This thesis investigates the non-verbal aspects in the teacher’s activity and their impact on knowledge and gender co-construction. Relying on the Joint Action Theory in Didactics, this contribution is based on the observation of two classes and their respective teachers, teaching badminton, in Physical Education. Starting from a methodology combining the observation of videotaped lessons and teachers’ interviews and a two-fold analysis (macro and micro-didactics), the findings shed light on the importance of these non-verbal aspects in the interactions between teacher and students. In both case studies, it is shown how these non-verbal aspects lead, from a didactic point of view, to a gendered and differentiated process of acquiring content knowledge. Beyond these results, this study theoretically reveals the existence of a ‘gendered un-fore-thought’ in the co-construction of physical education knowledge.
