and consider the findings and suggestions put forward in the papers being produced from the study, including listening to pupils.
Before beginning my PhD, I was a secondary school psychology teacher. I choose Loughborough University because I wished to work with some of the best researchers in the field and learn from their expertise.
Loughborough University currently holds the UNESCO Chair for Sport, Physical Activity and Education for Development and I joined the initial launch meeting of this.
Following this, I was very keen to be involved in the work of the Chair.
Myself and a former PhD student (Dr Alessio Norrito) worked with Dr Oli Hooper to set up the LUSN and established the Network’s aims.
We launched the Network during the 2022-2023 academic year, and it is now in its second year. The aim of LUSN is to make an impact for the local community of Loughborough, whilst also considering the application of our work to the wider global community.
There have been many highlights of my time here and I hope there will be more to come. I have particularly enjoyed teaching at the University and sharing my research with undergraduate students.
I have also enjoyed attending and presenting at conferences. It is great to hear about all the brilliant research being conducted in the area of Physical Education.
In the future I would like to stay in research and teaching, so ideally secure a lectureship position at a university.
In completing my research at Loughborough, I feel like I am developing the skills I need to become an independent researcher and will hopefully supervise PhD students myself one day. There are lots of opportunities to build up your teaching portfolio at Loughborough too.