The purpose of this study is to investigate physical education teacher education programs presently offered at Canadian universities and to examine the world-view orientation, underpinning discourses, curricula, structure and organization of the programs. As well, this research delves slightly into the declining enrollments of doctoral students and the shortage of qualified higher education faculty members in PETE.
Method
Data collection was conducted by utilizing surveys as well as semi-structured interviews with PETE professionals. Specific surveys were developed for PETE faculty and all surveys contained questions that were both qualitative and quantitative in nature.
All surveys and written comments provided by the participants were recorded and analyzed. Qualitative interview data was analyzed by thematic coding.
Follow up interviews were conducted with select participants who were either PETE faculty or doctoral students.
Analysis/Results
Six main themes emerged as a result of the initial data analysis:
1) Strong enthusiasm of the PETE instructors was prevalent.
2) There was strong agreement, amongst those interviewed, of the importance of pre-service teachers recognizing that a teacher education program is the beginning of a lifelong journey of learning to teach. It's not simply ‘what do I need to do to survive Monday', but rather continued professional development and reflection will be required in an effort to ‘grow' and continue to ‘improve' as teachers.
3) The relationship between theory and practice was prominent. Full-time instructors and part-time instructors (non-PhD's) have differing theoretical background, and thus different values pertaining to theory versus practice.
4)Course content within PETE programs is inconsistent throughout Canada.
5) The role of field experiences is hugely important as part of any PETE program, yet throughout Canada the time spent in schools for undergrad PETE students ranges from only 10 weeks to over 30 weeks depending on the PETE program that the student is enrolled in.
6) Concerns for the field of PETE were abundant.
Conclusions
The urgency of this research is critical for our field due to the current crisis and the sustainability of the profession in future years. Understanding PETE programs in Canada, USA and abroad will help to improve current practices and make PETE stronger worldwide. The lack of PETE professionals in our field must be a major concern for our profession. If the issue persists it has the potential to negatively impact not only graduate PETE programs but also undergraduate PETE programs.