Rethinking the preparation of HPE teachers: ruminations on knowledge, identity, and ways of thinking

Abstract

This paper explores assumptions about essential knowledge in degree programs that have traditionally prepared teachers of physical education, and discusses the question of what sort of teacher education is necessary or desirable to prepare teachers for the new Health & Physical Education (HPE) key learning area. I argue that the curriculum of the typical HPE degree program reinforces a desire for certainty (Bauman, 2001) that is incompatible with the conditions of contemporary living and the nature of teachers' work. Moreover, it may be contributing to a ‘teacher identity’ in tension with the socially‐critical agenda embedded in the contemporary HPE school curriculum. Rejecting the notion of ‘business as usual’, I contend that it is the way of thinking about education, health, physical education, and the work of contemporary schooling, that is the most important graduate attribute our students may acquire. Proposing that Giddens' (1994) notion of the sociological imagination offers potential in this regard, I consider one program with sympathies with this orientation.

Notes

* School of Human Movement Studies, Level 5 Building 26, University of Queensland, St. Lucia, Queensland 4072, Australia. Email: [email protected]

A project funded by a grant from the Australian Research Council investigating ‘Teacher identity and the possibilities of curriculum reform: the case of HPE’ (Tinning et al.) is currently in progress.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Richard Tinning *

* School of Human Movement Studies, Level 5 Building 26, University of Queensland, St. Lucia, Queensland 4072, Australia. Email: [email protected]