The TGfU governance networks: From conception to special interest group

Abstract

Teaching Games for Understanding (TGfU) has emerged over the past thirty years as one of the leading instructional models for sports coaches and physical education teachers. From its initial beginning as a set of theoretical and practical initiatives on how to teach games, TGfU has evolved to become one of the most readily identifiable pedagogical movements within the sports and physical education field. In this paper we aim to document and study this development in a way that acknowledges the complexity and collectivity involved. At one level, it is easy to see that there is a broad mix of people who value this model and want to work in a collaborative way to promote, research and advance it. At another level, however, the problem becomes one of resisting the urge to simply tell the history without acknowledging the methodological issues involved. As historians would remind us, it is important that we never take history as fixed and linear. Instead, we must interrogate the popular construction of history and seek alternative perspectives in order to escape the confines of biography and experience. By reflecting on the dominant narratives, as well as a few counter narratives, we have a means to engage with and understand how key pedagogical initiatives, like TGfU, are supported and sustained in educational contexts.