Crossing borders in UK PE: teachers’ purposes, practices, and becoming through a complexity lens

The nature and purpose of physical education (PE) have been widely debated, often framed through sport performance, physical activity, and health. Yet recent scholarship has called for more inclusive, meaningful, and educationally rich understandings of the subject. This paper contributes to that debate by examining how teachers across the four home nations of the UK understand and enact PE within distinct curriculum and policy contexts. Drawing on a border-crossing perspective and informed by complexity thinking, the study explores how teachers’ professional practices are shaped by the interplay of biography, school context, national policy, and local conditions. The research employed a qualitative comparative design involving semi-structured interviews with 11 primary and secondary teachers from England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. Analysis combined inductive thematic coding with a subsequent deductive complexity-informed interpretation of selected vignettes. Findings show strong convergence across contexts around the centrality of enjoyment, inclusion, and meaningful participation in PE. However, important divergences emerged in the ways teachers described learning, activities, and pedagogy. Teachers in Scotland and Wales tended to articulate broader, more holistic and relational purposes for PE, while teachers in England and Northern Ireland more often emphasised sport, performance, and physical skill development. The vignette analysis illustrates how teachers negotiate shifting boundaries, self-organise in response to reform, and experience professional becoming over time. The paper argues that PE curriculum enactment is not a linear process of policy implementation, but a complex and evolving practice shaped through relational, contextual, and temporal forces. In doing so, it highlights the significance of teachers as curriculum makers and offers cross-border insights into how PE may be reimagined in more inclusive and educationally meaningful ways. By foregrounding complexity and teacher voice, the paper contributes new insights for policymakers, practitioners, and researchers seeking to reimagine PE’s purposes and practices within shifting educational landscapes.