While Health and Physical Education (HPE) has wellbeing as its core focus, the way HPE is often taught and conceptualised does not provide all students equal opportunities to achieve these goals. Previous research continues to show that many current HPE practices privilege or marginalise certain students based on their gender, sexuality, bodies, ethnicity and religion (e.g., Fitzpatrick, 2019; Landi, 2019). For some students, negative experiences in HPE impact their potential to lead active and healthy lives in the future. To address this and identify examples of socially just HPE practices, researchers from Sweden, Norway and New Zealand initiated the Education for Equitable Health Outcomes (EDUHEALTH) project, which aimed to contribute to our understanding of how teachers of HPE can and do teach for social justice (Gerdin et al., 2021; 2024). The project also sought to understand and discuss the enactment of social justice. Their findings highlight the influence of regulative, normative, and cultural-cognitive elements on practice across the three countries in HPE practice (Linnér et al., 2020). While these findings highlight some of the key elements involved in enacting pedagogies for social justice, there was a need to understand better the complex interplay between these elements that enable and constrain HPE teachers' enactments of social justice in HPE practice. 

This study aims to understand this interplay by employing an ecological dynamics framework (Button et al., 2021; Rudd et al., 2022) to explore how five HPE teachers addressed the social justice issues they identified in their schooling contexts. The following questions guided our research: How do PE teachers' social justice pedagogies emerge within different school environments? What are the key enabling constraints that shape these pedagogies? How do teachers adapt their practices to fit their unique ecological niches? By viewing HPE teachers as complex adaptive systems interacting with their environment, we gained an insight into the non-linear and context-dependent nature of pedagogical innovation in pursuit of social justice (Ovens et al., 2013).

The study identified several key enabling constraints that shaped teachers' approaches. These constraints were more diverse and nuanced than initially anticipated. The physical environment, weather conditions, and available teaching spaces significantly influenced lesson planning and execution. Material resources, such as the quantity and quality of equipment, affected the range of activities and inclusivity of lessons. Institutional factors, including curriculum requirements, departmental support, and school-wide initiatives, either facilitated or hindered social justice efforts. Student-related factors, such as motivation, cultural backgrounds, and physical abilities, were crucial in shaping pedagogical choices. The socio-economic context, including community resources and parental involvement, influenced the scope of social justice initiatives. Finally, teacher characteristics, including personal backgrounds, professional development, and pedagogical beliefs, acted as internal constraints that further shaped the emergence of social justice pedagogies.

Teachers demonstrated remarkable adaptive expertise (Keay et al., 2019), creatively navigating these constraints to promote social justice. For instance, when faced with limited indoor space due to inclement weather, teachers innovatively modified activities to address issues of equity and inclusion. Similarly, in schools with low student achievement, teachers drew on digital resources to create individual learning plans, developed award systems to recognise engagement, and leveraged activity options and vertical year groups to foster motivation and enhance achievement.

Building on the second phase of the EDUHEALTH project, the study employed a three-year multi-phase, participatory qualitative methodology designed to collaboratively explore and support the emergence of social justice pedagogies in Health and Physical Education (HPE). The approach centred on building a professional community of inquiry (Burgh, 2021), enabling teachers to work alongside university academics to research their own practice. The research, grounded in the principles of ecological dynamics, integrated practitioner research and participatory action research to co-construct knowledge with teacher participants. Participants included five secondary school HPE teachers, purposively sampled to represent diverse educational settings. These teachers engaged as co-researchers within a professional learning community, ensuring the study remained grounded in their experiences and contexts. Data were collected through school observations and group meetings. These methods provided a foundation for identifying the contextual factors shaping teaching practices. Workshops facilitated collaboration between teachers and researchers, ensuring the integration of culturally responsive practices and alignment with local needs. Teachers implemented their co-constructed interventions with ongoing support from researchers through weekly journaling, classroom observations, and student feedback sessions. Data were analysed using Braun and Clarke's (2022) six-phase thematic analysis, integrating critical, post-structural, and intersectional perspectives. This iterative process involved open coding, theme development, and member checking, ensuring the analysis remained rigorous and reflective of participants' experiences. Collaborative analysis with teachers and the cultural advisor further enriched the findings, emphasising the importance of context, adaptability, and professional learning communities in fostering equitable teaching practices. This methodology provided a robust framework for understanding and addressing the complexities of teaching for social justice in diverse educational ecosystems.

Our findings reveal that social justice pedagogies emerge as adaptive behaviours shaped by a wide array of enabling constraints. These constraints, ranging from the physical environment and material resources to institutional factors and student characteristics, create a unique landscape where teachers must orchestrate their teaching. The diversity and nuance of these constraints highlight the inadequacy of one-size-fits-all approaches to social justice education in PE. Importantly, we observed that successful implementation of social justice pedagogies requires teachers to develop and employ adaptive expertise. This involves teachers recognising the constraints in their environment and creatively leveraging these constraints to promote equity, inclusion, and social cohesion. For instance, teachers demonstrated remarkable ingenuity in modifying activities to address social justice issues when faced with space or equipment limitations, timetabling restrictions, or curriculum requirements. This research has significant implications for preservice and in-service teacher education. Rather than prescribing specific pedagogical approaches, teacher education should foster adaptive expertise, equip educators with the skills to read their environment, identify constraints and affordances, and develop context-appropriate strategies for promoting social justice (Gerdin et al., 2024). Furthermore, this research underscores the need for a systems-level approach to fostering social justice in PE. While individual teacher efforts are crucial, our study suggests that meaningful change requires addressing constraints at multiple levels, including institutional policies, resource allocation, and community engagement. Future research should explore how to design educational ecosystems that optimise the emergence of effective social justice pedagogies. This may involve longitudinal studies examining the evolution of teachers' practices over time and interventions aimed at modifying specific constraints to create more equitable and inclusive PE environments.

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