Breaking Out: Codependency of High School Physical Education

Abstract

This project was an intensive study of 11 physical education teachers, their teaching, and their programs in contemporary high schools. The monograph attempted to describe, discuss, and understand perceptions and practices of these physical education teachers, their students, and parents in light of a contemporary analysis of physical education. The teachers in this study were chosen because they had good reputations among both their peers and the researchers as profes­ sionals who cared what happened in their programs and were teachers who tried to provide a quality experience for their students. The contexts of these teachers differed significantly. With the exception of facilities, differences among these teachers' programs could not be described in terms of their suburban and urban locations. Nor were their differences based on whether they were male or female teachers or on whether they were coaches or noncoaches. Indeed, their concerns about teaching physical education, as well as their rewards from teaching, were more similar than different. The purpose of this article is to draw a number of conclusions about these high school physical education teachers and their work based on our thinking and reflecting on the findings of the articles in this monograph. These conclusions are presented using the six overriding research questions set forth at the outset of the study. We then present some implications for high school physical educa­ tion, staff development, and physical education teacher education.