Using Theory to Guide Research: Applications of Constructivist and Social Justice Theories K. Andrew R. Richards, Kim C. Graber, and Amelia Mays Woods Catherine Ennis was an educator, researcher, mentor, and innovator in the field of physical education. As mentor for doctoral students and early-career researchers, she advocated the importance of developing a research agenda to guide and connect one’s scholarship. The central feature of a research plan, she argued, was a guiding theoretical framework that helps scholars interpret their findings and make connections to larger bodies of literature. In this article, the authors discuss Ennis’s position that theory should guide and connect research in physical education and provide examples of how she developed complementary research agendas throughout her career that were connected to constructivist and social justice theories. The goal of both these research agendas was to improve the experiences of children and teachers in physical education programs. In concluding, the authors connect Ennis’s use of constructivist and social justice theories to the ethic of care and make recommendations for teacher education programs. Keywords: children’s experiences, ethic of care, physical education, research agenda Catherine Ennis was an educator, researcher, mentor, and innovator in the field of physical education across the entirety of her career, and this special issue of Kinesiology Review serves as a testament to her life and legacy. Although she spent the majority of her career working in higher education environments, Ennis was an educator at heart and was deeply interested in the needs and experiences of school-age children participating in physical education classes. Much of her work was guided by social constructivist and social justice theories that promoted equitable education in which children and teachers share ownership of the learning process. She was also committed to helping her colleagues and doctoral students develop research agendas that were both responsive to their individual interests and theoretically and prac- tically relevant to the field of physical education more generally (Ennis, 1999a). In discussing research in physical education, Ennis and Silverman (2017) emphasized that research should be both per- sonally and professionally meaningful. Research can be personally meaningful to scholars when it focuses on issues of challenges that they care about and are drawn toward, and it is professionally meaningful when it leads to findings and implications that help advance the field of physical education in significant ways. In developing research agendas, Ennis was also a strong advocate for advancing theory and integrating it as a central component of all research designs and methods. She commented that “the goal of a research plan is to create or identify a theoretical framework and use it to develop a series of research studies that build to the development of a model or some other coherent form of understanding” (Ennis, 1999a, p. 130). In concert with Ennis’s position, the literature indicates that theoretical frameworks provide researchers with a series of inter- connected ideas, or central tenets, that lead to assumptions, struc- ture, and boundaries and allow for a systematic view of a particular problem or phenomenon (Lobiondo-Wood & Haber, 2018). Theories provide researchers with a framework within which to interpret and understand results from a single study, as well as a mechanism through which to unify a body of literature about a certain topic or construct conducted by multiple researchers across disciplines, methodologies, and geographies (Templin & Richards, 2016). Over time, well-developed and implemented theoretical frameworks not only advance theory in a particular domain or discipline but also lead to concrete recommendations that can be used to improve practice and help us better understand a problem or phenomenon (Ennis, 1999a; Lobiondo-Wood & Haber, 2018). In the field of physical education, theoretical frameworks and the research supporting them have helped shape our understanding of effective pedagogies and instructional strategies for engaging diverse learners in class content while simultaneously promoting the adoption of a health-enhancing physically active lifestyle both in and outside of the gymnasium. Examples of such frameworks that have become particularly important for scholars’ research agendas include self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 2008), achievement goal theory (Maehr & Zusho, 2009), occupational socialization theory (Templin & Schempp, 1989), the theory of planned behavior (Ajzen, 2012), experiential learning theory (Kolb, Boyatzis, & Mainemelis, 2002), and social learning theory (Bandura, 1986). Research conducted using self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 2008), for example, highlights the importance of developing learning environments that satisfy students’ basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness in enhancing motivation to be physically active (e.g., Carson & Chase, 2009; Ntoumanis, 2001). Lessons learned through this theory have affected physical education through their inclusion in the underly- ing assumptions of various pedagogical models, such as teaching personal and social responsibility (Hellison, 2011) and sport education (Siedentop, Hastie, & van der Mars, 2004). While numerous theories have guided the work of physical education scholars, Ennis relied heavily on constructivist and social justice theories to guide her own research. These theories align with her broader goal of helping others in the field better understand the The authors are with the Dept of Kinesiology and Community Health, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, IL. Richards (karichar@illinois.edu) is corresponding author. 218 Kinesiology Review, 2018, 7, 218-225 https://doi.org/10.1123/kr.2018-0018 © 2018 Human Kinetics, Inc. SCHOLARLY ARTICLE