A critical analysis of “Wanting to become PE teachers in Spain: connections between previous experiences and particular beliefs about school physical education and the development of professional teacher identities”
“Love each other in spite of what the world says,
breaking with those dominant beliefs that want to blind us completely”
The research “Wanting to become PE teachers in Spain: connections between previous experiences and particular beliefs about school physical education and the development of professional teacher identities” written by González-Calvo, Gerdin, Philpot & Hortigüela Alcalá, examines how one’s beliefs and previous experiences on PE influence the development of the future PE teachers identity and, hence, their objectives, intentions and attitudes towards their future job.
Knowing the assumptions that lead the work of future teachers of PE could serve as a guide to see how this subject will develop and how it would be presented in the upcoming generations. The data collection was made with 24 initial teacher education students coursing the second year of a specialised degree in PE. Through questionnaires, life-history stories and semi-structured interviews.
The results of the study indicate that previous beliefs that teachers might have affect their teaching and learning experiences and that there are four key factors that influence future PE teacher’s identity: sport, health, a focus on pedagogy and critical orientation.
In the current Catalan curriculum, there are new interests in regard to the PE subject such as the promotion of a psychological well-being and the overcoming of gender segregation. To achieve these changes, PE teachers have to be aware of their role and have a clear perception of what capacities are expected to acquire from the subject.
According to Hagenauer, G. & Volet, S. (2014), PE teacher’s training must consider that “professional identity is determined by the interaction between personal experiences and the social, cultural, and institutional context”. The knowledge that future teachers acquire during the degree will be shaped by their own perceptions. Universities have to be prepared to show the real meaning that PE wants to have in order for the teachers to be able to adapt their personal connotations to the necessities of the educational system.
As mentioned before, the research defines the different factors which influence the development of a teacher’s identity. It is worth mentioning that apart from the four factors, there are two defined groups of people within the study; the ones that had a positive experience as students in PE and the ones that had a negative experience and want to change it.
Regarding sports, some of the future teachers think of PE as a way of improving and discovering sports. Surprisingly, many of the participants in the research “may not have necessarily planned on becoming teachers of PE, rather they were attracted to a career where they could continue with sport” (González-Calvo, G. et al., 2021). It is being hard to get education out of the ideals of the past, and to do so, committed and involved educators are needed. The participants reported a great interest in sport, whereas in education they did not. Some of them said that they were in this degree because they could relate it with sports, and it is less demanding in terms of grades. “However, this strong sporting influence can generate a crisis of professional identity for these student teachers if they are confronted with perspectives that suggest that PE is not the same as sport and that not all young people are served by sport in the same positive way they have been” (Devís-Devís, J. & Sparkes, A, C., 1999).
Secondly, those who have a great influence on “PE for health”, although they are aware of the importance of health, they support a discourse against, what they consider, 'unhealthy bodies'. They think that PE teachers must have a healthy body to act as a reference for the students, the problem is that “many PE professionals therefore seek to get closer to the body ideals dictated by the media” (González-Calvo, G. et al., 2021) which do not represent how reality is. However, we should not show them a ‘perfect’ body, we have to make them understand what being healthy is and what it is not, regardless of the body shape and the physical attributes that one has. This view could bring about social consequences such as the constant fight against one’s body to fulfill the standards of the society.
Thirdly, in the group of those who are more affected by pedagogy, there is a sense of care, responsibility and learning towards the kids. They see the development of PE lessons as a safe place to “cultivate positive relationships between students and with their own bodies” (González-Calvo, G. et al., 2021). This view fits better into the new curriculum, as it wants to promote good relations with oneself and with others.
Finally, the more critical conception of PE is somehow connected to the aforementioned idea. It wants to encourage critical spirit and to break with the traditional idea of PE as a place where only those who are good at sports can succeed. These two last influences are the ones that should lead the educational change in PE. Even though the first two factors mentioned are, to a certain extent, beneficial, future teachers should have a strong influence on the pedagogical and critical part of the subject.
In view of the fact that the research has been carried on to the 2nd year of initial teacher education, the results could be affected by the first notions that the degree is providing to the students. Thus, they may not be their first thoughts. In order to know how the degree affects the development of future teachers' identity, a research comparing the first conceptions of recent enrolled students in the degree and graduated ones, could be carried out.
In conclusion, teachers construct their ideas about PE both during their training and during their past experiences. Therefore, the “new ideas and approaches we introduce have to compete with beliefs and theories developed tacitly and implicitly in their own history as students” (González-Calvo, G et al., 2021). Future teachers should be able to eliminate the preconceived ideas of PE as synonym of sport and the influences that society has on us to define how a body should be.
Having seen the close relation of beliefs and experiences, there is a lack of research on how the four factors that influence future teachers' identity affect children, how the different approaches that teachers implement are related with the development of the students.
Moreover, as a result of this study, it can be seen that it would be a good experience to put the beliefs about the subject on the table before acquiring the knowledge given by the university to be aware of the point in which one is.
As a consequence of some methodologies used in PE, there are students who have a bad memory of it or have a bad time when taking the subject. This is the reason why future teachers should have training in accordance with the necessities and a new approach to what they should offer to the learners based on real situations to see their true necessities.
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REFERENCES
Devís-Devís, J., & Sparkes, A. C. (1999). Burning the book: A biographical study of a pedagogically inspired identity crisis in physical education. European Physical Education Review, 5(2), 135–152.
Retrieved from: https://doi.org/10.1177/1356336X990052005
González-Calvo, G., Gerdin, G., Philpot, R., & Hortigüela-Alcalá, D. (2021). Wanting to become PE teachers in Spain: connections between previous experiences and particular beliefs about school Physical Education and the development of professional teacher identities. Sport, Education and Society, 26(8), 931–944. Retrieved from: https://doi.org/10.1080/13573322.2020.1812563
Hagenauer, G., & Volet, S. (2014). ‘I don’t think I could, you know, just teach without any emotion’: Exploring the nature and origin of university teachers’ emotions. Research Papers in Education, 29(2), 240–262.
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