Physical Education and COVID-19: what have we learned?

The aim of this paper is to explore what we have learned during the COVID-19 pandemic in the field of Physical Education in three different countries: Argentina, Spain and Sweden. Data were generated through semi-structured interviews, and the concept of field agency is used to make sense of the data. Differences were found among the three countries, regarding the content of the classes, the use of resources, the emotions of teachers, and the use of physical contact. This was also a result of the regulations and resources in place. The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated that the nature of the field of PE had been momentarily disrupted during the pandemic in these contexts. The habitus of both, teachers and students was challenged, and the economic capital of each context determined what was possible to do 'as PE'. Particular new discourses, such as the risk of getting the COVID-19 virus, interacted through agents to re-shape the field of PE and modify agents' habitus. The participating teachers enacted agency and expressed their capacity to make practical and normative judgements among alternative possible trajectories of action for their classes, in response to the emerging demands, dilemmas and ambiguities of the COVID-19 pandemic.