Dr Nollaig McEvilly
Senior Lecturer
Before joining the department in 2013, Nollaig was a postdoctoral research assistant with the Developmental Physical Education Group at The University of Edinburgh.
After graduating from the University of Limerick in 2004 with a BSc (Hons) in Physical Education, Nollaig spent over four years teaching play and movement classes to young children and their parents/guardians. During this time, she completed a master’s degree (by research and thesis) that focused on parents’ roles in children’s play. Nollaig’s PhD (The University of Edinburgh, 2012) was titled, ‘The Place and Meaning of “Physical Education” to Practitioners and Children at Three Preschool Contexts in Scotland’. Nollaig is currently Area Leader for the Sociology of Sport strand of the BSc (Hons) in Sport and Exercise Sciences, and Programme Leader for the MSc in Sociology of Sport and Exercise. She was a member of the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Life Sciences Research Ethics Committee from 2013 to 2018. Nollaig is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
External Roles
Nollaig has been the Editor of European Physical Education Review since December 2014 (having previously been the Assistant Editor). She has also reviewed papers for: Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy; International Journal of Sport Policy and Politics; Sport, Education and Society; Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health; Leisure Studies; Curriculum Journal; International Journal of Early Years Education; British Journal of Sports Medicine; Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education; and Irish Educational Studies. She is currently the External Examiner for the MA in Physical Education and Youth Sport at Leeds Beckett University and the BA in Physical Education at Solent University.
Nollaig teaches on the following modules:
- Introduction to the Sociology of Sport and Exercise (Level 4)
- Contemporary Issues in Sport (Level 5)
- Research Methods (Level 5)
- Issues in Sport, Health and Exercise (Level 6)
- Issues in Physical Education (Level 6)
- Theories of Sport and Exercise (MSc)
- Contemporary Issues in Sport and Exercise (MSc)
- Research Methods (MSc)
- Sociology of Physical Education (MSc)
Nollaig also supervises dissertations at BSc and MSc level, and is currently co-supervising three PhDs.
Research interests
- Preschool physical education
- Sociology of physical education, physical activity and health
- Outsourcing of physical education
- Sociology of childhood
- Children’s play
- Foucault
- Qualitative research methods
Nollaig would welcome enquiries from students interested in pursuing PhDs in these areas.
Selected Publications
Hewitt, J. R. & McEvilly, N. (2022). ‘I didn’t realise the variety of people that are climbers’: A sociological exploration of young women’s propensities to engage in indoor rock climbing. Leisure Studies, 41(4), 559-572. DOI
McEvilly, N. (2022). What is PE and who should teach it? Undergraduate PE students’ views and experiences of the outsourcing of PE in the UK. Sport, Education and Society, 27(6), 662-675. DOI
Pentith, R. & McEvilly, N. (2018). ‘Just stretch it out and try to dance’: Young Irish dancers’ views and experiences of pain and injury. Graduate Journal of Sport, Exercise & Physical Education Research, 10, 12-25.
Tynan, R. & McEvilly, N. (2017). ‘No pain, no gain’: Former elite female gymnasts’ engagements with pain and injury discourses. Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health, 9(4), 469-484. DOI
Jess, M., McEvilly, N., & Carse, N. (2017). Moving primary physical education forward: Start at the beginning. Education 3-13, 45(5), 645-657. DOI
McEvilly, N., Atencio, M., & Verheul, M. (2017). Developing children: Developmental discourses underpinning physical education at three Scottish preschool settings. Sport, Education and Society, 22(8), 943-957. DOI
McEvilly, N., Verheul, M., & Atencio, M. (2015). Physical education at preschools: Practitioners’ and children’s engagements with physical activity and health discourses. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 36(6), 832-852. DOI
Jess, M., & McEvilly, N. (2015). Traditional and contemporary approaches to career-long professional learning: A primary physical education journey in Scotland. Education 3-13, 43(3), 225-237. DOI
McEvilly, N., Verheul, M., & Atencio, M. (2015). Physical education at preschools: The meaning of ‘physical education’ to practitioners at three preschool settings in Scotland. Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy, 20(2), 117-130. DOI
McEvilly, N. (2015). Investigating the place and meaning of ‘physical education’ to preschool children: Methodological lessons from a research study. Sport, Education and Society, 20(3), 340-360. DOI
McEvilly, N. (2014). Experiences and outcomes of preschool physical education: An analysis of developmental discourses in Scottish curricular documentation. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 15(1), 29-39. DOI
McEvilly, N., Verheul, M., Atencio, M., & Jess, M. (2014). Physical education for health and wellbeing: A discourse analysis of Scottish physical education curricular documentation. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 35(2), 278-293. DOI
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. DOI
MacPhail, A., Halbert, J., McEvilly, N., Hutchinson, C., & MacDonncha, C. (2005). The constraints on school provision of post-primary physical education in Ireland: Principals’ and teachers’ views and experiences. Irish Educational Studies, 24(1), 77-91. DOI
BSc (Hons), MA, PhD