Influence of two preservice teachers’ value orientations on their interpretation and delivery of sport education

Teachers’ beliefs have a considerable impact on their instructional styles, methods, objectives and curricular organization. The primary purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of two preservice teachers’ (PTs’) value orientations on their interpretation and delivery of sport education (SE). A secondary purpose was to describe possible changes and development of PTs’ value orientations while teaching SE. Data were collected while they engaged in their final student teaching experience using a variety of qualitative techniques. These were analyzed using standard interpretive techniques. Results indicated that their disciplinary mastery focus strongly influenced the type of SE seasons they delivered. In addition they revealed that the PTs broadened their beliefs about their teaching toward the end of student teaching to the extent that they expressed interest in goals related to and used pedagogies consistent with social reconstruction, social responsibility and self-actualization value orientations.     

Physical education teachers’ perceptions of perceived mattering and marginalization

Background: In many countries around the world, physical education (PE) has been identified as a marginalized subject. PE teachers have been found to feel negative consequences associated with marginality, such as stress, burnout, and early career attrition. Recent evidence also indicates that physical educators can develop a sense of perceived mattering both in relation the subject of PE and their role as that teacher of that subject. Less is known, however, about the relationship between perceived mattering and marginalization, and how teachers navigate social messages associated with each that they receive while teaching. Role socialization theory has emerged as an approach to studying teachers’ experiences in school environments, and can be used to understand their experiences with marginality and mattering.

Aims: The purpose of this study was to understand how the social environment of schools influences PE teachers’ perceptions of marginalization and perceived mattering, and how these two constructs interact.

Method: The investigation was conceptualized as an interview study, and framed using a social constructivist epistemology. Participants included 30 in-service PE teachers (16 males, 14 females) from the Midwest region of the US. Data were collected using in-depth qualitative interviews, and analyzed through a collaborative approach to data analysis that drew upon both inductive and deductive forms of analysis.

Results: Participants identified experiences with both perceived mattering and marginalization in their work, and noted that sometimes these messages were contradictory. Some participants felt the effects of marginalization as their discipline was viewed as a dispensable commodity that is only meaningful for the service it provides to other teachers (e.g. gives elementary classroom teachers a break for planning). Some of the teachers internalized their marginal status and began to see their primary function as supporting the work of teachers in other subjects. Nevertheless, the participants derived a sense of mattering by building relationships with colleagues, administrators, and students, and by advocating for the discipline. Teachers also felt validated when colleagues acknowledge their attempts to implement effective practices, but struggled when working with colleagues who are resistant to change.

Conclusions: PE teachers experience both marginalization and perceived mattering, which are shaped largely by social interactions within the school environment. This study specifically lends to the view of marginalization and perceived mattering as two constructs at opposite ends of a continuum, rather than a binary conceptualization. This suggests that it could be the summation of marginalizing experiences and those that promote mattering that lead physical educators to develop overall impressions of their role in schools. Furthermore, this study adds to the literature indicating that physical educators may eventually internalize feelings of marginalization when consistently told that they do not matter. This has implications related to the washout effect whereby teachers who no longer feel as if they are making meaningful contributions to children’s education may compromise their teaching practice.     

Influence of team identification,game outcome,and game process on sport consumers’ happiness

The purpose of the study is to examine the relative effects of game process (i.e., boring versus exciting) and outcome (i.e., losing versus winning) on sport consumers’ happiness depending on their level of team identification. The authors investigated how sport consumers’ levels of happiness are different after recalling (Study 1) and imagining (Study 2) a game when the positivity of the game process and the outcome contradict each other. Results indicate that sport consumers with high team identification exhibited greater degrees of happiness after recalling and imagining a boring win game compared to an exciting loss game. Meanwhile, sport consumers with low team identification exhibited similar degrees of happiness between a boring win game and an exciting loss game.     

Sport managers’ perspectives on poverty and sport: The role of local sport authorities

Poverty and social exclusion are ‘wicked issues’ and require a joint approach from a wide array of policy fields. As practicing sport has become a customary activity, it has a part to play in fighting social exclusion. But to what extent is this a realistic expectation? Drawing on qualitative data gathered from semi-structured interviews at twenty local sport authorities in Flanders (Belgium), the aim of this study is to gain insight in the experiences of local sport authorities with people in poverty, and to identify barriers and facilitators for investing in the inclusion of this social group. Results indicate that facilitating inclusion for people in poverty is a challenging task for local sport managers. Policy initiatives, if any, often remain limited to providing financial discounts. Only a minority of local sport managers reported more comprehensive policies, involving different strategies. A major problem is the limited understanding and expertise of local sport managers with regard to poverty. Therefore, cooperation between sport managers and organisations from the social sector is crucial. Recommendations as to how the role of local sport authorities as a facilitator of social inclusion can be strengthened are formulated.     

Spaces and physical education pre-service teachers’ narrative identities

Stories or narratives are integral to meaning making in relation to selves, others and the choices we make in living. It follows that pre-service teachers’ narratives can provide a means for understanding experiences and processes of becoming teachers of physical education (PE). This paper reports on an interview-based inquiry from which biographical information was collated and constructed as narratives. The specific focus of this paper is demonstrating how Ricoeur's [1991a. Narrative identity. In D. Woods (Ed.), On Paul Ricoeur: Narrative and interpretation (pp. 188–199). London: Routledge; 1992. Oneself as another. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press] theorisation of narrative identity can generate understandings about incipient PE teacher identities as developed in various spaces and temporalities. Data are presented through a cluster of significant spaces: sport, families, schooling, PE and Teacher Education plus narratives. Findings indicate that in constructing narrative identities, participants activated links between spaces, their past, present and aspirational futures as teachers. Given this, I conclude by identifying possibilities for PE teacher educators in using personal narratives as resources for exploring significant lifeworld spaces and subjective possibilities.     

Entering the field: beginning teachers’ positioning experiences of the staffroom

Little is known about beginning teachers’ political positioning experiences of the staffroom. This paper employs Bourdieu's conceptual tools of field, habitus and capital to explore beginning health and physical education teachers’ positioning experiences and learning in staffrooms, the place in which teachers spend the majority of their non-teaching school time. From an Australian context, we present beginning (or emerging) teachers’ stories from one rural general staffroom and one urban departmental staffroom. Using the narratives we reflect upon how their positioning in the politics of the staffroom as beginning teachers presented significant challenges including negotiating the professional micropolitics, negotiating capital and negotiating opportunities and risks for reflection and change in contrasting social spaces.     

An investigation of pre-service teachers’ learning in physical education teacher education: schools and university in partnership

This study explores the role of school and university partnership teams in the professional development of physical education (PE) pre-service teachers (PSTs) during their one year Postgraduate Certificate in Education course in England. The paper focuses on the key influences and processes that impacted on PST subject knowledge development. An interpretive methodology informed by constructivist grounded theory [Charmaz, K. (2006). Constructing grounded theory: A practical guide through qualitative analysis. London: Sage.] was adopted. This research highlights that the process of knowledge development in physical education teacher education (PETE) is socially constructed and complex. Much of the PSTs’ development was influenced by various communities of practice, particularly their school placements’ PE departments, but also their university-based learning community. Of these, the legitimised practices within the PE departments were found to be especially important to PSTs’ development. University-based learning was credited by PSTs with enhancing their holistic understanding of the learning process, developing those aspects of critical pedagogy that were under-developed in schools. This study identifies the capability of school/university partnerships to facilitate enhanced knowledge development in PETE. Taking into consideration the evolving nature of PETE within a political context that is progressively moving towards an entirely school-based model, an evidence-based debate over the manner and nature of the subject knowledge to be developed is needed.     

Exploring physical education teachers ‘everyday understandings’ of physical literacy

ABSTRACT

In recent years, physical literacy (PL) has been the subject of increased publication, promotion, and speculation in physical education (PE). This research sought to understand how PE teachers interpret PL. We investigated teacher’s conceptualisations, understandings, practices, and ideas of ‘what’ PL stands for through a #Chat conversation with physical educators on Twitter. This generated qualitative data that were interpretively analysed. An ‘everyday philosophy’ of PL emerged from the physical educators’ relationship with the PL concept, alongside the notion that some use social media as a PL advocacy tool. A lack of sophistication was evident in the PE teachers understanding and operationalization of PL. We conclude that perhaps too much time and effort has been spent ‘adapting’ PL to national contexts, personal, and institutional agendas, rather than investing in the pedagogical and content knowledge of PE teachers to deliver on the concept of PL. We suggest that it is empirical research rather than academic opinionating that is needed to establish the validity of PL for PE.     

Mapping physical education teachers’ professional learning and impacts on pupil learning in a community of practice in South Korea

Background: A new national physical education (PE) curriculum has been developed in South Korea and PE teachers have been challenged to deliver new transferable educational outcomes in character development through PE. In one geographical area, in order to support teachers to make required changes, a Communities of Practice (CoP) approach to continuing professional development (CPD) was adopted. Rather than being based in a single-school, this CoP brought PE teachers together from a number of schools with the aim of sharing learning and impacting on pedagogies, practices and pupils’ learning in character development through PE.

Aims: To map and analyse the ways in which teachers (i) learnt about character education in a CoP, (ii) used this learning to inform their pedagogies and practices, and (iii) impacted on pupil learning in and beyond PE.

Method: The participants were a university professor, 8 secondary school PE teachers from 8 different schools and 41 pupils. Data collection was undertaken in two phases in Autumn 2014 and Spring 2015. In-depth qualitative data were collected in the CoP and the teachers’ schools using individual interviews, focus groups with pupils, observations of lessons, open-ended questionnaires and document analysis. Data were analysed using a constructivist revision of grounded theory.

Findings: There was clear evidence of teacher learning in the CoP and changes to their pedagogies and indirect teaching behaviours (ITBs). Pupils were also able to identify the new intended learning about character development at both cognitive and behavioural levels, although there was little evidence of understanding about or intention to transfer this learning beyond PE (which was the original aim of the Government’s character education initiative). Barriers to teacher and pupil learning are also discussed.

Conclusion: Teachers’ professional learning in the CoP impacted on the development of both teachers’ pedagogies and ITBs which then influenced pupils’ learning, however, linking teachers’ professional learning to pupils’ learning remains challenging. This study has added further insights into the complexity of the processes linking policy, teachers’ learning and pupils’ learning outcomes. While it was possible to trace clear pathways from the CoP to teachers’ learning, and in some cases to pupils’ learning, it was also apparent that a wide range of factors intervened to influence the learning outcomes.     

Tinkering through transition: on ‘doctoring’ as an early-career academic in physical education and sport pedagogy

This article addresses the notion of ‘making it’ as an early-career academic in physical education and sport pedagogy. In it, we draw on the tradition of material semiotics to reflect on our shared journeys from doctoral student to beginning scholar and beyond. By attuning ourselves to the relationality, materiality and precariousness of our experiences, we offer an answer to the question of what it takes to ‘make it’ as an early-career academic by advocating the practice of ‘making do’ or ‘doctoring.’ We develop this argument, first, by describing the narrative methods we used to conduct our inquiry and by explaining the material-semiotic ideas we used to explore the stories it generated. Then, we tell tales of our transitions from higher degree research student to early-career academic, focusing specifically on our ongoing, collective efforts to make do. In our discussion, we explore these narratives and attend to three features of our actions and activities as early-career academics; namely semiotic relationality, material heterogeneity and the precarious processes of heterogeneous engineering through which we sought to make a career in our field. We conclude by encouraging beginning scholars in physical education and sport pedagogy to become sensitive to these aspects of their own agency, and to experiment, experience and tinker together in ways that are attentive, inventive, caring and persistent.     

Physical education,sport and the intersection and articulation of ‘modernities’: The Hanuman Vyayam Prasarak Mandal

This paper focuses on the problem of delimiting and contextualizing ‘alternative modernities,' and the way in which sport factors into the logic of delimitation. After postulating six ideal type alternative sportive modernities in India, the Hanuman Vyayam Prasarak Mandal is analyzed as the articulation of a type of modernity that is linked to liberal secular nationalism. By looking at both the development of the HVPM through time as well as the performance of yoga and mallakhamba in various international sporting and gymnastic events, a specific relationship between nationalist and transnational social imaginaries is examined. Finally, the HVPM is compared and contrasted with the sportive activities of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, a militant Hindu nationalist organization. Through this comparison it is possible to see how similar configurations of sport and gymnastics articulate different modernities, and how these alternative modernities both intersect and diverge from one another.     

From ‘philosophy of sport’ to ‘philosophies of sports’? History,identity and diversification of sport philosophy

My goal in this article is to give a portrait of how modern sport philosophy, which started in 1972, developed from relatively narrow paradigmatic borders to become a diverse and multi-paradigmatic international discipline. This development has included several changes but also some continuity. I identify three main tenets that may be viable in the future. One is to focus on the traditional sport philosophical paradigm, which had an ambition to identify the essence of sport. A second option is to develop more specific approaches, focusing on single sports or types of sport, like football or climbing. A third alternative is to develop a philosophy, not only of sport but of ‘homo movens’, studying the moving human being in different environmental and socio-cultural contexts. All three options are viable and should be welcomed.     

Residents’ perceptions of mega sport event legacies and impacts

The purpose of this study was to examine perceptions of local residents prior to the public referendum for the 2024 Hamburg Olympic bid and to assess their level of support for the bid. The representative survey conducted amongst Hamburg residents reveals a high level of support but also a strong perception of negative legacies. A comparison between the perceived positive and negative legacies shows that the negative legacies outweigh the positive legacies. When examining factors that influence support, statistical analysis reveals the perception of positive legacies as the strongest predictor of support. The survey also indicates that residents attach great importance to the costs of the Games and feel no personal benefit from hosting them. The findings suggest that Games organizers and authorities should mostly rely on positive legacies while negative legacies ought to be mitigated.     

Teachers in school sports: between the fields of education and sport?

According to the cultural sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, gaining access to a social space or a position within a social space requires a specific capital. For teachers, this is normally indicated by a valid teaching certificate with relevant subject knowledge. However, when no qualified teachers are available, which is the case for the subject of school sports in Sweden, other assets gain recognition. Drawing on Bourdieu's conceptual framework, this paper examined the conditions for school sports in Sweden, and based on questionnaires answered by 109 teachers, explored the competencies, education and backgrounds teachers in upper secondary school sports possess. The paper address the question: what valuable resources are required to become a teacher of school sports and gain recognition as symbolic capital? The results show that while school sports in Sweden are carried out through a school subject and thus regulated by the government, it is influenced by both the fields of education and sport. Furthermore, the questionnaire results show that a majority of the teachers are employed as coaches instead of teachers and that less than half of them (45%) have a teacher education background, while 95% have a coaching education background. However, the results also show that teachers assessed their competencies for teaching school sports as high, especially with regard to competencies in specific sport skills. In conclusion, this paper shows how coaching education and experience in competitive sports are an important resource required to become a teacher in school sports and is thus recognized as symbolic capital. Therefore, school sports cannot be viewed as a legitimate part of the field of education but can be viewed as a part of the field of sport.     

Physical education preservice teachers’ perceptions of the subject and profession: development during 2005–2016

Background: During the socialization process when becoming a physical education (PE) teacher, the knowledge, perceptions and expectations of what it means to work as a teacher are developed. In this socialization, the initial acculturation phase is shown to be of the most importance, since individual PE teachers’ experiences during this phase are shown to have a long-lasting influence on their approach to and perception of the subject and the profession. Furthermore, research shows that most physical education teacher education (PETE) programmes are ineffective in altering these initial perceptions and beliefs during the programme. This inertia to change may resemble Bourdieu’s concept of habitus.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to analyse the background of PE preservice teacher students (PSTs) and examine their embodied perceptions and beliefs related to the subject and profession when they enrol. Specifically, the study focuses on their background characteristics, perceptions of PE and PE teachers, and whether their background and perceptions changed between 2005 and 2016.

Method: This study draws on a web-based questionnaire completed by 224 students (90 women and 134 men) enrolled in the PETE programme at a major university in Sweden between 2005 and 2016. The questionnaire used in this study addressed the PSTs’ experiences, views, beliefs and perceptions of PE and the PE profession, and it was completed during the first semester of respective students’ PE subject studies.

Findings: PE PSTs are a homogeneous group of students with similar backgrounds, experiences and perceptions of PE and their future profession as PE teachers. Participants suggested that important characteristics for a good PE teacher include possessing subject knowledge, having pedagogical competence and being considerate. A good PE lesson should be fun and inspiring, consist of physical activity and be adapted to all. Important goals for PE are to develop pupils’ character and promote healthy behaviours. The PSTs’ background characteristics and perceptions do not seem to have changed during the studied period, in spite of the fact that the structure of the PETE programme did change.

Conclusions: The homogeneous background among PSTs, with vast experience of sport and physical activity, implies that they will interact and engage with students with similar backgrounds and perceptions (i.e. habitus) during PETE. This may limit the potential influence of PETE and fail to prepare PSTs for the demands of their future profession. However, if the influences of acculturation were accounted for during PETE, the programmes could be better designed and better prepare PSTs for their future profession.     

Early childhood teachers’ views about teaching physical education: challenges and recommendations

Background: Educational scholars emphasize that in order to gain a better understanding of the complexity of teaching, greater attention needs to be paid to teachers’ views and perceptions of the challenges and barriers of teaching.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to describe preschool teachers’ views and perceptions of the main challenges of teaching physical education. The major question addressed was: what are the main challenges that preschool teachers face in teaching physical education, and based on their experiences what suggestions do the preschool teachers make in reference to early childhood physical education?

Data collection and analysis: Four experienced early childhood educators from Cyprus volunteered to participate in this study. Data were collected through formal interviews and were analyzed inductively via individual-case and cross-case analysis.

Findings: The findings suggest that the four early childhood teachers believed that the main aim of physical education, in the early years, is to provide children with opportunities to develop their psychomotor, cognitive, and social skills. Although the participants consider physical education to be an important subject in the school curriculum, they admitted that it has been undermined to a great extent and is viewed as a marginal subject. Findings from the study suggest that the four early childhood educators faced common barriers, deficiencies, and constraints, relative to the teaching resources. Finally, the participants called for meaningful professional development programs. Implications of these findings for educators are discussed.     

Sex,sport and justice: reframing the ‘who’ of citizenship and the ‘what’ of justice in European and UK sport policy

Universalist claims are often made about sport which is, as a consequence, increasingly written into national and international policy as an entitlement of citizenship or even human right. Further, in most countries physical education (PE) is a compulsory component of children's education, and sport is seen as central to this. Consequently, in the interests of justice sport must aspire to be egalitarian, that is, relevant to and meaningful for boys and men, and girls and women. In this context three fundamental questions are asked in relation to sport: (1) Do all citizens want to participate? (2) Who counts as a citizen? and (3) What are justice and equality? Feminist political and citizenship theory particularly the work of Pateman, Lister and Fraser is used to explore these questions and interrogate the ‘who’ of citizenship and the ‘what’ of justice in relation to framing sport policy in Europe and the UK. It is argued that notwithstanding the extensive use of the Council of Europe definition of sport,¹1. ‘“Sport” means all forms of physical activity which, through casual or organised participation, aim at expressing or improving physical fitness and mental well-being, forming social relationships or obtaining results in competition at all levels' (CE, 1992 CE. (1992/2001). European sports charter. Retrieved from https://wcd.coe.int/ViewDoc.jsp?Ref=Rec(92)13&;Sector=secCM&;Language=lanEnglish&;Ver=rev&;BackColorInternet=9999CC&;BackColorIntranet=FFBB55&;BackColorLogged=FFAC75 [Google Scholar]–2001 CE. (1992/2001). European sports charter. Retrieved from https://wcd.coe.int/ViewDoc.jsp?Ref=Rec(92)13&;Sector=secCM&;Language=lanEnglish&;Ver=rev&;BackColorInternet=9999CC&;BackColorIntranet=FFBB55&;BackColorLogged=FFAC75 [Google Scholar]). and despite or even because of the widespread adoption of the language of gender equality and gender mainstreaming, although formal sport citizenship rights might be accorded to all individuals and regarded as gender neutral, this masks a discourse of androcentric sport citizenship. This has captured European and UK sport policy and provision and is hindering further progress towards gender justice in sport and therefore PE. Given the universal and compulsory aspirations of sport particularly within PE, gender justice should be conceptualised not only as cultural recognition, political representation and economic redistribution within the normalised frame of competitive performance sport or ‘sport for sports sake’; but also as a critical meta-political remapping and reframing of sport as sport and physical recreation or ‘sport for all’.     

The evolution of student-coach’s pedagogical content knowledge in a combined use of sport education and the step-game-approach model*

Background: One of the essential elements within Sport Education is the inclusion of student roles and responsibilities. While previous research has examined students’ performance in officiating tasks, the examination of student-coaches’ pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) within peer-assisted tasks of Sport Education has been scarce. Indeed, the only study to date which has examined student-coach effectiveness was conducted by Wallhead and O’Sullivan [2007. “A Didactic Analysis of Content Development During the Peer Teaching Tasks of a Sport Education Season.”Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy 12 (3): 225–243]. In that study, student-coaches struggled to manifest PCK by providing appropriate demonstrations, to diagnose errors, or to modify tasks for higher order content development. The study of PCK may be a useful heuristic to examine instructional effectiveness in physical education.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the evolution of the PCK of a cohort of student-coaches across three hybrid Sport Education-Step Game Approach seasons, and to examine the impact of protocols put in place to specifically enhance coaches’ PCK.

Participants and setting: Twenty-one students and one teacher from a school class in the north of Portugal participated in the present study.

Method: Data from multiple sources were collected: (a) videotape observations of all lessons, (b) field notes, and (c) pre-lesson interviews with the student-coaches. These were then subjected to deductive examination through a process of thematic analysis.

Findings and conclusions: Following a baseline season that identified four key limitations within the student-coaches’ instruction (task presentation, error diagnosis, feedback, and task modification), these students participated in specific coach preparation that involved modelling teacher’s instruction, pre-lesson meetings, and coaches’ corners. While showing marked improvement in their content knowledge across the second season, a second protocol was instigated during the third that involved the student-coaches to participate in stimulated reflections of their instruction and the incorporation of planning sheets to enhance their instruction. It was found that both interventions were efficacious in developing student-coaches’ PCK, which allowed a more complete transfer of the instructional responsibility from the teacher to the students. These results give insight into the importance of including coach education protocols within the design of seasons of Sport Education with respect to student-coaches’ instructional preparation.