Welcome to Rapping PE! I’m your host - Steven Buller - AKA Beard Drip Buller - Repping Philly Philly! This is the place where we explore precarity, pedagogy, and physical education! This podcast is dedicated to physical educators of the future, past, and present.

Dr. Tara Blackshear has, according to her website, " ... made a global impact by working  around the world to improve the quality of life for others. Recognizing the discouraging health statistics in the United States, particularly among females and people of color, Dr. Blackshear focuses on research that confronts health and physical activity disparities, and inequities in education that disproportionately affect Black women." I invited Dr. Blackshear to join me on the show to discuss her paper #ShapeSoWhite and have a conversation about her work and what direction we should be moving as a profession.

Her work sparked interested and conversation from many educators within the field, and even resulted in a conversation around the practices of our national organization known as SHAPE America. You can find her Unplugged episode with leaders from SHAPE on YouTube. As the late Congressman John Lewis, who represented Georgia's 5th District, once said, "When you see something that is not right, not fair, not just, you have to speak up. You have to say something; you have to do something." Dr. Blackshear's research, #SHAPEsoWhite, is a testament to speak truth to power and be part of the conversation.

This is a great podcast that covers many important topics that are otherwise misrepresented or largely misunderstood by many educators. Topics like Embodied Approaches, Affirmations, the Policing of Bodies, Interest Conversion Theory, ethic of care and love, Physical Awareness over Physical Literacy, Extinction of PE, SHAPE's Teacher of the Year Award process, and more. Our conversation highlighted various questions like ... is the practice of awarding Teacher of the Year candidates a special place reserved for affluent schools? Is Physical Education for all or for some?

Thank you for for checking out my podcast, I hope you enjoy the show. Please subscribe to the podcast Rapping PE. If you have any questions, or would like to be a guest on the show, you can e-mail me at [email protected] or sign-up here. You can follow us on Twitter (@RappingPE) and (@BeardDripBuller) and on Instagram (@Beard.Drip_Buller).

… Peace & Love

Music Credits: Stefan Vellema