Case study work on the occupational socialization of physical education teachers in Alabama suggests that there is a major incongruence between how official policy describes physical education should be and actual practice. To counter the negative effects of occupational socialization and break the cycle of non-teaching in the subject, Curtner-Smith (2009) suggested that sport pedagogists follow the lead of John Evans and Dawn Penney in the United Kingdom (e.g., see Penney, 2008) and Judith Rink and her associates in the United States (e.g., see Rink & Mitchell, 2002) and take more of an activist approach in their work by engaging in research with a political/policy focus.The purposes of this study, therefore, were to (a) describe what was occurring in the name of physical education in the state of Alabama and (b) illustrate discrepancies between teachers' practice and national and state policy texts.
Method
Two hundred and forty eight physical education teachers completed the Physical Education in Alabama Survey (PEAS), a 20-item instrument designed to obtain demographic and programmatic information about physical education teachers and physical education teaching in Alabama. One hundred and thirty seven of these teachers worked in elementary schools, 74 worked in middle schools, and 37 worked in high schools.
Analysis/Results
Frequency counts were made and percentages calculated for questions on the PEAS requiring a forced-choice answer. Analytic induction was used to code and categorize data generated by open-ended questions. Frequency counts were then made and percentages calculated for each inductive category. Key findings were that physical education programs in Alabama were often congruent with national and state policy in terms of teachers' role emphasis, stated goals and objectives, and assessment techniques when formal evaluation was carried out. Time allocated for the subject was also equal to or exceeded national and state minimums at the elementary and middle school levels. Conversely, areas of non-compliance or which often contradicted national and state policy texts were formal grading criteria, the allocation of time for pupils to engage in “free play,” and content. The number of teachers not certified to teach physical education or conducting formal evaluations was also a concern. Class sizes were much larger than suggested or required maximums at many elementary and middle schools.
Conclusions
Major implications included the need for improved physical education teacher education, the state to enforce its own existing policy, and the state to provide more rigorous guidelines regarding content and curriculum models.