The Experiences of African American PhysicalEducation Teacher Candidates at SecondaryUrban Schools

Takahiro Sato • Jennifer Fisette • Theresa Walton

� Springer Science+Business Media New York 2013

Abstract Presently, most physical education teachers in the United States are

White Americans and from middle class families. In fact, 83 % of all teachers in

public schools are White Americans, whereas approximately 10 % of all African

American teachers are representative of all teachers in the United States. A student

might feel cultural dissonance that she or he is behaving appropriately based on the

student’s cultural norm and upbringing, but the teachers who have different cultural

and ethnic backgrounds than the students may inappropriately interpret or respond

to the behavior. Therefore, it is important to study African American pre-service

physical education teachers’ student teaching and field-based experiences with

ethnically diverse adolescence (e.g., African American students), because they have

the potential to develop a positive relationship between school support, teacher

support, and academic achievement and influence student learning, motivation, and

engagement in physical education. The purpose of this study was to describe and

explain the experiences of African American physical education teacher education

(PETE) candidates at secondary urban schools. The research design was explanatory

multiple-case study situated in activity theory. Participants were seven African

American PETE candidates. The qualitative data sources were interviews, weekly

journal reflections, and e-portfolios. The results were (a) navigating power rela-tionships between cooperative teachers and students, (b) a ‘shocking’ experience:

T. Sato (&) � J. Fisette

School of Teaching, Learning, and Curriculum Studies,

Kent State University, Kent, OH 44242, USA

e-mail: tsato@kent.edu

J. Fisette

e-mail: jfisette@kent.edu

T. Walton

School of Foundation, Leadership, and Administration,

Kent State University, Kent, OH 44242, USA

e-mail: twalton1@kent.edu

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DOI 10.1007/s11256-013-0238-5

Feeling under-prepared, and (c) encountered cultural normalcies and stereotypes inteaching physical education. PETE programs must better prepare teacher candidates

for working in urban schools with greater cultural competence and higher self-

efficacy.

Keywords African American � Physical education � Student teaching �Ethnicity � Case studies

Introduction

Presently, most physical education teachers in the United States (US) are White

Americans from middle class families. In fact, the American Association of

Colleges for Teacher Education reported that 83 % of all teachers in public schools

are White Americans. In comparison, only 7 % of all teachers and about 5 % of the

physical education teacher workforce is African American (American Association

of College for Teacher Education 2010). Furthermore, approximately 10 % of all

African American teachers is representative of all teachers in the US (Ludwig et al.

2010). In the American colleges and universities, African American students made

up 10.5 % (full and part time) of undergraduate students enrolled in teacher

education programs, compared with 73 % (full and part time) for White students

(Ludwig et al. 2010).

During student teaching experiences, student teachers, and cooperative teachers

must have positive social and academic relationships with all students. It is important

that all students must have the sense of school belongingness. However, ethnically

diverse students, especially, African American students, are more likely to be taught

by White American teachers who may have a lack of understanding and appreciation

of cultural differences that contributes to low teacher support and low teacher

expectations. Hodge et al. (2012) asserted that in some instances, a student behaves

appropriately based on the student’s cultural norm and upbringing, but the teachers

who have different cultural and ethnic backgrounds than the students may

inappropriately interpret and respond to the behavior (cultural dissonance). Therefore,

increasing African American teachers is extremely important to develop a positive

relationship between school support, teacher support, and academic achievement in

ethnically diverse adolescence (e.g., African American students) and maximize

student learning, motivation, and engagement. Thus, in this study, we focused on

African American physical education teacher education (PETE) candidates who

attended a Historically Black University. Historically Black Colleges and Universities

(HBCUs) help African Americans develop and strengthen their racial identity and

sense of Black pride (Hall and Closson 2005). HBCUs have a mission that continues to

train African American future teacher educators who may be able to deliver effective

instruction to ethnically diverse students. More than 50 % of the nation’s African

American public school teachers graduated from HBCUs. Yet, HBCUs constitute only

about 4 % of all higher education institutions (Freeman and Winston 2010). Love and

Krueger (2005) describe four elements of successful teachers of teaching ethnically

diverse students such as (a) drawing on African American culture and history,

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(b) promoting the location of one’s self in a historical and cultural context, (c) helping

students create new knowledge based on life experiences, and (d) treating knowledge

as reciprocal. This study explored African American PETE candidates’ student

teaching experiences on teaching ethnically diverse students, especially African

American students, in physical education.

When PETE candidates teach African American students, they should work with

physical education teachers who pay special attention to curriculum and relevant

pedagogy on race relations (Knop et al. 2001). Gollnick and Chinn (1998) argue that

many teachers are effectively trained to teach students from various homogeneous

groups (e.g., socioeconomic, academic, and social backgrounds), particularly

because, they often brought their stereotypical beliefs about diverse groups of

students who have different cultural and ethnic backgrounds from their own (Fox

and Gay 1995). Many teachers hold cultural biases that can spark racial or cultural

Pygmalion effects (the expectation upon people) that teachers expect enhanced

performance from certain groups of children and the children showed improvement

of performance in the classroom (Atwater 2008). Burden et al. (2012) and Harrison

et al. (2010) found that physical education teachers must increase cultural awareness

and competency, which are to establish distinctions between students and ethnically

diverse groups’ familiarity with dominant culture in our schools. Columna et al.

(2010) studied physical education teachers and PETE candidates’ attitudes toward

cultural pluralism. They found that physical education teachers and PETE

candidates valued cultural diversity. However, they struggled to implement

culturally responsive pedagogy. Columna et al. (2010) and Torrey and Ashy

(1997) addressed that in order for physical education teachers to engage in culturally

responsive pedagogy, teacher education programs must first prepare PETE

candidates on five dimensions that include, attitudes, learning, climate, curriculum,

and family involvement through effective intercultural communication. Without

knowing or realizing conflicts between students’ needs (e.g., maintaining their own

identity) and teachers’ interests, teachers and teacher candidates may fail to

formulate cultural bridges (Cothran and Ennis 1999).

PETE programs are required to develop the foundation of knowledge and seek

strategies for preparing Tomorrow’s Teachers (Holmes Group 1986) and Tomor-

rows’ Schools (Holmes Group 1990). PETE programs serve as the essential role for

training PETE candidates on how to critically examine and reflect on their

experiences and establish positive visions of teaching diverse groups of students

before they graduate from colleges and universities (Feiman-Nemser 2001).

However, there remains a paucity of research about African American PETE

candidates’ experiences on teaching African American students in K-12 schools,

which highlights the necessity of this research study that explored African American

student teaching experiences in physical education.

Purpose and Conceptual Framework

The purpose of this study was to describe and explain the experiences of African

American PETE candidates at secondary urban schools. This study was grounded in

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the framework of activity theory (Grossman et al. 1999) and specifically focused on

how the PETE candidates developed both conceptual understandings and specific

practices for teaching physical education to African American students in secondary

schools. Activity theory emphasizes the importance of the setting (e.g., student

teaching) in learning how to teach and focus on the social and cultural factors within

the specialized context. Specific to this study, the focus was to explore the PETE

candidates’ teaching actions carried out in physical education while negotiating with

the African American students’ academic, social, and cultural backgrounds (Cole

1996; Wertsch 1991). Activity theory has three key concepts—activity setting,

tools, and appropriation, which are described throughout this section.

Activity Setting

Activity theory provides a useful tool for analyzing and theorizing about activity

settings, which is identifying a form of semiotic apprenticeship (Wells 2002). For

example, when physical education teachers teach lacrosse, African American

students may not know how to play, primarily because lacrosse is considered to be a

white sport. This racial discrepancy emphasizes the deficit paradigm perpetuates the

colonial and eugenic myth of genetic superiority, and enhances White hegemony that

may still exist in physical activities and sports. Their limited knowledge may

challenge their ability to transfer what they know into practical apprenticeship (e.g.,

game situation). Plus, communication differences (ethnolinguistic) tend to have

negative implications for teachers and African American students in physical

education (Burden et al. 2013). University supervisors, cooperative teachers, and

PETE candidates engage in investigations of personal issues, problems and questions

as well as cultural and transitional adjustments from the university to the student

teaching setting (Wells 2002). Activity theory helps us to understand how PETE

candidates apply their content knowledge and pedagogical strategies to teach African

American secondary school students in physical education (Valencia et al. 2009).

The arena of activity setting has visible structural features and representation of

individual’s perceptions, comprehension, and interpretations. For example, PETE

candidates have to navigate their cooperative teachers and university supervisors

when they learn how to teach physical education in the K-12 school setting, illustrating

the two-world pitfall, which is typically characterized as (a) a conflict between

practices endorsed by the university and (b) transmissive instruction prevalent in K-12

classrooms (Feiman-Nemser and Buchmann 1985). In the university setting, the

candidates learn pedagogical knowledge and practices of physical education and are

also required to meet the expectations established by the professors of the PETE

programs (Agee 1998). Then, they are exposed to the culturally responsive practical

experiences (i.e., knowledge and skills are situated within the lived experiences and

frame of reference of students) of student teaching where they need to negotiate their

cultural norms, beliefs and experiences between the PETE program and the assigned

student teaching sites (Gay 2000; Grossman et al. 1999). Ladson-Billings (1995)

suggested that when a cultural mismatch exists between teachers and ethnically

diverse students, teachers must be responsible to empower ethnically diverse students

through academic success, cultural competence, and critical consciousness using

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culturally relevant pedagogy. It is important to provide students with diverse field base

experiences for PETE candidates. They learn how to negotiate and navigate cultural

mismatch.

Tools

The second concept in activity theory is that the PETE candidates need to identify

the tools needed and utilized to learn how to teach physical education to African

American students. Grossman et al. (1999) described that there are two different

types of tools (conceptual and practical) that PETE candidates implement into their

physical education classes. Conceptual tools include planning, instruction, and

assessment. The PETE candidates focus on what they want all students to learn

within physical education. Practical tools refer to how the PETE candidates can

apply a broad range of content knowledge to teaching rather than referring

specifically to a curricular strand. Prior field experience is an example of a practical

tool that PETE candidates can apply to their student teaching experiences.

Appropriation

Appropriation is ‘‘the process through which a person adopts the pedagogical tools

available for use in particular social environment and through he or she internalizes

ways of thinking endemic to specific cultural practice’’ (Grossman et al. 1999,

p. 15). Wertsch (1991) states that appropriation is a developmental process of

socially formulated, goal directed, and tool mediated actions. In this study, the

PETE candidates’ values, experiences, and goals were influenced by more

experienced or powerful members (e.g., cooperative teachers and university

supervisors) (Cole 1996; Wertsch 1991). The candidates were trained to become

competent teachers in academic and social practice in student teaching. Cazden’s

(1988) idea of performance before competence is the useful concept of appropri-

ation in the activity theory. The candidates were either well-prepared, reasonably-

prepared, or ill-prepared to teach physical education while they studied in PETE

programs at their respective institutions.

Activity theory integrates practical knowledge and teaching experiences into

culturally relevant or appropriate lessons, instructions, and assessments. The

research questions, which guided the study were:

1. What were African American PETE candidates’ experiences on teaching

secondary ethnically diverse students in student teaching?

2. How did activity settings mediate African American PETE candidates’

thinking?

Method

This study was situated in descriptive-qualitative methodology using an explanatory

case study design (Yin 2003). Typically, qualitative studies focus ‘‘in depth on

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relatively small samples, even single case (n = 1), selected purposefully’’ (Patton

2000, p. 169). The main principle of this case study method is to better understand

complex educational and/or social phenomena—while retaining the holistic and

meaningful particularities of real-life circumstances (Yin 2003). Thus, explanatory

case study was appropriate for exploring the African American PETE candidates’

experiences of teaching secondary ethnically diverse students.

Setting and Participants

The research site was a private HBCU located in the Southeastern region of the US

with an enrollment of approximately 5,700 students. There were 45 physical

education majors in the PETE program at the time of this study. A criterion

sampling was used, which meant that we sampled cases that meet a predetermined

criterion of importance (Patton 2000).

Specifically, we identified and selected all African American PETE candidates

who passed the teacher licensure tests (i.e., Praxis I and II) and were enrolled in

student teaching and seminar courses during their final semester of the PETE

program of study. This process involved contacting the institution’s clinical officers

to identify all African American PETE candidates who enrolled in student teaching

during the fall 2009, spring 2010, and fall 2010 semesters.

Seven African American PETE candidates (four males, three females, and age

range 22–24) were the participants in this study. All participants’ student teaching

sites are categorized as ethnically diverse secondary schools. More specifically, The

racial demographics of the school district in which they taught included 57.3 %—

African American, 30.2 %—White American, 6.8 %—Hispanic, 2.8 %—Asian

Pacific Islander, 0.5 %—Native American, and 2.4 %—unspecified. 50.4 % of the

students in the district came from economically disadvantaged families (Virginia

Department of Education 2009).

All participants signed consent forms giving permission to participate in this

study. Pseudonyms were used for all participants.

Data Collection

Data collection included (a) reflective journaling, (b) participant interviews, and

(c) electronic portfolios.

Reflective Journaling

Hodge and Faison-Hodge (2010) asserted that teacher education programs can

enhance future teachers’ ability to reflect on their pedagogical praxis. Research

confirms that reflective journaling is beneficial to the training of physical education

majors (Hodge et al. 2003). In the present study, we used a reflective weekly log

developed by Hodge et al. (2003) which was modified and revised to measure PETE

candidates’ teaching experiences with ethnically diverse students in physical

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education. All participants were asked to maintain a journal that included weekly

reflections to predetermined questions.

Participant Interviews

A pilot study was conducted 6 months prior to this current study. The lead

researcher asked three African American teachers who taught large groups of

ethnically diverse students in public schools to participate in the pilot study. The

pilot study informed the development of the interview questions, which were

modified from Pawlas and Olivia’s (2008) work, to develop the purpose and

research questions of this current study. Based on the results to the pilot study, the

primary researcher and two other university supervisors reduced, revised, and

modified several interview questions as well as the research questions and purpose

for this study. Two semi-structured face-to-face individual interviews were

conducted with all participants during the midterm evaluation (Week 3) and final

evaluation (Week 6) of their secondary student teaching experiences. Relevant

questions were asked such as: Could you describe your issues and concerns about

teaching African American students? How did you resolve these issues and

concerns? Follow up and probing questions were utilized to learn more about the

PETE candidates’ experiences in regard to their interactions with their cooperative

teachers and university supervisors.

Electronic Portfolios

A portfolio is a purposeful collection of candidates’ work that demonstrates efforts,

progress, and achievement, which may include photographs and video clips of

student performance based on the goals, objectives, and assessment of student

learning (Barnstable 2010). An electronic portfolio uses multimedia technology that

allows PETE candidates to collect and organize portfolio artifacts in many media

types (e.g., audio, video, graphic, PowerPoint, and text) with hypermedia links

connecting the evidence to the National Association of Sport and Physical

Education (NASPE) Beginning Teacher Standards (Barnstable 2010). The PETE

candidates were assigned to complete the electronic portfolio as a part of the PETE

program graduation requirements. The electronic portfolios also demonstrated the

PETE candidates’ progress during their student teaching experiences.

Trustworthiness

Trustworthiness in this study was established through triangulation, member

checking, and peer-debriefing. Triangulation involved the use of multiple perspec-

tives such as data from interviews, e-portfolios, and journal reflections. The

intention of the triangulation method is to judge the accuracy of the data as opposed

to seeking universal truth (Merriam 1998). Member checking was used to reduce the

impact of subjective bias (Patton 2000). The lead researcher mailed all copies

(saved CDs) of the journal entries, transcribed interview data, and e-portfolios to the

address of respective participants. The participants’ acknowledgment of the

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accuracy of the data and the researchers’ interpretations of the data ensured

trustworthiness was established (Merriam 1998). Peer debriefing is a process of

exposing oneself to a distinguished peer in a way paralleling an analytic session

with the purpose of exploring aspects of inquiry that might remain only implicit in

the inquirer’s mind (Patton 2000). For this study, two university supervisors known

by the current researchers with expertise in qualitative research agreed to serve as

peer debriefers. They judged the interpretations of the data as accurate and

representative of the participants’ statements.

Data Analysis

Constant comparative analysis (Merriam 1998; Strauss and Corbin 1998) was used

to interpret the data, which involves systematically examining and refining

variations in emergent themes. The basic strategy of this analysis process is to do

what its name implies—constantly compare. In this study, the researchers

independently compared different sources of data from other data sets. For

example, a participant’s interview data was compared to her or his journal entries.

This process of constantly comparing data from different sources and each

participant led to tentative categories. Later, the researchers converged to compare

their findings and to reach agreement about the constructed thematic categories,

which were refined into major recurrent themes.

Results

The purpose of this study was to describe and explain the experiences of African

American PETE candidates at secondary urban schools. Several interrelated and

complex themes emerged from the data analyses. The major recurrent themes were

(a) navigating power relationships between cooperative teachers and students, (b) a‘shocking’ experience: feeling under-prepared, and (c) encountered culturalnormalcies and stereotypes in teaching physical education. The three themes are

mostly reflective of meaning the participants ascribed to their experiences during

matriculation of student teaching.

Navigating Power Relationships Between Cooperative Teachers and Students

The seven participants (Jackson, Natasha, Chante, Latoya, Anthony, Omari, and

Melvin) had difficulty meeting the cooperating teachers’ and ethnically diverse

students’ expectations while they taught physical education at their respective

student teaching sites. In their electronic portfolios, the participants articulated that

their cooperative teachers provided documents of their expectations (e.g., rules and

policy of inappropriate behaviors—running one mile or push-ups) and forced them

to follow the detailed expectations on how to increase the ethnically diverse

students’ appropriate behaviors in physical education class. In contrast to these

expectations, many of the secondary students strongly desired to develop brother or

sister-hood relationships with the participants. Although participants preferred to

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respond to their students’ expectations, they were afraid of receiving negative

student teaching evaluations from their cooperative teachers. Anthony, Natasha,

Omari, Latoya, Chante, and Jackson, for example, explicitly stated that the

cooperative teachers expressed that the student teachers must develop internal

connections between academic instructions with life experiences the students faced.

Therefore, these participants spent an extreme amount of effort and hours on how to

approach these expectations from both the cooperative teachers and students.

Regarding how to handle students’ behavioral problems, these participants

disagreed that their cooperative teachers suggested punishment policy to all

students. However, they refused to argue with cooperative teachers. For example,

Latoya taught students who had behavioral problems in physical education. The

cooperative teachers suggested that she needed to develop rules of punishment and

penalty when students do not follow Latoya’s instructions. Latoya explained that her

punishment adversely affected her teaching performance.

Many students had behavioral problems in the class. Students tried to find how

much they can get away with. They run out of the classrooms. They came

from one door and got away to another door. When we played games, they

broke rules and routines. When I used some types of punishment such as

assigning them to run a mile, which my cooperative teachers suggested, they

were mad and they did half mile. I do not like my cooperative teachers’

punishment policy, but I had to let students know that they need to follow my

instruction without excuse. It was tough (Latoya – Interviews).

Chante used various strategies to eliminate power and hierarchical relationships

with students when her cooperative teacher did not observe her teaching.

The way I approached my students was that I told my family and academic

backgrounds when my cooperative teacher was out of town. I told students

why I am here and why I am teaching. I did my autobiography. Many students

could relate to my experiences (Chante – Journal Reflection).

She also used another approach to get attention from the students.

I asked my students to sit down on the gym floor. Then I sat down on the gym

floor. So, my eye contact level was the exact same with students. That was my

respect. I tried to minimize the power relationships. However, the cooperative

teacher told me that I had to discipline more. I just do not agree (Chante –

interview).

When all participants taught physical education during student teaching, many

students did not view the participants as teachers, rather, the students viewed them

as their brothers or sisters and sometimes as alternative mothers or fathers. This

caused the participants to have contradicting feelings about the different relation-

ships (between personal and academic relationships) they experienced with the

cooperative teachers and students, which caused them to have to navigate these

relationships. Although these participants ideally eliminated hierarchal relationships

with students and teachers, they realized that they needed to maintain a teachers’

power or authority toward students during student teaching. The participants were

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glad to serve as alternative role models for the students; however, they felt that they

should not become friends with the students.

Jackson explained,

When students saw a new PE teacher, they tested me that I was a cool teacher

or not. They respected me. I did not have any problems with them. One thing I

could tell was that it was difficult to establish boundaries between friend and

teachers. Now I do respect my cooperative teacher’s punishment policy. I had

to solve my students’ behavioral problems. My age is close to the high school

students. Some students treated me like their hood. I should not open to

students as soon as I joined in the PE class. I had to be more strict [sic] and

kept personal space between teachers and students. They started to think I was

their buddy (Jackson – Interview).

Jackson supported his comment with the following statement from his

e-portfolio:

They tried to bend rules and routines of physical education. When I said

something they did not like such as playing white dominant sports (e.g.,

lacrosse, tennis, golf, or field hockey), you are my brother or my nigger, so I

had to control students more. They used N words (nigger) a lot. They did not

use proper language, so I had to correct their language patterns (Jackson –

E-portfolio).

These students preferred consent relationships that commonly establish friend-

ships between all teachers and students. In contrast, these participants could not

position themselves in either consent or domination, which has a high degree of

conflict with little concern for group relations (Cothran and Ennis 1999). Ethnically

diverse students developed individual appropriate behavioral patterns based on

objectification of significance and the emergence of mental power which consists in

a mode of active engagement with reality (responsiveness to reasons) and which

develop individual identity through the appropriation of the mode of activity of the

community (Bakhurst 2009).

A ‘Shocking’ Experience: Feeling Under-Prepared

All participants received a reality shock during their student teaching experiences

and found it difficult to apply the theoretical academic content of physical education

learned in the PETE program to teaching the ethnically diverse students in their

practical field experiences.

Latoya and Melvin explicitly reflected that they were not well prepared to control

students’ inappropriate behaviors, because they said that African American

students, for example, tend to stay away from situations where they may get

embarrassed. When students approached learning and school with low feeling of

self-worth, it seemed that students become aggressive or showed inappropriate

behaviors in physical education. The participants assumed that they would be able

to relate to their students, because they have similar ethnic backgrounds. However,

they were disconnected to their students, because the students’ familial and

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community backgrounds may cause students’ inappropriate behaviors. They

strongly believed that PETE programs must offer field experiences that help the

candidates to become more highly qualified physical education teachers who can

increase students’ appropriate behaviors and understand students’ social and

cultural backgrounds and then, minimize their anxieties about teaching ethnically

diverse students.

Natasha stated that more field experiences in secondary physical education

content, methods, cultural norms and stereotypes in teaching physical education,

and behavioral management courses are necessary and need to be linked. Although

she learned how to use knowledge and resources from a behavioral management

course she had, she was unable to apply the behavioral management content

knowledge to her student teaching experiences in physical education.

Only areas I was not well prepared were behavioral management. Behavioral

management is a case by case. At the same time, students’ backgrounds are

case by case too. I believe that field experiences should be a part of PETE

program requirements, so that I will be able to maximize experiences, improve

behavioral management techniques, and understand students’ backgrounds.

When I develop my lesson plan, I want my students to learn step by step, but I

cannot predict behavioral issues of students. I had to figure out my adjustment

and modification. Pre-teaching experiences in different schools must be

helpful. I only went to observe a PE class twice before student teaching

(Natasha – Interview).

Natasha reflected upon this further in her journal:

PETE program needs to offer the field experiences related to African American

or Latino students’ issues and concerns in urban schools. We (PETE candidates)

do not capture reality and issues African American students are facing until we

began our student teaching experiences. It was shocking to me that I was

unaware of that I have stereotypes about African American students in this

school. I need to minimize stereotypes and biases that African American

students are similar, it is not same with my backgrounds. University supervisors

need to integrate those contents in the filed experiences or coursework.

Natasha was not sure how to handle students who had behavioral problems. She

felt that having teaching practices earlier on in the program may contribute to her

teaching competency and minimize her shocked experiences. She felt guilty that she

could not handle the situation appropriately (Pawlas and Oliva 2008).

The PETE program required all teacher candidates to complete coursework in

physical education, health education, exercise science or physiological contents, and

general education courses. The participants felt that the PETE program should

require additional courses that focus on diversity training or multicultural physical

education. Melvin, for example, felt that PETE programs at HBCUs assume that all

PETE candidates know about diversity issues, because the term diversity is usually

associated with race or ethnicity. During his student teaching experiences, Melvin

failed to discuss issues of diversity with the ethnically diverse students, especially,

African Americans.

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I see that teaching the contents and knowledge what I learned from this PETE

program was an ideal. But, urban schools had different contexts… I mean I

felt that I cannot apply what I learned from these PETE courses to student

teaching experiences to the urban schools, because it seems that I was not

ready to teach Black students in high schools. Maybe … physical education

contents did not relate to my students’ reality. It was related to my

experiences. I was growing up middle socioeconomic class family. My parents

gave me good resources, but my students did not received any resources,

because their parents suffered from poverty. Clinical supervisors should offer

diversity in physical education or multicultural physical education course in

this program. I feel that I am working as a mechanic at one automobile

industry (BMW or Mercedes). PETE program prepared me to repair cars from

my dealers’ brand (BMW or Mercedes), but I was not well prepared to repair

other cars such as Toyota, Honda, or Nissan. When I teach Black students, I

need to seek multiple solutions or options to meet unique needs of students

(Melvin – interview).

Melvin believed that he had to become a good listener and a responder of his

students. In his e-portfolio, he wrote that he expected professors and cooperative

teachers to tell him what to do and how to become a better role model for his

students. He believed that all candidates and faculty should openly discuss different

cases associated with various and diverse issues and concerns in schools and

problematize potential solutions together.

Encountered Cultural Normalcies and Stereotypes in Teaching Physical

Education

All seven participants felt that choosing the activities for African American students

was a challenge. Racism and stereotypes of white dominant sports adversely

affected academic performance of the African American students. Thus, physical

education teachers often chose basketball, football, and track and field activities for

the students in their classes, because they believed those activities could hold their

attention and increased their motivations (Hodge et al. 2008), probably because

these sports are considered African American dominant sports (Harrison 2001). In

contrast, soccer, lacrosse, tennis, golf, and swimming are considered white

dominant sports in and out of schools (Harrison 2001). The lack of diverse sport

and physical activity experiences for both the African American and White

American students increased the racial tension in the school. There were some

degrees of power transformation based on the different types of physical activities

between African American and White American students. For example, White

American students made fun of African American students when they could not

play tennis or golf like their White peers could.

Melvin, Anthony, Jackson, and Latoya taught lacrosse to African American

students with no previous experience. The students were upset that they could not

play basketball, football, or track and field. These activities made their students feel

uncomfortable and incompetent to perform in front of other students. Melvin

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explained how the African American students disliked lacrosse when he taught the

unit in his physical education class:

A lesson students did not like was Lacrosse, because African American

students were not exposed to play Lacrosse. Lacrosse is the suburban activity

not urban activity. They liked to play football or basketball, but not Lacrosse.

That was the reason that the PE lessons must be culturally relevant. I noticed

that urban school PE teachers emphasized basketball, football, and track &

fields too much, because they could get students’ attention and control

students’ behaviors easily. I knew that African American females had not held

field hockey sticks. They did not know how to play golf, tennis, or bowling. It

was important to maximize their activity experiences in physical education. I

wanted all of my students open various activities. I attended the predominantly

white high school, but it was very urban and diverse area. I was surprised that

some sports and activities adversely affected my student teaching. All students

shut their minds before coming to the class. They have stereotypes that

Lacrosse is girl sport not for boys. I liked the activity, because there was no

huge range of skills levels, so I liked it (Melvin – interview).

In order to increase the students’ motivation, Jackson developed a strict activity

policy.

African American students wanted to play football and basketball. White and

African American females sit down and talk. Some White males play soccer

and hockey, but African American students did not want to play. It is hard for

me to select an activity they really liked. When I created lesson plan of

hockey, I had to develop strict grading guidelines of rules and regulations for

the participation. What I did was that students who showed less motivated

attitudes had to line in front of me. They were responsible for guiding other

students what and how to perform the activities. When they did hockey… my

cooperative teacher assigned me to teach …., I had to pair students with low

and high skills, so that they did peer teaching. Students who had less skills did

not want to be embarrassed. They did not like it at all (Jackson – Interview).

Jackson explicitly said all students worked hard for practicing the new activity;

however, these students also told Jackson that they would not continue to participate

and play the activities after this semester, because they did not enjoy playing these

activities. Jackson felt that he struggled to overcome the stereotypes in sports and

physical activities based on race.

All participants observed that their students rarely socially interacted with

students from different ethnic backgrounds while they attended the schools. Anthony

asked both African American and White American students why they did not talk to

each other. According to Anthony, White American students responded that

We (African American and White American) do not communicate with each

other. White Americans have better communication skills than other African

Americans. Blacks do not talk to Whites even when we play sport together….

One African American student told me that he was embarrassed when we play

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tennis, golf or lacrosse, because he did not have any chances to learn rules of

those sports. I saw that White American students made fun of African

American students, because they do not know the rule… (Anthony—

Interview).

Anthony organized a sport event. He thought that African American and White

American students would socially interact more. However, he believed that the

social tension between African Americans and White Americans was more serious

than he thought. He said that African American and White American dominant

sports were determined based on socioeconomic factors, accessibility of sport

opportunities, parental experiences, and social and cultural capital in the commu-

nity. Comeaux and Harrison (2004) asserted that sports and bailer labels have deep

visual (e.g., sport attire) and personal investments (sport choices) by African

American youths. More specifically, African American youths eliminate certain

organized team sports that rarely contributed positive identity as African Americans

(Kelley 1997).

Discussion

The themes that emerged from this study were that these PETE candidates struggled

to navigate power relationships with their cooperative teachers and students, felt

that there was a lack of diversity and field based training in their PETE program, and

faced challenges of stereotypes and racism in sports and cultural dissonance

associated with ethnically diverse students’ lived experiences. In activity theory,

ethnically diverse students (especially African American students) have experiences

outside themselves. This means that the PETE candidates were unable to transform

appropriate and culturally relevant tools such as teaching materials, lessons, or

activities to all students (e.g., lack of students’ motivations and interests to various

activities) (Blanton et al. 2001). Additionally, the cooperative teachers did not

provide appropriate feedback that supported the PETE candidates’ and all students’

understanding and responsibility for activities through their own teaching and

participation (Rogoff 1995).

These PETE candidates struggled with the variability of students’ behaviors,

particularly because they had to navigate the power dynamics between themselves,

the students, and cooperative teachers. To (2006) argued that teachers should avoid

problems that prevent teachers from responding to student needs, whereas, others

(e.g., Germain 1988) emphasize helping diverse students follow the rules and

routines in order to fit in the existing school system. The function of students’

behavioral control performed by the cooperative teachers contradicts the PETE

candidates’ ultimate goal of the physical education teaching profession. All of the

participants struggled with how to discipline students when disruptive behaviors

occurred. Their cooperative teachers assigned all PETE candidates to develop

consent forms and protocols of discipline in their lesson plans during student

teaching. Although the PETE candidates disagreed to develop consent form and

protocols of discipline, they began to understand their cooperative teachers’

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suggestions about disciplining students. They did not fully accept, but their

perceptions changed from negative to neutral view about disciplining students. It

appeared, based on the PETE candidates’ perspectives and feedback, they were

anxious and stressed about how their poor relationships with cooperative teachers

may lead to public humiliation, a reputation of incompetent teaching, or

confirmation of stereotypes (Stevenson 2008). In contrast, all of the cooperative

teachers were pressured from school administrators that their schools must maintain

a safe and orderly academic environment (Weiner 2003).

Although the PETE candidates used pedagogical tools that created a more

socially interactive learning environment (e.g., student-centered), their cooperative

teachers suggested they demonstrate teacher-centered strategies (e.g., teachers teach

and students listen). Within this study, the cooperative teachers prejudged their

student behaviors due to racial stereotypes when they reviewed the classroom

demographics and student backgrounds. These findings support previous research

that cooperative teachers’ stereotypical behaviors create authority conflicts, which

cause conflicts of value over student’s acquisition of autonomy and interpersonal

skills (Bayer et al. 1995) or racial tension with African American students

(Stevenson 2008). Stevenson (2008) also found that many cooperative teachers fear

that they do not want to be seen as racists or uneducated about ethnically diverse

students. Unfortunately, this study did not include interviews on the perceptions

about ethnically diverse students from the cooperative teachers. However, the PETE

candidates felt uncomfortable that the cooperative teachers underestimated students’

academic and social abilities and often treated students unfairly (Gregory and

Thompson 2010). When PETE candidates are not guided on how to become

culturally relevant teachers to better understand students’ behavioral patterns, they

may have a hard time controlling students’ behaviors (Valencia et al. 2009).

These PETE candidates had a hard time establishing boundaries between

themselves and the students in the classroom. They analyzed and explained in their

reflective journal that it was important to decide what version of self was promoted

to the students. Interestingly, the PETE candidates were forced to negotiate their

African American identity as being a teacher, friend, brother or sister, when they

taught African American students (Berry 2005). All PETE candidates selected their

teacher identity, which increased more occurrences of students’ positive behaviors

(Lannie and McCurdy 2007).

The PETE candidates had concerns about their abilities to teach African

American students and felt they were not prepared and lacked the confidence to

overcome African American students’ academic and social difficulties (Jobling and

Moni 2004). Unfortunately, the PETE program did not offer any field experience

opportunities, aside from student teaching in their culminating semester, which

prevented the PETE candidates’ ability to deepen their insight on the cognitive

aspect of social and cultural factors of schools, along with how to understand the

complexity of conceptual and practical knowledge and how these components are

related in their teaching practices (Meijer et al. 2002). This study found that the

PETE candidates felt that the lack of field experiences adversely affected their

teaching abilities associated with the action and activity components in activity

theory. Bakhurst (2009) addressed that concepts of action and activity were always

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seen as problematic and open to multiple interpretations. By engaging with schools

in the field experiences, the PETE candidates transformed from action to

meaningful experiences (Bakhurst 2009). African American students receive

significant values from teachers that engage with understanding of new needs and

desires, engendering further activity, and applying knowledge to their community.

The field experiences serve as an important role of PETE candidates’ active

engagement of reality (responsiveness to reasons) (Bakhurst 2009). Sleeter (2008)

suggests that PETE programs should include the following components in field

experiences (a) content knowledge and theoretical knowledge that universities can

provide; and (b) dialogue with communities in which schools are situated. Field

experiences should contribute to the PETE candidates’ learning to be real,

purposeful, motivational, and practical in terms of the classroom environment in

which learning takes place (Jobling and Moni 2004). Furthermore, field experiences

allow PETE candidates to better understand the students’ out of school experiences

in order to effectively address them in their classrooms (Jobling and Moni 2004).

Engaging PETE candidates in multiple field experiences in different sites (e.g.,

ethnically diverse schools) and school districts have been regarded as a positive

strategy of teacher preparation. This opportunity may minimize PETE candidates’

own biases and challenge the deficit paradigm, which propose that the difficulties of

students’ experiences are the results of individual deficits within the student

themselves (including students’ backgrounds) (Sleeter 2008). All participants in this

study stated that the PETE program should offer one or two courses on diversity

issues encountered in physical education and field experiences associated with

African American education. In this study, the PETE candidates realized that

schools are academically and socially dysfunctional and were unaware of the reality

of schools until they began their student teaching experiences.

The PETE candidates struggled to teach White dominant sports or activities to

African American students. They perceived that the connotations of whiteness,

leisure, and racism were associated with African American students’ learning

experiences. Based on PETE candidates’ feedback, the vast majority of African

American students believed that White students have benefited by being able to

function in white hegemony as White dominant class’s privileged use of social

phenomena (e.g., sport camp) to produce and reinforce their values towards other

ethnic or racial groups (McDonald 2009). Racism and white privileges are not about

the construction of racial images, attitudes, beliefs and identities (Roberts 2009);

rather, it is more about development and maintenance of White economic wealth

and sociopolitical power in sport. This finding was supported by Nelson’s (2009)

study that students were disengaged with White dominant activities, because they

lacked community and cultural connections. White dominant activities were seen as

disconnecting experiences for students of color (Nelson 2009). In fact, the African

American students preferred to play basketball, football, and track and field. The

racial stereotypes included perpetuation of colonial and eugenic myths of genetic

superiority or black magic (i.e., talent and skill are developed as ‘natural’ rather than

based on hard work and training) where ability is (incorrectly) attributed to

physiological or anthropometric characteristics (Hoberman 1997; Nelson 2009).

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West (1994) states race causes social tension and violence in schools, because ‘‘it

confronts the tragic facts of poverty and paranoia, despair and distrust’’ (p. 156).

The PETE candidates perceived that there were negative friendships (i.e., trying

to boss or dominate) between African American and White American students.

African Americans have been historically and contemporarily suffering from racial

stereotypes and discriminations in this country. This finding addresses that African

American students avoided being oppressed learners in physical education (Freire

1970). In this study, African American students were not welcomed to participate in

White dominant sports or physical activities and maintained social distance

(avoiding knowing socioeconomic class and race) from communicating with White

American peers in their class.

Study Limitations

This study has two limitations. First, the participants were purposefully selected

from one private co-educational HBCU in the southeastern region of the US.

Statistically speaking, therefore the findings are not generalizable. From a

qualitative perspective, however, the reader may consider transferability to contexts

of other private or public colleges or universities elsewhere (Leininger 1994).

Second, the number of participants was small and they had rather diverse

backgrounds, experiences, cultures, and languages. However qualitative inquiries,

including case studies, typically use small samples and in the logic of maximum

variation sampling, the intent is to capture and describe the central themes that cut

across a vast array of participant variation (Patton 2000). Our intent in using this

sampling approach was to uncover common themes of African American PETE

candidates’ student teaching experiences with ethnically diverse cooperating

teachers and students in urban schools.

Recommendations and Conclusion

Our primary recommendation is for PETE programs to require PETE teacher

candidates to complete a series of progressive PETE courses to help them navigate

power relationships between teachers and students, increase positive and appropri-

ate students’ behaviors, feel highly qualified to teach African American students,

and overcome challenges of stereotypes and racism in sport associated with

ethnically diverse students’ experiences. These courses will hopefully better prepare

and enhance the quality of student teaching experiences for PETE candidates at

colleges and universities across the US.

Specifically, this study suggests that PETE programs need to consider the quality

of pre-service teaching and field experiences, university supervisors’ role, and

PETE teacher candidates’ interaction with the supervisors (Oh et al. 2005). PETE

programs may invite in-service physical education teachers in racially diverse

schools as co-instructors of secondary physical education content and methods

courses as they may be able to help the PETE candidates show higher level of

confidence in their ability to educate African American students in positive ways. In

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order to understand issues in physical education class, PETE programs should offer

field experience opportunities before they begin student teaching. In general, the

most PETE or teacher education programs offer one or two isolated diversity

course(s), but diversity or content on ethnically diverse students lacks in the content,

methods, and field experience courses causing a disconnect between theory and

practice. Therefore, the content of field experiences must encourage teacher

candidates to analyze teaching styles and ethnically diverse students’ learning styles

(i.e., understanding students’ culture and social backgrounds) (Pawlas and Oliva

2008). Field experience cooperative teachers may be able to provide teaching

expectations, guidance, feedback, and leaderships before PETE teacher candidates

participate in the student teaching.

Teacher candidates in PETE programs should be required to examine the scope

of historical and cultural contexts surrounding African Americans and racial

stereotypes as well as the culture of schools. Historically, and still today, there are

many African American students who do not have opportunities or are exposed to

White dominant sports and activities, commonly because of societal and economic

issues (Hicks 1988). In recent times, aquatics, golf and tennis have become a social

arena where African Americans have achieved some measures of success and

representation and enjoy moments of cultural capital that could be used as leverage

against the persistent problems of racial sport stereotyping (Hodge et al. 2008).

In conclusion, based on the teacher candidates’ ascribed student teaching

experiences, we suggest that PETE programs must be mindful to implement courses

that accommodate the needs of diverse students, such as African American students.

In order to better prepare teacher candidates, we encourage PETE faculty, at all of

the nation’s colleges and universities with PETE programs, to reform their

curriculum by offering diversity courses (i.e., socioeconomic status, racism) as well

as integrate diversity, social issues, and content on ethnically diverse students in

field experiences as core program requirements.

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