LeAnne Petherick

Education

University of Toronto , 2008, PhD

Memorial University , 1999, MPE

McMaster University , 1997, BKin

Biography

I grew up on a small family farm in southern Ontario and I have had the privilege of studying and working at various universities across Canada. Prior to joining the University of British Columbia, I had tenure-track positions at the University of Manitoba and Memorial University of Newfoundland. At both universities, I worked in the multi-disciplinary Faculty of Kinesiology, which broadly speaking is inclusive of degree programs in Kinesiology, Physical Education and Recreation Management. Joining the Department of Curriculum and Pedagogy Studies in the Faculty of Education is tremendously exciting for me as it affords me the opportunity to merge my scholarly passions, bringing a critical pedagogical approach to health and human movement.

My research uses a feminist post-structural lens to critically examine curriculum policy, pedagogy and lived experience. In particular, my research is motivated by a social justice approach to health and movement pedagogies, as I am firmly committed to the transformative potential of movement.

In an effort to move towards social justice possibilities, I challenge traditional methods of teaching-learning in health and physical education, particularly focusing on the social and cultural relevance of learning in and through the moving body. More recently, my interest in health education and health-related research centers around a Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR) funded project that examines the discourses surrounding the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination. I am also on a small project that is exploring issues of surveillance and power in school health initiatives.

Additionally, I am a co-applicant on a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) funded project that is examining Indigenous masculinities and physical cultures in Fisher River Cree Nation (Manitoba).

Selected Publications

Peer-reviewed journals 

Saunders, G. & Petherick, L. (2025) Sport specialization of Canadian Varsity athletes. The Journal of Student-Athlete Educational Development and Success 7, 1-31. https://americanpresspublishers.com/JSAEDSContents2025.html

Norman, M., Hart, M., Petherick, L. & Sinclair, C. (2025). ‘My you’re a great man’: A wahkotowin exploration of the changing Indigenous masculinity. Journal of Indigenous Social Development. [CA]

Lundy, J. & Petherick, L. (2025). Principles of Assessment and Instruction for Quality Pedagogy and Learning in Secondary Physical and Health Education: A snapshot from British Columbia. Strategies: A Journal for Physical and Health Educators 38(3). 

Vita, S.C., Petherick, L., & McGlashin Fainu, H. (2024). Teaching Indigenous knowledges and perspectives in Physical Education Teacher Education (PETE): Discursive tensions at the cultural interface. Curriculum Studies in Health and Physical Education. https://doi.org/10.1080/25742981.2024.2431929

Norman, M., Cheng, K., Lu, C., & Petherick, L. (2024). Fostering Intercultural Dialogue: A Case Study of Chinese-Canadian Students’ Experiences and Perspectives of a Kinesiology Program, Sport, Education and Society. DOI:10.1080/13573322.2024.2355251.

Petherick, L. (2023). Reading the Curriculum as Cultural Practice: Interrogating culture and colonialism in Ontario’s Secondary Health and Physical Education curriculum. Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy. DOI: 10.1080/17408989.2023.2232807

Chinn, S., Petherick, L., Halas, J. & Strachan, L. (2022). Culturally relevant Physical and Health Education from the perspectives of racially minoritized female high school graduates. PHEnex, 12(3), 1-29.

Norman, M., Petherick, L. & Albert, S. (2022). Unsettling the Myth of Canadian Nationhood: Hockey and Embodied Indigenous Sovereignties. Sociology of Sport Journal, 39(4), 323-332. https://doi.org/10.1123/ssj.2021-0115

Norman, M., Hart M. & Petherick, L. (2019). Indigenous gender formations: Physical culture, settler colonialism and the politics of containment. Sociology of Sport Journal, 36,(2) 113-123. https://doi.org/10.1123/ssj.2018-0130

Norman, M., Petherick, L., Hart, M., McRae, H., Mason, G., Cote, A. Cote, S., & Cochane, S. (2018). Bringing the ‘Other’ half back: A place-specific, intergenerational examination of physical cultural masculinities in Fisher River Cree Nation. Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health, 11(5), 671–686. https://doi.org/10.1080/2159676X.2018.1510431.

Rail, G., Molino, L., Fusco, C., Norman, M., Petherick, L., Polzer, J., Moola, F., & Bryson, M. (2018). HPV vaccination discourses and the construction of ‘at-risk’ girls. Canadian Journal of Public Health, https://doi.org/10.17269/s41997-018-0108-8.

Petherick, L. (2018). Race and Culture in the Secondary School Health and Physical Education Curriculum in Ontario, Canada. A Critical Reading. Health Education, 118(2), 144-158. https://doi.org/10.1108/HE-11-2016-0059

Norman, M., Petherick, L. Geisbrecht, G., Garcia, E. & Duhamel, T. (2018). Governing Indigenous recreation: A critical analysis of an after school active health intervention. Sport, Education & Society, 23 (2), 135-148. https://doi.org/10.1080/13573322.2016.1155443 [CA]

Norman, M., Petherick, L., Geisbrecht, G., Garcia, E., & Duhamel, T. (2016). Examining the more-than-built-environments of a Northern Manitoban Community: Re-conceptualizing Rural Indigenous mobilities. Journal of Rural Studies, 42, 166-178.

Norman, M., Petherick, L. Geisbrecht, G., Garcia, E. Duhamel, T. (2015). Governing Indigenous recreation: A critical analysis of an after school active health intervention. Sport, Education & Society. DOI:10.1080/13573322.2016.1155443

Petherick, L. (2015). Shaping the Child as a Healthy Child: Health Surveillance, Schools and Biopedagogies. Cultural Studies – Critical Methodologies, 15, 361-370.

Beausoleil, N. & Petherick, L. (2015). Taking up the Vitality Message: Health Knowledge, Feeling Good, Pleasure in Newfoundland Children’s Drawings and Talk, Cultural Studies -Critical Methodologies, 15, 407-416

Petherick, L., & Beausoleil, N. (2015). Female educators’ biopedagogical practices: How health discourse circulates in Newfoundland elementary schools. Canadian Journal of Education, 38 (1), 1-29.

Moola, F., Norman, M., Petherick, L., & Stratchan, S. (2014). Writing and Teaching Across the Lines of Fault in Psychology and Sociology: A Focus on Obesity and Physical Inactivity in Kinesiology. Sociology of Sport Journal, 31 (2), 202-227.

Petherick, L. (2014). Fields of Play: An ethnography of children’s sport. Book Review. Journal of Sport History, 41 (1), 158-159.

Petherick, L. (2013). Producing the Young Biocitizen: Secondary School Students Negotiation of Learning in Physical Education. Sport, Education and Society, 18(6), 711-730.

Halas, J., MacRae, H., & Petherick, L. (2012). Advice for PE teachers from Aboriginal Youth. Physical and Health Education Journal, 78 (3), 6-11.

Donnelly, P. & Petherick, L. (2004). Worker’s playtime?: Child labour at the extremes of the sporting spectrum. Sport & Society, 7 (3), 301-32.

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Books

Norman, M., Petherick, L., Mason, G., Hart, M., Cote, A., & Cote, S. (2025). Ancestral Ways of Living in Ochekwi-Sipi/Fisher River Book. Manitoba First Nations Education Resource Council (MFNEC). 

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Chapters

Sam, J., Hare, J., Nicol, C., & Petherick, L. (2022). Indigenizing design for online learning in Indigenous Education. In S. M. Morris & S. J. Hangiana (Eds.) Designing for Care and Toward a Critical Instructional Design (pp. 73-94). Hybrid Pedagogy Incorporated. Denver, CO

Petherick, L., & Norman, M. (2020). New language, old assumptions: A critical examination of a Canadian Health and Physical Education Curricula – British Columbia’s Physical and Health Education. In M.Gard, Powell D. & Tenorio, J. (Eds.), Handbook of Critical Obesity Studies. [Chapter 35] Routledge, New York 

Petherick, L. & Norman, M. (2020). Navigating Health Knowledge: Postcolonialism and Ethnic Minority Girls’ Experiences of Health Education in School Contexts. In D. Leahy, K. Fitzpatrick, & J. Wright, (Eds.) Social Theory in Health Education Forging New Insights in Research [Chapter 12]. Routledge Publishers. 

Cameron, E., Norman, M., & Petherick, L. (2017). Shifting Stories of Size: Critical Obesity Scholarship as Transformative Pedagogy for Disrupting Weight-based Oppression in Physical Education. In C. Ennis (Ed.) The Handbook of Physical Education. Routledge.

Petherick, L., Norman, M. & Rail, G. (2016). Manufacturing (Parental) Consent: A critical analysis of the HPVV informed consent process in Ontario, Canada. In S. Dagakas & L. Burrows (eds.) Families, Young People, Physical Activity & Health, New York: Routledge.

Norman, M., & Petherick, L. (2016). The enemy within: Teaching “hard knowledge” about “soft bodies” in A Kinesiology Faculty. In E. Cameron & C. Russell (Eds.), The Fat Pedagogy Reader. Challenging Weight-based Oppression in Education. Peter Lang Publishers.

Petherick, L. (2016). Engaging with Issues of Social Class in Physical Education, In D. Robinson, & L. Randell (Eds.), Social Justice in Physical Education. Critical Reflections and Pedagogies for Change. Canadian Scholars Press.

Petherick, L. & Beausoleil, N. (2016). Obesity Panic, Body Surveillance and Pedagogy: Elementary Teachers’ Response to Obesity Messaging. In D. McPhail, W. Mitchinsen, & J. Ellison (Eds.), Obesity in Canada: Historical and Critical Perspectives. University of Toronto Press.