The effects of individual dispositions and workplace factors on the lives and careers of physical education teachers: twelve years on from graduation

It has been noted that individual characteristics and workplace factors have rarely been combined to gain a more holistic understanding of teachers’ career trajectories (Rinke, 2008. Understanding teachers’ careers: Linking professional life to professional path. Educational Research Review, 3(1), 1–13.; Schaefer, Long, & Clandinin, 2012. Questioning the research on early career teacher attrition and retention. Alberta Journal of Educational Research, 58(1), 106–121). This paper considers the mutual relationship between individual and contextual factors of five physical education teacher education graduates to gain a greater understanding of teachers’ career trajectories. Data was collected through interviews and living graphs. Results of the study suggest that both individual dispositions and contextual factors influence the career trajectories of physical education teachers in Ireland to varying degrees and with varying consequences. While the career trajectories of qualified physical education teachers in Ireland are individual and complex, there appears to be a consistency across the teachers that, as they spend a longer time teaching in schools, they withdraw from their initial strong and proud identity as a physical education teacher in favour of identifying with teaching their elective subject. There are a number of ways in which this worrying trend can be addressed; (i) focus on physical education teacher education programmes and ensure that pre-service teachers have an opportunity to explore and share their individual dispositions, (ii) understand what school contextual factors are likely to/will support and foster their dispositions, and (iii) appreciate how these dispositions might impact their ability to negotiate the realities of teaching physical education in Irish post-primary schools.