The integration of digital technology in physical education (PE) seems to produce teaching and learning practices that focus on improving pupils’ physical performance or activity levels (Jastrow et al., 2022, p.525). When technology is explored in relation to `technology enhanced´ learning, the literature describes the most prevalent learning outcomes to be “to enhance students´ health/physical aspects of learning or on motivational related outcomes” (Sargent & Calderón, 2021) p.3). Another review show that it is common in PE to promote health-enhancing physical activity as learning aspirations when digital technology is included, and that learning is conceptualized as learning about digital media in PE (Teutemacher et al., 2024)). Learning about digital media were practices that focused on digital media as the subject matter of learning. Only a few papers took the approach of learning with digital media in PE, developing practices where digital media was placed as a set of learning tools to achieve subject specific outcomes in the physical, cognitive, social and affective domain in PE (Teutemacher et al., 2024, p. 4). From the exploration of pedagogical cases between academics and practitioners (Casey et al., 2017) learned “that new futures are possible in HPE”, but that there have still not been radical changes in PE contributed by digital technologies. Similar findings were presented by (Sargent & Calderón, 2021) who describe how technology in PE “was mainly used as a substitute for the teacher and not transforming of teaching and learning” and encourage a braver and bolder critical thought “regarding what outcomes are being sought to enhance through the use of technology”. If technology is a tool for enhancing physical and motivational aspects of learning in PE, questions about the educational process future pupils are being guided toward should be raised. 

One place to raise these questions and reflect on what educational processes in PE becomes in digitalized PE should be in physical education teacher education (PETE). By exploring “the relationship between the professional and pedagogical competences of the educators, and the competences of the learners” we can hopefully discover the potentials and limitations to technology integration in educational practices (Redecker et al. 2017). In service teachers report that their use of digital technology in PE is influenced by their own competences in effectively integrating the technologies in the enactment of teaching and learning in PE (Wallace et al., 2022) p. 13). They reported some positive experiences from teaching with technology, despite that they were likely to opt for traditional approaches in the future given a lack of competences and resources. A study by (Jones et al., 2017) showed how PSTs capacity for `technology integration´ was hindered and facilitated by a range of factors related to integrating knowledge and comfort with technology with lesson content, classroom management, technical skills and learning activity and instruction design, and suggest a more wide-ranging and broad-minded approach to exploring technologies in teacher education. Directing our gaze beyond the tools and devices, and approach questions around technology in education with a focus on the practices and activities that surrounds them, the meaning people attach to them and the social relations and social structures that these technologies are linked to could be a way to move forward (Selwyn, 2021, p.2). 

In this paper we examine digital technology in PE from the perspective of students in teacher education. The concepts of truth and discourse guide our discussion on how the practice of PE is shaped in digitized upper secondary school practices. Further we discuss limitations and possibilities presented by digital technology in PE, in relation to power relations that shape these practices. 

This study applies a Foucauldian framework (Foucault et al., 2000; Foucault & Gordon, 1980) to a reflexive thematic analysis approach (Braun & Clark, 2022). Foucault was engaged with how structures and institutions, like schools, control discourse to promote certain truths and suppress others. This is the theoretical framework applied to thematic analysis as a method for exploring ‘patterns of meaning across a qualitative dataset’ as a thematic analysis offers flexibility in terms of theoretical frameworks, foci of meaning, and orientations to data (Braun & Clark, 2022). The study aims to examine how power relations operate and are maintained within teaching methods and educational structures in PE practices that include digital technology, guided by a search for taken for granted truths and how discourses are producing and reproducing taken for granted truths about PE when PSTs include digital technology in their lessons. We followed the first five steps of the thematic analyses (familiarization of data, generation of codes, combining codes into themes, reviewing themes, determine significance of themes) guided by the concepts of truth and discourse as the theoretical framework. The methodology was inspired by (Larsson & Jakobsson, 2023). The theoretical framework impacted the analysis process as it situated meaning in the data set as “as multiple, socially constructed and connected to wider systems of power” (Braun & Clark, 2022, p. 180). We revised the themes throughout the process as our relationship with the data material, the research questions and our shared knowledge and insight developed (Braun & Clark, 2022, p. 35). The study involved 32 PSTs enrolled in a one-year PETE program. The research context is the PSTs teaching practicum in upper secondary school. Prior to their practicum, PSTs attended on-campus sessions where they engaged with digital technology in PE through theoretical discussions and practical activities. The on-campus teaching aimed to familiarize them with a range of digital tools, plan lessons that focused on relating curriculum aspirations, teacher competence and digital tools. During their practicum, the PSTs were required to design and implement lessons that included digital technology aspiring pupils to develop competences in PE. Following the implementation of these lessons, the PSTs submitted reflective reports detailing their experiences, observations, and perceived challenges. These reports then served as the primary data source for analysis.

The findings suggest that the resistance to integrating digital technology in PE is embedded in the discourse that shape the field. The study identifies two primary truths that teachers act on when they are teaching PE with digital technology 1) PE is physical activity free from screens, and 2) PE is teachers demonstrating how to move and play sports. While the curriculum encourages exploratory, student-centered learning and the development of digital competence, these ideals are constrained by the rules that are shaped by the discourses in PE that favor conventional practices. Working with PSTs to develop pedagogical practices that include digital technology requires teacher education programs to go beyond merely introducing digital tools and try out new practices in PETE or in PE. For the exploration of new pedagogical practices in PE to be available, PETE need to challenge the underlying assumptions about PE teaching and learning and develop new pedagogies of teaching and learning with digital technology. Foucault’s perspectives provide a valuable lens for examining how power operates within PE, highlighting the need to question dominant discourses and create spaces for alternative pedagogical approaches. By acknowledging and addressing these power dynamics PETE are better equipt to work with PSTs and explore future learning opportunities in PE.

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