Physical Education Professor wins IOC prize

An Adjunct Professor of Physical Education at The University of Auckland’s Faculty of Education has won the prestigious International Olympic Committee President’s Prize.

Professor Richard Tinning will share the prize with co-winner Professor Wolf-Deitrich Brettschneider from The University of Paderbonn, Germany.

Professor Tinning is the first southern hemisphere recipient of the award, which has been given out only ten times since it was established in 1978 under the sponsorship of former IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch.

The US$10,000 prize is awarded by the International Association of Physical Education in Higher Education (AIESEP) at a gala reception at the AIESEP Congress in La Coruna, Spain in October 2010.

It recognises the great scholarly contribution Professor Tinning has made to the field of physical education research.

According to Dr Alan Ovens, a fellow academic in the Faculty of Education and President and Chair of the Board of Physical Education New Zealand (PENZ): “The award is highly prestigious, competitive and truly international. Professor Tinning has had a major impact on the field of sport and physical education worldwide and I heartily congratulate him on this international recognition”.

Professor Tinning has educated health and physical education teachers for over four decades as a university lecturer, is published widely in scholarly and professional journals, has been involved in major Australian curriculum development projects for physical education, worked on large-scale professional development programs for teachers, and has been a keynote speaker at over 30 national and international conferences.

He was an early advocate of critical pedagogy within physical education and has written extensively on physical education and teacher education. His most recent book Pedagogy and Human Movement: Theory, Practice, Research (2010, Routledge) develops an analysis of the pedagogical work done on physical activity, the body and health within the broad field of Human Movement Studies.

He is also a Professor of Pedagogy and Physical Education in the School of Human Movement Studies at the University of Queensland.

Professor Tinning is presenting a seminar at the Faculty of Education’s Epsom Campus on 29 June 2010, from 4.30pm in Room N356, titled ‘Reflections on critical education studies at Deakin University 1977-1999’, looking back on his time as an education scholar at the Australian university, and the upheaval caused when the Australian Government introduced a one-tier education system in 1987.