Background/Purpose In 2006, schools were required by law to implement the Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act (P.L. 108-265). Recent research examining its impact indicates that most physical education teachers were unaware of the legislation and opportunities it offered to make significant program improvements (Graber, Woods, & O'Connor, in review). Therefore, using Ecological Systems Theory (Bronfenbrenner, 1977, 1979), the purpose of this study was to examine the degree to which teacher educators know about important legislative acts and provide future teachers with skills for how to become legislatively aware, effectively advocate for their program, and use legislation to assume positions of leadership in the school.
Method After obtaining IRB approval, 62 teacher educators, representing 10% of the physical education teacher education programs in the United States, were invited to participate in formal interviews (Patton, 2002).
Analysis/Results Data were inductively and deductively analyzed and triangulated by Carnegie Classification of institution (LeCompte & Schensul, 1990). The results indicate that an astonishing number of teacher educators were unaware, misinformed, or had only limited knowledge of the legislation. They spent little time providing advocacy skills to future teachers. Those with the most knowledge of the legislation were engaged in professional associations, emphasized the National Physical Education Standards, and were employed in institutions with research expectations.
Conclusions Without accurate knowledge of important legislation that can positively influence school physical education, teacher educators will be unable to provide future teachers with appropriate skills for advocating for their programs or becoming effective school physical activity/wellness leaders.
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