Influence of Biography, Teacher Education, and Entry into the Workforce on the Perspectives and Practices of First‐Year Elementary School Physical Education Teachers

The purpose of this study was to explore the influence of one university's core physical education teacher education (PETE) programme on the perspectives and practices of two first‐year elementary school physical education teachers and to examine how this influence was mediated by the teachers’ biographies and entry into the workforce. Data collection techniques employed were passive participant observation, formal and informal interviewing, document analysis, and journal writing. Data were analyzed using constant comparison and analytic induction. Results indicated that despite receiving poor quality physical education themselves and entering PETE with coaching orientations, these teachers attempted to innovate the physical education programmes at their schools.