How can we ensure that experience of PE does no harm? One way is to improve our ethical decision making, which requires a shift in mindset in how we see PE, how we advocate for PE and how we respond to other people’s stories of their experience of PE.
Black Box Mindset over a Purely Positive Mindset
There is a dangerous type of mindset in PE, what I will call the Purely Positive Mindset. This mindset only allows the individual to see the good in PE and its positive impact on both experiences and outcomes. As custodians for the subject (those who see its value and importance in a child’s education whether a PE teacher or not) of course we should advocate for it and be appreciative of it. However we do the subject a disservice if we only see it as purely good and positive. There is an asymmetry at play in PE in that it can take hundreds of cumulative meaningful experiences to help a child nurture a positive relationship with their body and movement, but only just a single harmful one to destroy it. PE is neither good nor bad, but an empty vessel and therefore we must be intentional with what we fill it with, as bad is much stronger than good when it comes to shaping future behaviours and engagement with movement in all its forms.
To improve the experience of PE for all, rather than adopting a Purely Positive Mindset we might be better served with a Black Box Mindset (BBM). This is a concept developed by Matthew Syed which refers to the practice of constantly seeking out and learning from failure in order to improve and succeed. His book on the concept argues that many successful people and organisations have embraced a BBM culture, which involves openly acknowledging and learning from mistakes in order to drive innovation and progress. Syed also discusses the importance of creating a culture in which people are not afraid to admit their mistakes and learn from them. This is paramount within a PE Department if we want to ensure that all children and young people are able to find value and relevance from time in the subject,
To highlight the importance of a BBM, Syed compares and contrasts the medical profession with the aviation industry. He argues that the aviation industry has embraced a BBM culture in which failures are openly acknowledged and used as opportunities to learn and improve. As a result, the industry has made significant progress in terms of safety and reliability. In contrast, the medical profession has traditionally been more resistant to acknowledging and learning from failure, which has led to a slower rate of progress and increased risk of harm to patients. In PE we are quick to celebrate our successes (and so we should), but not so our failures and it is in acknowledging and dealing with them we can look to do no harm.
Scout Mindset over a Soldier Mindset
Julia Galef, a speaker and writer on rationality and decision-making, distinguishes between two other mindsets that are important in PE if we want to do no harm; the soldier mindset and the scout mindset. She defines the scout mindset as curiosity-driven that is focused on gathering information, exploring new perspectives and being open to updating one’s beliefs and values. The soldier mindset, on the other hand, is conviction-driven, in that it is focused on defending one’s existing values being resistant to new information and perspectives, and being more confident in the correctness of one’s beliefs.
Using these definitions, we can apply them to a situation. In my past I had a critical incident on a train journey. An ex-student opened up and told me their honest opinion about my teaching and coaching and what impact it had on them and their relationship with PE, sport and physical activity. My initial response was with a soldier mindset. I defended myself, my professional identity and my values with regards to PE teaching, the curriculum and methods of assessment. I asked myself whether I needed to believe just one person’s experience and made many justifications why I shouldn’t heed what was shared with me. However I slowly moved to a scout mindset and started to become more curious about what they had said which led to me seeking out alternative perspectives and viewpoints to my own. As Galef points out a soldier mindset asks the question “Must I believe it?” whilst the scout mindset asks the question “Is it true?” and then responds with a corresponding action.
In this way, a scout mindset would try to understand another’s perspective and gather more information to make PE a more positive experience, whilst a soldier mindset would focus on defending the belief that PE is good and positive and not being open to new information or perspectives. If we really want to improve PE for all then a scout mindset has to be prioritised and we need to be courageous enough to lean into what might challenges us no matter the unrest and discomfort it may cause.
Do no harm mindsets
A concept that I have found personally helpful in developing a ‘do no harm’ mindsets and developing my ethical decision making is Iatrogenesis. This is when an intervention or program unintentionally causes the very negative behaviours they were attempting to decrease or problems they were trying to solve. With regards to PE in attempting to nurture physical active behaviours we may cause sedentary ones. In an attempt to develop a positive relationship with our bodies and movement we may cause a toxic one. In an attempt to get children to value in PE we cause them to see its lack of relevance in their lives.
The concept of iatrogenesis should not downplay the positive impact that PE can have in a child’s life, but to acknowledge that PE can (and sometimes does) pose harm to children and young people, despite the best of our intentions. We need to be aware and attentive that when making decisions about curriculum, teaching and assessment. Doing this moves the PE profession to an aspirational purpose of doing good AND not doing harm – a subtle but important distinction. The PE profession has an ethical responsibility, so the risk of iatrogenic effects should not be ignored. Rather they should be a cause for concern and act as a motivational reminder for the PE profession to take effective action in responding to previous occurrences of iatrogenic effects and work to prevent future ones from occurring.
This requires a mindset shift. A mindset to advocate or to fix is easy because as custodians of PE we start from a position where we think we are always right. A mindset to learn, adapt and improve is difficult because it means we need to start from a position from where we might be wrong.
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