A preservice teacher's delivery of sport education: Influences, difficulties and continued use

How preservice teachers (PSTs) learn and deliver Sport Education (SE) (Siedentop, 1994) is an area researchers believe warrants further investigation (Stran and Curtner-Smith, 2009a). This study explores one PST's experiences delivering SE during a school teaching placement after undertaking a practical SE module in his Physical Education Teacher Education (PETE) program. Data were collected through pre, mid- and postteaching placement interviews, along with weekly visits by the first author where observation reflections and interviews were used to investigate his experiences delivering SE. Data were triangulated and analyzed using thematic coding. Occupational socialization (Lawson, 1983a, 1983b) was used to determine the factors which influenced his delivery of SE. Results showed his SE season was influenced by his teaching orientation, sporting experiences, PETE program and school context where he was teaching. Although he encountered difficulties, he valued SE's benefits and continued to use it during his subsequent career as a qualified teacher.