Bodies have been claimed to be an 'absent presence' and touch 'risky business' in physical education (PE). We have now witnessed how these claims are intensified in pandemic times of Covid-19, particularly in countries that have adopted extreme lockdown measures. This paper explores how PE practices have become 'touchless' and bodies absent using the theoretical concepts of risk and assemblage. The paper focusses on a group of pre-service PE teachers who were keen on undertaking their PE practicum experience and who were forced to switch to online mode. Data were collected through participantproduced drawings and comments on the drawings. Results suggest that the pre-service teachers are experiencing a mix of emotions during this time, miss the physical contact with students and believe the subject of PE is losing its identity as a consequence of the current situation. The conclusions of this study reveal a shift in the way that bodies are being constituted as assemblages now, and the possibility that pre-service teachers are missing out on an important aspect of their practicum experiences because of the lack of direct contact with students. We also wonder if pre-service teacher education programmes should put more emphasis on better preparing the students to teach online, and what will be the long-term consequences in the teaching of PE because of the current Covid-19 pandemic situation.

Background: Physical education (PE) has been traditionally considered as a practical and 'hands-on' subject in schools, where close proximity and physical contact is common, particularly in Spain which has a high proximity culture. Significantly, the delivery of PE has changed because of the Covid-19 pandemic, and this brings significant consequences for preservice PE teachers. Purpose: The aim of the paper is to explore the changes of PE during Covid-19 and the effects on pre-service teachers. Methods: Semi-structured interviews were used to produce data with a group of 12 preservice PE teachers from Spain (four women and eight men) who were undertaking their practicum in PE when the Covid-19 lockdown was imposed in Spain [14 March 2020]. Dredging was used as an analytical technique to identify the relations and affects that comprised assemblages of bodies, things and social formations. Findings: Results suggest that preservice teachers are having difficulties in re-assembling PE in the age of Covid-19, and that this produces the affects of precarity, fear and insecurity. Furthermore, the PE reassemblage also results in a shift of pedagogical affects. The participants particularly struggled to think on a PE assemblage that does not include the affect of physical encounters with their students. The new assemblage of PE also included encounters with digital technologies, which allowed for particular openings and closings for a re-alignment into the shifted PE. Conclusions: Pre-service teachers were unfamiliar with the way the PE assemblage has shifted, and this shifting affected their ability to produce affects in the 'new PE'. The new PE assemblage leads to a significant change in the culture of PE teaching in Spain, where physical contact between teachers and students was previously normal and taken for granted.

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Abstract:The decrease in touch has been explored in recent literature in relation to child protection discourses and no touch policies and it has been suggested that Physical Education (PE) has been weakened by the lack of touch. Significantly, the issue of touch has remained largely unexplored in Latin societies, which are characterised by an amplified tactile approach to people and comparatively little personal space. This paper examines how a group of pre-service PE teachers in Spain responded to, acted and negotiated touch with primary school students. It draws on data generated from body journals and the concepts of risk society, surveillance and moral panic. The findings indicate that touching school students is still common practice in Spain and was considered something positive. The influence of other individuals and certain spaces was also noted by participants, who felt more surveilled and distressed on particular occasions and some of them strategically introduced touch with students in a progressive manner. The results of the study invite us to reflect on the possibility of doing more harm than good by presenting topics about touch to pre-service teachers and how pre-service teacher educators may need to provide PE students with proper resources and understandings to successfully negotiate touch with school students.

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 preservice 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. ARTICLE HISTORY

This paper explores how a group of undergraduate Human Movement Studies (HMS) students learnt to know about the body during their four-year academic program at an Australian university. When students begin an undergraduate program in HMS they bring with them particular constructions, ideas and beliefs about their own bodies and about the body in general. Those ideas and beliefs are often challenged, disrupted or reinforced according to discourses and practices to which students are exposed and which they experience throughout their program of study.The courses that these students take in their in HMS degree program present to them different perspectives about health and the body. Some perspectives take the status of taken-for-granted truths and others are dismissed or ignored. Taking a Foucauldian perspective, this paper explores the dominant discourses and practices to which this group of students was exposed during their four years of academic formation, and the influences that this exposure might have upon their construction of the body and their formation as pre-service Health and Physical Education (HPE) teachers.The participants in this study were fourteen students, eleven females and three 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 analysed using a content analysis approach. Results suggest that some students may be heavily influenced by certain practices and discourses during their program of studies, and that they embody dominant discourses of health. Furthermore, a possible change of thinking may occur across their academic program, as a consequence of their engagement with a few alternative discourses presented during their academic program, disrupting some of their previous beliefs and knowledge.

Consumer culture and neoliberalism have significantly influenced contemporary globalised, Western(ised) and highly visual societies. These influences have also infiltrated physical education settings, contributing to market-driven surveillance of physical education teachers’ physical appearance. This paper examines the reflections of a group of physical education teachers working at the primary and secondary levels in Spain concerning subjectivities of bodies and professional practices. It draws on semi-structured interview data and the Foucauldian concepts of Panopticon and surveillance to explore the ways in which the participants were influenced by the market and neoliberalism. The results of the study invite us to reflect on how images and messages from media may promote certain expectations for physical education teachers concerning physical appearance, dress and sports supplements consumption. The findings have implications for teacher education and the preparation of physical education teachers to resist dominant discourses promoted by the media.