Teacher Socialization in Physical Education

New Perspectives

K. Andrew R. Richards, Karen Lux Gaudreault

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781317394280
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education Teaching Methods

Socialization is a complex process which has a profound effect on how we experience teaching and learning. The study of teachers' lives and careers through the lens of occupational socialization theory has a rich history in physical education. However, as the social and political climates surrounding education have changed, so have the experiences of teachers. This book pushes beyond traditional perspectives to explore alternative and innovative approaches to socialization.

Written by a team of leading international physical education scholars, this is the first edited collection of scholarship on teacher socialization to be published in more than two decades. Divided into five parts, the book provides a review of current knowledge on teacher socialization in school settings, as well as suggestions for different approaches to understanding teacher socialization and recommendations for future directions for studying teachers' lives and careers.

A testament to what is known and what still needs to be learned about the lived experiences of physical educators, Teacher Socialization in Physical Education: New Perspectives provides valuable insights for all physical education students, teachers, and instructors.

Part I
Overview of occupational socialization theory

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Chapter 1
Socialization into physical education

Learning from the past and looking to the future

K. Andrew R. Richards and Karen Lux Gaudreault

Introduction to teacher socialization in physical education

Defined broadly, socialization is the process through which individuals learn the norms, cultures, and ideologies deemed important in a particular social setting by interacting with one another and social institutions (Billingham, 2007; Clausen, 1968). The study of teacher socialization in physical education generally traces its roots to the study of workplace socialization, or onboarding, which focuses on the ways in which individuals learn the knowledge, skills, and dispositions needed to become effective members of a particular profession (Bauer & Erdogan, 2011). More specifically, the study physical education teacher socialization has been influenced by research on the sociology of teaching in the general education literature that has sought to understand individuals motives for entering the teaching profession, effectives of teacher education programs, and the challenges of navigating the sociopolitical realities of school settings (Gould, 1934; Lacey, 1977; Lee, 1928; Lortie, 1975; Waller, 1932).

Early work on teacher socialization in physical education conducted during the 1970s focused on professional socialization through teacher education programs (Burlingame, 1972; Pooley, 1972, 1975), with Templin’s (1979) study of student teachers representing the first investigation into workplace socialization. This early work laid the foundation for Lawson’s (1983a, 1983b) two papers in the Journal of Teaching in Physical Education, which outlined the basic tenets of a theory of occupational socialization into the teaching profession. Since the publication of these two articles, nearly 300 journal articles and book chapters have been published with occupational socialization theory used as the guiding framework. While much of this work was done in the 1980s and 1990s, occupational socialization theory has experienced somewhat of a Renaissance in recent years with the proliferation of studies not only in the United States, but on an international scale in countries such as Australia (Morgan & Bourke, 2008), Greece (Zounhia et al., 2006), Hong Kong (Li & Cruz, 2008), Ireland (Chroinin & Coulter, 2012), Singapore (Wright, 2001), the United Kingdom (Curtner-Smith & Meek, 2000), Iran (Alirezaeian et al., 2014), Finland (Mäkelä et al., 2014), and Germany (Reuker, 2016), among others.

Through this body of literature, occupational socialization theory has been articulated as a dialectical model for understanding socialization into physical education, which is typically conceptualized through a series of temporally sequenced phases. The model is dialectical because, in contrast to structural-functionalist approaches to understanding socialization (e.g., Merton et al., 1957), occupational socialization theory acknowledges that individuals have the capacity to resist the influence of individuals and social institutions that seek to socialize them (Schempp & Graber, 1992). This becomes important for understanding why some preservice teachers resist the influence of teacher education and instead teach in accordance with the practices they were exposed to as children. It also accounts for why some teachers resist the pervasive forces of traditionalism operating in the schools in which they teach in favor of more innovative pedagogies.

Socialization into the profession has typically been examined through the phases of acculturation (i.e., anticipatory socialization that occurs before formal teacher training), professional socialization (i.e., teacher training programs, typically in the setting of post-secondary education), and organizational socialization (i.e., ongoing, career-long socialization occurring in the school setting in which one works). Recently, there has been a spiked interest in the study of doctoral training in preparation for faculty roles (i.e., secondary professional socialization; Lee & Curtner-Smith, 2011), as well as teacher education faculty socialization in higher education settings (e.g., Casey & Fletcher, 2012; Fletcher & Casey, 2014), which has led to the extension of the model.

Overview of the book

Templin and Schempp’s (1989b) edited text on teacher socialization represented an important step in the articulation and formalization of occupational socialization theory, and continues to be an essential resource for scholars interested in the study physical education teacher socialization. More recently, several articles have been published with the goal of summarizing the results of teacher socialization research (Pike & Fletcher, 2014; Richards et al., 2014; Templin & Richards, 2014). The current text, however, represents the first edited volume on teacher socialization research since the publication of the Templin and Schempp (1989b) text. In editing this volume, we have sought to bring together an authorship that both pays homage to the history of occupational socialization theory, while also giving voice to early career researchers. Five authors in the current volume make a return appearance from the 1989 text. To reflect the geographic diversity of socialization research, we have recruited authors from seven countries across four continents. Readers of the text will note some familiar, traditional topics related to teacher socialization with chapters on topics such as acculturation, professional socialization, and marginalization; however, we have also sought to test the boundaries of occupational socialization theory with chapters on topics such as culturally responsive pedagogy, socialization into higher education, and role theory.

As recently noted elsewhere (Richards et al., 2014; Templin & Richards, 2014) and reinforced through the recent surge of research activity in the area, socialization research in physical education is alive and well, and is not going anywhere in the near future. This point is made clearly by Templin, Padaruth, Sparkes, and Schempp in the book’s next chapter and reinforced by Richards and Gaudreault in the final chapter as directions for future scholarship are discussed. The publication of this book serves as a testament to what is known and what still needs to be learned about the lived experiences of physical educators. It seeks to summarize advances made since the publication of Templin and Schempp’s (1989a) volume, and to advance the field into the future. We have, therefore, organized the text into five parts. The first provides an introduction to occupational socialization theory, which will be helpful for those new to theory. The second and third review much of what has been learned about teacher recruitment, training, and ongoing socialization in school settings. The fourth part then serves to introduce novel and different approaches to understanding teacher socialization, and the fifth part provides some recommendations for the future of this line of inquiry.

Part I provides an introduction to occupational socialization theory and includes the current chapter as well as a historical overview of teacher socialization in physical education. In Chapter 2, Templin, Padaruth, Sparkes, and Schempp trace the roots of teacher socialization in physical education back to the early research that emerged in the 1970s, and discuss how the theory has evolved over time. They comment on both the research methods used and the topics explored by researchers, and urge the need for continued research in this area.

Chapters 3, 4 and 5, comprising Part II of this book, examine recruitment into and training for a career in physical education. In Chapter 3, Curtner-Smith discusses key elements of physical education teachers’ acculturation and the lasting influence it has on their perspectives of what it means to be a physical educator. He focuses his discussion on (1) the power of acculturation, (2) initial attraction to a career in physical education, (3) the apprenticeship of observation, (4) influence of sport outside schools, and (5) the interaction among acculturation, orientations, and instructional modes and models. In Chapter 4, Wrench discusses the implications of teacher socialization for preservice teacher identity formation. She focuses her discussion on the ways in which individuals’ subjective understandings are informed by biographies and experiences in school physical education (PE), sport and other movement cultures. Next, in Chapter 5, Graber, Killian, and Woods frame physical education teacher education as a process of socialization, discuss the literature related to factors which make these programs more or less effective when it comes to socializing preservice teachers, and discuss the role played by dialectics in mediating the impact teacher education has on changing recruits’ perspectives on what it means to be an effective physical education teacher.

Part III includes chapters that examine factors that serve to socialize physical education teachers in school-based settings throughout their careers. Woods, Gentry, and Graber open this part of the book in Chapter 6 by discussing socialization across teacher career stages. They draw upon several teacher career phase models to provide an in-depth look at what is known about professional and personal sources of socialization that influence the career trajectories of physical educators. In Chapter 7, Parker, Patton, and Tannehill discuss the role of professional development in teacher learning during the organizational socialization phase. Constructs of effective professional development are described and concrete examples of professional development provided, linking how professional development may serve to enhance the positive aspects of organizational socialization while counteracting the negative forces. Chapter 8, written by Tsouloupas and Carson, examines teacher burnout with a focus on stress derived from handing student misbehavior. They connect their work to both teacher self-efficacy and processes that socialize teachers to better handle student discipline problems. Finally, in Chapter 9, Sinelnikov and Hastie discuss the influence of teacher socialization on models-based instruction in physical education. They draw from recent research indicating that teachers’ biographies, teacher training programs, and school contexts help dictate the likelihood that they will select and appropriately implement certain curricular models.

Part IV, the penultimate section of the text, seeks to push the boundaries of occupational socialization research by illuminating alternative and innovative ways in which the model can be applied. The section opens with Chapter 10 in which Richards and Hemphill overview role socialization theory as a model for integrating relevant constructs from role theory into occupational socialization theory. The discussion particularly focuses on the social construction of physical education in school settings and the influence of socialization on how others view the role of physical education teacher. In Chapter 11, Flory discusses the ways in which teacher socialization influences receptivity to culturally responsive pedagogy. They make the case that teacher education programs have a responsibility related to preparing teachers who are prepared to work with diverse groups of students. Next, in Chapter 12, Azzarito and Simon discuss the importance of integrating sociocultural perspectives into teacher education programming. Since many teacher education programs remain predominately white, they argue for the importance of helping physical educators overcome their whiteness and develop into educators of social justice. Brown, Morgan, and Aldous draw together Bourdieu’s theory of practice with pragmatism’s crisis in discussing creativity and problem-based learning in Chapter 13. Their discussion focuses on the development of physical education teacher habitus and the ways in which that habitus can be changed through teacher education. Chapter 14, written by Fletcher and Casey, provides an overview of research related to socialization into and through faculty positions in higher education. They consider the socializing experiences of teacher educators in a general sense, and then narrow our focus to think about those whose main responsibilities lie specifically in physical education. Then, in Chapter 15, Rossi, Macdonald, lisahunter, and Christensen consider the physical education department office as a socializing space. They consider the implications of this space on the practices and perspectives of preserivce student teachers and beginning career physical educators, particularly when it reinforces hegemony and traditionalism.

Finally, chapters in Part V consider the future of socialization research in physical education. Lawson, in Chapter 16, considers the ways in which teacher socialization can be reproductive, reformist, and transformational by considering both technical and social institutional approaches to viewing socialization. Through his arguments, the importance of public policy on the teacher socialization process is illuminated. Finally, in Chapter 17, Richards and Gaudreault close the book with a discussion of future directions for the study of teacher socialization in physical education. They begin by discussing the strides made by socialization research in the past forty years, consider the general need for increased attention in the future, and discuss key areas of research design and focus future studies. They conclude by emphasizing the practical and empirical applications for teacher socialization research that is ultimately focused on creating and sustaining quality practices in physical education that enhance student learning.

A note to the reader of this text

In considering the chapters in this volume, we hope that the reader will be inspired to do three things: (1) understand the influence of their own socialization on their practices as physical education teachers and teacher educators, (2) stud...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• List of contributors
• Foreword
• Part I Overview of occupational socialization theory
• Part II Recruitment into and training for a career in physical education
• Part III Career-long socialization and life in schools
• Part IV Alternative and innovative perspectives on teacher socialization
• Part V The future of socialization research in physical education
• Index