Primary school teachers’ experiences of external providers in Ireland: learning lessons from physical education

Abstract

There is an increasing trend towards the use of external providers in primary schools. The added value of external providers in enhancing aspects of children’s learning is supported in the physical education literature. Less is known, however, about the experiences of classroom teachers working with these external providers. To address this gap and guided by the question ‘What are primary school teachers experiences of external providers?’ we conducted qualitative semi-structured interviews with primary school classroom teachers who had used external physical education providers (n = 10). A thematic analysis of the data involved systematic coding from which themes were constructed. Findings alert to the limited partnership between classroom teachers and external providers currently. Teachers’ perceptions of external providers as having greater expertise resulted in classroom teachers engaging minimally in communicating with external providers and taking little part in lessons taught by the external provider. Overall findings indicate communication and involvement in pedagogical decision making as areas to address in reconceptualising the relationship between classroom teachers and external providers.

Keywords:

• Expertise
• leadership
• communication
• role model
• specialist

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Correction

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Déirdre Ní Chróinín is a physical education teacher educator at the primary level in the Department of Arts Education and Physical Education, Mary Immaculate College in Ireland. Her current research is focused on the promotion of meaningful experiences for children and young people in sport and physical activity settings.

Niamh O’Brien is a primary school teacher in Cork, Ireland. Niamh is involved in physical education and extracurricular sport in her school. She has a particular interest in teaching gymnastics and is herself a passionate sport and physical activity participant. Niamh completed this research as part of her M.Ed research thesis.

ORCID

Déirdre Ní Chróinín http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0920-980X