Physical Education, Games and Physical Activity: an investigation into the attitudes of secondary school PE teachers, how these have shaped their practice, and the influence on their students

This research investigates the influence of Physical Education teachers attitudes on their students as a result of the influence it has on their practice of Physical Education, Games and Physical Activity (PEGPA). An individual's attitudes are ever changing, are ascertained through their unique experiences (Harrison, 2007) as well as embedded in memories (Fazio, 1986). Arguably, Physical Education teachers develop their attitudes through the process of Occupational Socialisation, a model presented by Stroot and Williamson (1993), an adaptation of Lortie’s (1977) framework. This framework is explored in the literature review and used throughout the discussion to understand the study’s findings. The three stages of the Occupational Socialisation framework are anticipatory, professional and organisational, reflecting those attitudes teachers acquire during their time at school, during teacher training and when they transition into the workplace. Such a learning of attitudes is recognised as an apprenticeship of observations (Schempp, 1989) and is conveyed in this research as those attitudes the participants learnt from their own PE teachers and now reproduce in their own practice.

The study design consists of 4 online interviews with Physical Education teachers from the same department and 11 questionnaire responses from their Key Stage 4 female students. The research findings highlighted four key themes in the data. The concepts habitus, capital and doxa (Bourdieu,1977; 1984; 1986); are used to explore the role of Physical Education teacher’s attitudes shaping their practice in the field of PEGPA, and what potential influence this has on their students. The data indicated a high value of Physical Activity for Key Stage 4 students to ensure they can lead healthy active lifestyles prior to leaving school, which aligned with the aims of the national curriculum for PE (Department for Education, 2013a). The high value for Physical Activity is discussed as an organisational factor. It is noted how the attitudes of the teachers interviewed have shaped their practice to provide an educational climate where every student is able to opt into an area of the curriculum where their habitus can align with the field of PEGPA (Theoharris, 2008). Finally, external factors perceived by Physical Education teachers to influence their students’ participation are also touched upon within the discussion, including parental attitudes towards Physical Education.