Matthew Atencio Faculty Profile

My research and teaching is underpinned by academic experience working in various international educational contexts, including Australia, the United Kingdom, and Singapore. I am interested in contemporary issues within Physical Education, Outdoor Education, and Sport Sociology. In both research and teaching, I place great emphasis on the versatile nature of Kinesiology as a field that can be relevant to the needs of our society. Kinesiology provides a unique context that can align with the diverse backgrounds and life trajectories of our students.  

Winter InterSession 2025
Course #SecCourse TitleDaysFromToLocationCampus
KIN 2801ASPSustainability in ActionARRARRHayward Campus

Atencio, M., Chow, J.Y., Tan, C.W.K & Lee, C.Y.M. (in press). Using complex and nonlinear pedagogical approaches to design practical game lessons in PE. European Physical Education Review.

 

Chow, J.Y. & Atencio, M. (in press). Complex and nonlinear pedagogy and the implications for Physical Education. Sport, Education, and Society.

 

McEvilly, N., Verheul, M., Atencio, M., & Jess, M. (in press). Physical Education for health and wellbeing: a discourse analysis of Scottish physical education curricular documentation. Discourse: Studies in Cultural Politics of Education.

 

McEvilly, N., Verheul, M. & Atencio, M. (in press). Physical Education in preschools: the meaning of Physical Education to practitioners at three preschool settings in Scotland. Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy.

 

McEvilly, N., Verheul, M. & Atencio, M. (in press). Physical education at preschools: practitioners’ and children’s engagements with physical activity and health discourses. British Journal of Sociology of Education.

 

Saito, E. & Atencio, M. (in press). Understanding education as a relational economic activity. Educational Review.

 

Saito, E., Atencio, M. (in press). Conceptualising teacher practice and pupil group learning through developmental stages and integration factors. Policy Futures in Education.  

 

Atencio, M., Chivers-Yochim, E. & Beal, B. (2013). It ain’t just black kids and white kids: the representation and reproduction of authentic “skurban” masculinities. Sociology of Sport Journal, (30), 153-172.

 

Elliot, D., Atencio, M., Jess, M., & Campbell, T. (2013). From PE experiences to PE teaching practices? Insights from Scottish primary teachers experiences of PE, teacher education, school entry, and professional development. Sport, Education, and Society, 18(6), 749-766.

 

McEvilly, N., Atencio, M., Verheul, M. & Jess, M. (2013). Understanding the rationale for preschool Physical Education: implications for practitioners’ and children’s embodied practices and subjectivity formation. Sport, Education, and Society, 18(6), 731-748.

 

Saito, E. & Atencio, M. (2013). A micro-political and conceptual understanding of lesson study: implications for teacher development and pupil learning. Teaching and Teacher Education, (31), 87-95.

 

Lim, S., Lim-Arasaratnam, C. & Atencio, M. (2013). Understanding the processes behind Singaporean student designing. Design and Technology Education: an International Journal, 18(1), 20-29.

 

Atencio, M., Jess, M. & Dewar, K. (2012). It is a case of changing your thought processes, the way you actually teach: implementing a complex professional learning agenda in Scottish Physical Education. Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy, 17(2), 127-144.

 

Atencio, M. & Beal, B. (2011). Beautiful Losers: the symbolic exhibition and legitimization of outsider masculinity. Sport in Society, 14(1), 1-16.

 

Atencio, M. & Koca, C (2011). The construction of masculinities through communities of practice: a Foucaultian investigation into the Turkish Physical Education context. Gender and Education, 23(1), 59-71.

 

Jess, M., Atencio, M. & Thorburn, M. (2011). Complexity theory: supporting curriculum and pedagogy developments in Scottish Physical Education. Sport, Education and Society, 16, 179-199.

 

Thorburn, M., Jess, M. & Atencio, M. (2011). Thinking differently about curriculum: analysing the potential contribution of physical education as part of health and wellbeing during a time of revised curriculum ambitions in Scotland. Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy, 16(4), 383-398.

 

Thorburn, M., Jess, M., Carse, N. & Atencio, M. (2011). Translating change into improved practice: analysis of teachers’ attempts to generate a new emerging pedagogy in Scotland. European Physical Education Review, 17(3), 313-324.

 

Atencio, M., Beal, B. & Wilson, C. (2009). The distinction of risk: urban skateboarding, street habitus, and the construction of hierarchical gender relations. Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise, and Health, 1(1), 3-20.

 

Atencio, M. & Wright, J. (2009) “Ballet it’s too whitey”: discursive hierarchies of high school dance spaces and the constitution of embodied feminine subjectivities. Gender and Education, 21(1), pp. 31-46.

 

Beames, S., Atencio, M. & Ross, H. (2009). Taking excellence outdoors. Scottish Educational

      Review, 41(2).

 

Koca, C., Atencio, M. & Demirhan, G. (2009). The place and meaning of the field of PE in Turkish young people’s lives: a study using Bourdieu’s conceptual tools. Sport, Education and Society, 14(1), 55-75.

 

Thorburn, M., Jess, M. & Atencio, M. (2009). Connecting policy aspirations with principled progress? An analysis of current Physical Education challenges in Scotland. Irish Educational Studies, 28(2), 207-221.

 

Atencio, M. (2008). “Freaky is just how I get down”: investigating the fluidity of black feminine subjectivities in dance. Leisure Studies, 27(3), 311-327.

 

Atencio, M. & Wright, J. (2008). “We be killin’ them”: hierarchies of black masculinity in urban basketball spaces. Sociology of Sport Journal, 25(2), 263-280.

 

Beames, S. & Atencio, M. (2008). Building social capital through outdoor education. Journal of Adventure Education and Outdoor Learning, 8(2), 99-112.

 

Invited Book Chapters

 

Jess, M., Atencio, M. & Carse, N. (2012). Introducing conditions of complexity in the context of Scottish Physical Education. In: A. Ovens, T. Hopper & J. Butler (Eds.), Complexity in Physical Education: reframing curriculum, pedagogy and research (pp.27-41). London: Routledge.

 

Jess, M., Carse, N., McMillan, P. & Atencio, M. (2011). Sport Education in Scottish Primary Schools. In: D. Kirk & P. Hastie (Eds.), Sport Education: international perspectives (pp. 41-57). London: Routledge.

 

Atencio, M. (2010). “I don’t wanna die too early”: Young people’s use of urban neighbourhood spaces in the United States. In: J. Wright & D. Macdonald (Eds.), Young people, physical activity and the everyday: living physical activity (pp.29-41). London: Routledge.

 

Atencio, M. (2010). The Life Activity Project in the American inner city: Multi-ethnic young people’s engagements with health discourses. In: J. Wright & D. Macdonald (Eds.), Young people, physical activity and the everyday: living physical activity (pp.150-161). London: Routledge.

 

Wright, J. et al. (2010). Reflections on methodological issues: Lessons learned from the Life Activity projects. In: J. Wright & D. Macdonald (Eds.), Young people, physical activity and the everyday: living physical activity (pp.197-109). London: Routledge.

 

Atencio, M. (2007). Basketball is like breathing. In: K. Malone (Ed.), Childspace: an anthropological exploration of young people’s use of space. New Delhi: Concept Publishing Company.