Visually impaired students’ views on peer tutoring in integrated physical education

ABSTRACT

A variety of pedagogical practices have been proposed, described, and promoted by scholars in an effort to help enhance the experiences of visually impaired students in integrated physical education. Trained peer tutoring, where a nondisabled student is trained to serve as a peer tutor for a disabled student, is among them. However, little research has been done that engages directly with visually impaired students about their views and experiences with these pedagogical practices. Using belonging as a conceptual lens to guide and inform methodological and data interpretation decisions, our purpose was to elicit the views of visually impaired youth regarding the use of trained peer tutors in integrated physical education classes. Sixteen visually impaired youth completed two interviews about their views toward physical education generally and the concept of peer tutoring specifically. Interviews were conducted via video conference technology, and were recorded, transcribed, and subjected to thematic analysis. Three interrelated themes were constructed that depict the participants views toward the concept of peer tutoring: (a) peer tutoring might enhance belonging … maybe, (b) shouldn’t this just happen naturally?, and (c) this is not for me. The themes provide insights into the views of visually impaired youth toward peer tutoring as a strategy that may not be supportive of feelings of belonging within integrated physical education. Rather, participants were largely dismissive of the strategy, suggesting that any help needed within this context should be navigated outside of formal pedagogical strategies that may alienate visually impaired students by identifying them as ‘needing help’. These findings support suggestions for physical educators to implement this practice only after first permitting students to engage with friends to navigate physical education spaces, and then only afterwards at the discretion of the student.

KEYWORDS:

• Visual impairment
• belonging
• integrated physical education
• inclusion
• disability

Disclosure statement

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

Notes

1 The term ‘integrated’ is used purposefully here to describe a setting in which all students, regardless of educational needs, are enrolled in the same physical space (Haegele, 2019).

Additional information

Funding

The research reported in the article was made possible in part by a grant from the Spencer Foundation [#202100065]. The views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Spencer Foundation. The authors’ time was also partially supported by a grant from the U.S. Department of Education [H325H190001]. However, the contents do not necessarily represent the policy of the U.S. Department of Education, and you should not assume endorsement by the federal government.