Rate My Professor Emily Scott

Dr Emily Scott is a Senior Teaching Fellow in the School of Physical Education, Sport and Exercise Sciences, Sciences Division, University of Otago. She graduated from the University of Otago with a Bachelor of Physical Education (Honours) in 1996, obtained a Diploma in Teaching (Secondary), and worked as a secondary school teacher for ten years prior to joining the School as a staff member in 2018. In 2023, she was awarded a PhD by the University of Otago for her thesis entitled "Primary school physical education: Why practice matters". This doctoral research employed ethnographic methodologies and a practice theory framework to investigate how school staff and students produce physical education practices and make sense of them in primary school contexts.

Emily Scott's research specializations encompass physical and health education, with particular emphasis on primary school physical education. Her work examines learning—what it is, how it happens, and the consequences it bears on lives, places, and histories—from a practice perspective in sport and physical education settings. As a member of the international Pedagogy Education Praxis network, she engages in collaborative research projects. She teaches several courses, including SPEX 207: Understanding Sport Coaching, SPEX 307: Coaching, Leadership and Mentoring, SPEX 309: Active Living and the Environment, and SPEX 316: Practicum. Notable publications include "Learning sport: a site-ontological practice theory perspective" (Grootenboer, P., Scott, E., & Petrie, K., 2025, Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy); her 2023 PhD thesis; "Primary school physical education: Why practice matters" (Scott, E., 2021, Proceedings of the University of Otago Student Research Symposium); "Primary school physical education: What matters and to whom?" (Scott, E., 2019, Australian Association for Research in Education Conference proceedings); and "Voices in primary school PE: Who is talking and what do they have to say?" (Scott, E., 2019 verbal presentation, PENZ/EONZ/NZHEA National Conference).