The text aims to provide an in-depth exploration of a range of traditions that are beginning to reshape the nature of research in physical education and the sports sciences. The chapters are all original contributions by leading scholars that bring together new data from a variety of research approaches. Each offers its own specific challenge to the orthodoxy that has dominated the field. A range of traditions are considered by the contributors who provide specific examples from their own work that include phenomenology, ethnography, life histories, discourse analysis, feminist research, curriculum history and action research. These cases are highlight for the reader the basic assumption of each approach, the significance of the understanding they develop, and their potential for the future development of research in physical education and sport. The forms of analysis provided should be of interest to a wider audience, such as students of education and the social sciences. It is aimed at physical education researchers, BEd, MEd, BSc, MSc courses on physical education and sport and teachers of sports science.