Physical education teachers' lives and careers: PE, sport and educational status

This volume explores the lives and careers of eight British secondary physical educators at different stages of their careers. The foci of the book from the authors' perspectives are: How teachers establish their personal philosophies and professional practices in physical education, how their personal involvement in sport has influenced that process, and how they manage to create and maintain a rewarding - or at least tolerable - role for themselves in the face of a largely unsupportive education system. (p. 3). Participants were interview twice for a total of 4 hours each, and teachers were asked to explore a range of issues in collaboration with the interviewer. Four teachers from one school were interviewed in 1989. I suspect these data were collected initially as part of Armour's (1993) dissertation. Another four teachers from three secondary schools were interviewed in 1996. The main focus of the first interviews was teachers' beliefs about the nature and purpose of physical education. Issues addressed included: the role of physical education in secondary school; what makes for a successful physical education department and differences between physical education and sport; conflict between one's own philosophy and departmental colleagues'; and knowledge of the perceptions of others about the subject. The second interviews focused on the teachers' life stories. The authors traced participants' family influences, experiences with sport, details of their higher education, and career issues confronting them now.