Professional Socialization Issues Pertaining to Physical Education Majors

IntroductionPhysical education teacher education (PETE) socialization concepts have derived from socialization in general. "Socialization involves a lifelong process in which individuals learn the norms, customs, and ideologies important to the particular culture in which they live through interactions with one another and social institutions" (Templin & Richards, 2014). From broad concepts of socialization, teacher socialization developed (Lortie, 1975) as a way to examine issues that affected the recruitment, professional development and workplace conditions of teachers. Lawson's occupational socialization model has often been cited as the theoretical perspective most pertinent to physical education teachers' socialization (Chow & Fry, 1999).According to Lawson (1986) occupational teacher socialization has three distinct phases. The first has been referred to as anticipatory socialization or acculturation (Templin & Richards, 2014), and pertains to the recruitment of people who are interested in becoming physical education teachers. A significant part of this phase relates to the concept of an "apprenticeship-of-observation" (Lortie, 1975), whereby "prospective" teachers "learn" about teaching via their role as students observing teachers teach them throughout their primary and secondary school experiences. Schempp (1989) found this apprenticeship to be significant, with pre-service PE teacher often having very strong views about how and what should be taught in physical education before they even enroll in a teacher preparation program. Therefore, PETE faculty and researchers wonder how effective the second phase, known as professional socialization (Lawson & Stroot, 1993) can be. This phase pertains to the education recruits receive when enrolled in their PETE programs. Will the coursework and experiences that PETE students engage in be significant enough to influence how and what they will teach when they become full-time professionals? PE professional teacher socialization research has demonstrated that there are concerns about the overall effectiveness of course work that PETE students are required to take, both in the major and in general education courses (Templin & Richards, 2014). However, many researchers have found that "early field experiences," (EFEs), often known as practicum experiences in the U.S., and student teaching are very valuable and powerful socializing experiences for PETE students (Richards, Templin & Graber, 2014). While there is a third phase of teacher socialization (organizational), that examines issues pertinent to workplace conditions of physical educators, the focus of this paper will reside within professional socialization within one PETE program in a large, public university in the Northeastern United States.Purpose of the StudyThe purpose of the data collected and analyzed for this article was to give our PETE students the opportunity to provide feedback on their program of study. Specifically, students were given the opportunity to rate all of the courses they were required to take on a scale of worthless to very worthwhile. They were also given the opportunity to inform us of what might be missing from our program or any other comments they wished to make, all via anonymous surveys. Our students were also given the opportunity to participate in focus group interviews with a research assistant, so that they could expand on their views about their/our program. The purpose in all of this was, and is, to make our PETE program as relevant as possible to our clients - our PETE students. As Richards et al. (2014) have pointed out, the majority of PETE socialization research has taken place in the 1980s and 1990s, but they have suggested that there is a need to revisit this area of research. "Research conducted several decades ago may no longer accurately represent the experiences and perspectives of PE recruits and in-service and pre-service teachers (today)" (p. …