Background/Purpose The purpose of this study was to investigate how National Board Certified Physical Education Teachers (NBCPETs) perceived themselves as different from their classroom colleagues. Self-concept model (Shavelson, Hubner, & Stanton, 1976) was used to make meaning of the relationship between National Board Certification, the teachers' self-concepts, and how these interacted to construct the comparisons the NBCPETs made between themselves and other teachers.
Method Data collection involved interviews with 65 NBCPETs and additional interviews with seven teachers to enrich the data set. Trustworthiness was established through member checks, the use of an audit trail, and negative case analysis. Analysis revealed that the NBCPETs perceived themselves as different from their colleagues on issues surrounding passion, motivation, interdisciplinary teaching, and relationships with students and parents.
Analysis/Results Inductive analysis (Miles & Huberman, 1984) and constant comparison (Lincoln & Guba, 1985) of the data generated themes pertaining to self-concept model (Shavelson, et al, 1976). Analysis revealed that the NBCPETs perceived themselves as different from their colleagues on issues surrounding passion, motivation, interdisciplinary teaching, and relationships with students and parents.
Conclusions Participating NBCPETs held distinct academic and non-academic self-concepts as they perceived physical education as a vital part of school curriculum and their contributions to student learning as important as any content area. They expressed little tolerance for the marginalization of physical education and valued the social relations they had with stakeholders in their educational communities.