123 © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 201 A.K. Schulte, B. Walker-Gibbs (eds.), Self-studies in Rural Teacher Education, Self-Study of Teaching and Teacher Education Practices 14, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-17488-4_7 “Knowing the Rules of the Game”: Rural Sporting Biographies and Their Influence on Physical Education Pedagogy Amanda Mooney and Christopher Hickey Introduction Amanda: What were your thoughts about coming to teach in an all-boys’ school? Rachel: Well to be honest, I was a little bit apprehensive (…) I haven’t taught all-boys before (…) prior to this job I taught for two years in a rural school back home which was actually the school I went to, it’s co-ed (…) then I went overseas where I taught, came back and did a year of fitness promotion, then since being back did one term in a girls’ school and then about a year at another rural school about an hour from here – its’ a co-ed Catholic school, boys and girls from Year 7 to 12, pretty country like and fairly community orientated and then here, I’ve only been here for like 6 weeks (…) Amanda: Tell me a bit more about why you were apprehensive, what was going to be so different about teaching here? Rachel: I think I was a bit concerned about (…) well certain sports I might be teaching, like football or rugby or something. You’re sort of thinking well I’m a female, they’re male, they probably play these on a weekly basis, know these sports better than I do (…) It’s not a major concern but it’s something, it’s probably in the back of your mind because teaching in a co-ed school (…) well they’re probably more competitive here, I mean I’m competitive too, I’ve played lots of representative sport back home (…) I think it comes back to maybe having taught for a longer period of time in a certain place, like I think that maybe because I am new, that might make it difficult as well (…). As both researchers and teacher educators committed to critical perspectives in Physical Education (PE), we often find ourselves engaged in conversations about the ways in which our research activities inform and shape our practice in Physical Education Teacher Education (PETE). In a recent article about ‘critical’ research and practice in health and physical education, Fitzpatrick and Russell (2015, p. 163) A. Mooney • C. Hickey (*) Faculty of Arts and Education, School of Education, Deakin University, Geelong, Australia e-mail: amanda.mooney@deakin.edu.au; chris.hickey@deakin.edu.au 6