Hello AERA SIG 93 members (and interested members),

My name is Kelly Simonton, and I am honored to serve as the current Chair for our Special Interest Group (SIG) 93 for Research on Learning and Instruction in Physical Education. I am excited to serve on our SIG’s leadership team, and I am really thankful to be working with all of the other dedicated leadership team board members. Our SIG has maintained a long history of strong leaders who support the continued recognition, advancement, and guidance in the field of physical education, sport pedagogy, physical education teacher education, and closely related fields, so I hope we will be able to continue that tradition.

As noted on our SIG webpage, and by many past SIG leaders, the purpose of our SIG is to provide a professional forum for inquiry to all areas of school physical education, sport, physical activity culture, and health with a specific emphasis on research in school physical education settings. As such, our SIG 93 provides opportunities some of the most rigorous, impactful, and relevant research in the fields of physical education, sport pedagogy, and physical education teacher education. I would strongly encourage any person(s) doing research in this field to consider our SIG as an outlet to propose and disseminate work. As can be seen in the “Who we are” AERA SIG 93 page, we provide multiple opportunities to present ranging from conference sessions (oral, poster, roundtable, symposium) to pre-conference session (the Invisible College), to monthly webinars. We are committed to facilitating a professional platform for critical research engagement, advancement, and support within our field.

This year, the national AERA meeting will be held in Los Angeles, CA from April 8-12, 2026. The theme of the upcoming meeting includes, “Unforgetting histories and imagining futures: Constructing a new visions of education research.” This is a fitting theme for our SIG given the significant growth of research in our field in the last several decades. However, we have an obligation to recognizing where we’ve been in terms of research and practice in PE, to understand where we’re going to truly reach greater innovations and new views of PE for the future. We are very excited about or potential presenters, invited key notes, and research panelist who will be in attendance at the conference to share their thoughts on this matter.

Our mission this year as a SIG is to: 1) increase our annual membership, 2) develop more opportunities for networking and sharing of research (faculty and graduate students, 3) establish SIG 93 as the premier place for research presentations in physical education (and related fields), and 4) recommit to establishing a growing, supportive, and  expansive community of researchers and contributors who all feel welcome and valued. In addition to this mission, it is important to note that we offer a mentorship network in which faculty and graduate students can seek and be connected to others for support for the various career stages and events one may need support for. This can include mentoring for jobs, promotion, project support, administrative duties, graduate mentorship, and the list goes on. Please consider reaching out if you’re in our field and would like some mentorship support from a wonderful network of researchers/faculty.

Please keep an eye out for our various announcements throughout the year regarding webinars, SIG updates, research talks, and of course, announcements for presenters for the 2026 conferences. If you are not currently a member, please consider becoming one starting January 2026. If you have other questions about our SIG, please don’t hesitate to contact me via email, kelly.simonton@uwyo.edu.

Sincerely,

Kelly L. Simonton, Ph.D.

Chair, SIG 93 (Research on Learning and Instruction in Physical Education

Associate Professor, University of Wyoming