Background/Purpose An important aspect of designing and implementing curriculum is curricular knowledge. Curricular knowledge is defined as the ability to select and convey content-appropriate topics to the learner (Ennis, 1994). Research has shown that experienced teachers do not have a 'concrete' curricula model that they follow (Dodd, 1994); instead they use different curricula models when they are teaching different types of learners. Based on these ideas this study focused on curriculum and teachers' priorities. The purpose of this study was to examine urban physical education teachers' ideas and perspectives on curriculum implementation in inner-city public high schools.
Method Ten urban high school physical education teachers were interviewed and artifacts were collected about their current curriculum. The interviews were transcribed and coded for themes. Theme-by-theme analysis (Van Manen, 1990) was used to develop overarching concepts that were similar between the participants.
Analysis/Results Analysis of the ten teachers' priorities in curriculum yielded several prevalent themes. Top priorities for the participants were: 1) Teaching concepts for a specific population, 2) Fitness should be involved in every lesson, and 3) the content covered should focus on lifelong activities.
Conclusions The findings in this study support the idea that teachers should use content that is student centered. Additionally, the participants identify fitness and lifelong activities as the top priority in their programs. These two themes support the use of curricula models like “Physical Best” and “Fitness for Life”.