The standards-based curricular reform challenge: Shared responsibility through networking

This chapter discusses the grand challenge of standards-based curricular reform that confront physical education teachers and physical education teacher education (PETE) faculty internationally. It reviews international literature, and brainstormed ideas. The chapter identifies core issues at the forefront of much of the international PETE discourse. For instance, in the United States, education remains primarily the responsibility of state and local government despite federal government efforts to standardize the curriculum through introduction of what is known as the “Common Core”, which prioritizes maths and English. One innovative example demonstrates how teachers and teacher educators can be upskilled to meet the challenge of standards-based curricular reform while engaging with a national body. Since all countries are at different stages in the process of standards-based reform they are orbiting from different issues and at variable speeds, which makes a shared discourse difficult.