Interpreting PE teachers’ personal theories of learning using Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA): A case study in a nonselective school in the South East of England

Background:
Given that teachers raison d’etre is to help their students learn, it might to be assumed that their theories about humans learn would be well researched. However, other than (Tann, 1993; Senden and Roberts, 1998 and Tsai, 2002) who studied student teachers, there has been very little empirical research into how teachers theorise learning.

Methodology:
This research employed an approach based in interpretivist phenomenology.Understanding is gained through the researcher’s involvement with the research process and the
research is phenomenological as it represents the participants’ consciousness and interpretive
because the analysis depends on the researcher’s perspective. The data was generated through theuse of three interviews with each participant.

Research site and Participants:
The research took place at ‘Northview’ Academy which is a nonselective secondary school in the South East of England consisting of approximately 1000 pupils from the ages of 11–19. The participants were four teachers (two male and two female) who were all members of the Physical Education (PE) department and had been teaching at the school for at least
three years.

Findings: The participating teachers in this study did not have a strong discourse of learning to draw upon. Their theories learning existed principally as implicit theories and exhibited considerable nuance. Teaching was sometimes described in terms of developing competence but also, implicitly, they spoke in terms of competence being revealed. There was an assumption that learning was subject to
‘discursive consciousness’, suggesting that notions of tacit knowledge were less prominent in their consciousness. ‘Progress’ formed a significant part of the participants’ discourse but often, it was described as a matter of value in its own right rather than making progress ‘in’ learning something in physical education. It is argued that this research has implications for Initial Teacher Education; Teachers’ continuing professional Development and educational policy makers.