Exploring Factors Influencing Preservice Physical Education Teachers’ Value Orientations during the Teacher Education Program

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore factors influencing preservice physical education teachers (PTs)’ value orientations during their teacher education program. Six participants enrolled in the final student teaching semester were selected to collect qualitative data from formal and informal interviews and writing assignments. The constant comparison was used to analyze all coding data (Lincoln & Guba, 1985). The constant comparison using the open, axial, and selective coding is concerned with the inductive generation and suggestion of categories with comparison of all data collected. This study took a couple of steps such as triangulation, member check, prolonged engagement to increase the trustworthiness of data as reliable and valid during the process of data collection and interpretation. The coding process led to the emergence of two primary themes such as professional socialization and organizational socialization. First of all, the professional socialization theme captured the course work and teacher educators followed by the teacher education program PTs encounter prior to the course of student teaching in relation to their value orientation. The professional socialization theme identifies how PTs’ experiences in leaning to teach physical education, prior to student teaching, influenced them to form their value orientations, mainly DM, LP, EI. Second, the organizational socialization theme that emerged discusses ‘cooperating teachers’ connected with ‘observing lessons’ and ‘working together’ as well as ‘contextual factors’ such as ‘student behavior/attitude’ and ‘learning ability’, ‘class schedule’, and ‘school levels’ as potential facilitators or barriers to PTs’ value orientations. In the organizational socialization theme, the PTs were influenced by the overall value orientations. In discussion, implications for PETE are provided to prepare PTs to design and implement a balanced curriculum based on the five national standards for K-12 physical education.