The Role of PETE in Developing Joy-Oriented Physical Educators

Abstract

The current focus on utilitarian outcomes (e.g., fitness, health, skill development) in physical education has not been effective in producing life-long movers and makes physical activity a duty to be performed. An alternative to a utilitarian focus is to have a joy-oriented focus in which physical activity is promoted because it is joyful, pleasurable, and personally meaningful. In this paper, we present factors that inhibit a joy-oriented focus in physical education and reasons physical education teacher education (PETE) programs have thus far failed to produce joy-oriented physical education teachers. We then present a new approach to PETE—the foundational approach—in which the joy of movement forms the foundation of and is threaded throughout the program. Ten specific changes to PETE programs are proposed to produce joy-oriented physical education teachers.