Blowing a whistle, how hard can it be? An exploration of practicum experiences for a pre-service health and physical education teacher with a hearing impairment

ABSTRACT

Research indicates an increased enrolment of students in Australian universities who are deaf or hard of hearing. However, research relating to these students’ professional practicum experiences in schools as pre-service teachers of secondary education is limited, with no account of a deaf or hard of hearing pre-service teacher in the Health and Physical Education (HPE) learning area. This paper reports on a unique longitudinal case study of a male HPE pre-service teacher (secondary) who is deaf and enrolled in a university teacher education course in Western Australia (WA). It specifically explores the first professional practicum placement of the pre-service teacher. Data presented details the challenges and opportunities, and capacity of the pre-service teacher and teacher education institution to deliver on the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers. The paper presents considerations towards the inclusion of all pre-service teachers with additional needs and provides insights into course requirements previously undocumented in the academic literature.

KEYWORDS:

• Health and physical education
• teacher education
• teacher standards
• inclusive education

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Doctor Donna Barwood is Coordinator and lecturer for Health and Physical Education in the School of Education at Edith Cowan University. Donna’s research interest focuses on health education and inclusivity in the delivery of Health and Physical Education.

Carli Sanbrook is a Lecturer and Unit Coordinator in the School of Education at Edith Cowan University. Her research interests are in pre-service teacher education and the practicum, drama education, pre-service teaching internships, and wellness of pre-service teachers.

Doctor John O’Rourke is a former secondary teacher and now a Senior Lecturer and Course Coordinator at Edith Cowan University. He works predominately in the area of diversity and inclusivity. His research interests range from inclusion in school and university settings, happiness and well-being of school-aged students, school-based games technology, and enhancing retention in enabling programs.

Associate Professor Andrew Jones is the Associate Dean (Secondary Education) in the School of Education at Edith Cowan University (ECU), Perth, WA. He is an educator with 30 years’ experience in Education. Andrew has extensive experience in Health and Physical Education, policy development and enactment, which also form the basis for his research interests.

Jordan Thomas is a pre-service teacher of Health and Physical Education (secondary), in his second year of a Bachelor of Education course.

ORCID

Donna Barwood http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7447-6333

Carli Sanbrook http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2808-0877

John O’Rouke http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3074-9154

Andrew Jones http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1085-2915

Notes

1 Auslan is the language of the deaf community with its own grammatical structure and it is different to Signed English, which is based on spoken English and designed to be used in conjunction with spoken English.