Alison’s PhD investigated processes of becoming a socially-critical HPE teacher and developed unique understandings about how subjectivities and pedagogical practices of pre-service teachers with a specialisation in HPE are constituted and configured through narratives.

Her research program has developed to include socially-critical and culturally responsive pedagogies in HPE, inclusion and just schooling outcomes. Alison’s research interests extend to in-service and pre-service teacher practitioner inquiry and student-led inquiry into localised health and physical activity issues ‘that matter’. An emerging interest is in working pedagogically with media representations of female athletes in relation to the constitution of subjectivities.  Alison is an active member of the Pedagogies for Justice group within the Research in Education Inclusion Concentration at the University of South Australia. She is also a member of a network of Australian and UK researchers investigating schooling in complex and vulnerable communities.

Alison is also interested in pedagogical practices that integrate the cultural resources of young people in promoting sport, physical activity and health. She is also interested in sociological research in the areas of sport, physical activity, health, corporeal practices and representations. These interests underpin research and teaching that draws on the cultural resources of students and develops socially-critical practices and orientations for the inclusion of all students HPE.