Beginning Physical Education teachers’ induction: discoveries and survival in the profession

ABSTRACT

This study has its background in teacher induction. The topic concerns not only university researchers, but also educational managers, teachers in general, politicians, different governments and multilateral organisations. The relevance of the topic is explained by the fact that the first years in teaching are marked by high rates of profession abandonment and difficulties faced by novice teachers to develop in the profession. To describe and interpret how beginning Physical Education teachers perceive the ambiguities of discovering and surviving in the profession, in working conditions marked by academically and institutionally belonging to the Physical Education disciplinary field. The study was conducted with 13 beginning Physical Education teachers who had all graduated from the Federal University of Minas Gerais. The investigation is of a descriptive qualitative nature and used two data collection instruments: semi-structured interviews and teaching case analysis. Even though it is acknowledged that novice PE teachers experience professional dilemmas that are similar to those of beginning teachers of other subjects, it is important to also acknowledge that the experience of beginning, exploring and discovering a profession cannot be seen as a similar event for teachers of all other different subjects. Findings in our investigation show that belonging to a certain field is an important element when analysing different teachers’ trajectories in their teaching induction period, since those trajectories define crucial ways of being a teacher, developing work and how this work is perceived by others. A second issue considered led us to question some rather rigid parameters of the temporal markers for the different stages/cycles of professional development. It has to do with the double-vulnerability condition experienced by PE teachers – they are beginners in their profession and, at the same time, they are teachers of a ‘second-class’ subject, which may postpone the advancement to the career stabilisation stage, mainly due to the strong presence of particular survival aspects. The study pointed out the need for acknowledgement, inclusion and support for different teaching trajectories in order to guide actions and policies for beginning teachers’ retention.

KEYWORDS:

• Physical Education
• beginning teachers
• teaching Education
• teachers’ learning
• professional development

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Sociology of curriculum has long pointed out that the different types of knowledge taught at school do not have the same value or are not objects of equal consideration. Therefore, in the curriculum, there is stratification; there are hierarchies between types of school knowledge. In a hegemonic fashion, the types of knowledge considered noble and valued by society have quite different profiles from those selected and taught by PE because knowledge considered to be superior will tend to be abstract, bookish, individualistic and unrelated to practical life or the everyday world (Young, 1982).

2 In general, in Brazil, Physical Education does not have the power to fail students, neither by merit assessment nor by attendance control.

3 In Brazil, the school culture in PE is strongly influenced by the weight and reach that soccer practice has achieved in the Brazilian culture. In this context, by denying students the continuity of the experiences that they have with this sport outside of school, in the time/space of school PE, beginning PE teachers find themselves in the midst of a conflict zone that they had not imagined having to deal with.

4 In Brazil, the presence of textbooks guiding PE teaching is still residual. The teaching networks that use it as a didactic reference to be followed by teachers of this subject are very rare. As a result, the textbook publishing market in this field (PE) is still very restricted (in quantity and plurality).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico; Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior; Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Minas Gerais.