In this episode of the What's New in APE podcast, we dive into a topic that is rarely named out loud in PE and APE: fear. Drawing on a recent qualitative study by Dr. Fabian Arroyo-Rojas (Hofstra University) and his co-author Dr. Justin Haegele (Old Dominion University), our conversation explored how fear shapes the day-to-day practices of PE teachers working with disabled students. More specifically, their study examined the lived experiences of PE and APE teachers working in integrated PE settings. Their findings demonstrated that even experienced PE teachers often described experiencing feelings of being watched by administrators and parents lead to feelings of fear and influenced their instructional decisions. Indeed, one key finding was around how fear narrows practice. Wherein when teachers experience fear, they often default to avoiding risk and using overly cautious activities. The discussion continued by investigating Dr. Arroyo's future plans around this research topic. In this discussion, we explored ideas around creating more structured opportunities for PE teachers to openly discuss emotions, uncertainty, and fear without judgment. In addition, Dr. Arroyo emphasized the need to shift the narrative in APE away from deficit-oriented thinking and toward what disabled students can do, experience, and become through high-quality PE. Furthermore, Dr. Arroyo discussed future research needed to be conducted in this area to better understand the phenomena of experiencing fear when working with disabled children in PE, such as: exploring fear in more segregated settings, centering the voices of disabled students themselves, and examining how cultural and regional contexts shape fear.
The citation for the research article that guided this podcast discussion is below:
Arroyo-Rojas, F., & Haegele, J. A. (2025). (De) constructing the meaning of fear when teaching disabled students in physical education. Sport, Education and Society, 1-14.
Here is the transcripts of the discussion.
