Identity work: stories told in learning to teach physical education

Pre-service teachers bring to their university studies particular world views and understandings of themselves and others around health and physical activity. Their biographies and experiences in school physical education, sport and other societal institutions inform these perspectives and understandings. These in turn work to mediate university learning, interactions with the physical education learning area and understandings of teaching and learning processes. The biographies of pre-service teachers can provide valuable insights into how and why particular constructions of self are possible within given historical times, locations and events. In the context of teacher preparation in physical education this research attempts to investigate the construction of a teaching identity and pedagogical practices. Specifically it attempts to reveal how various cultures of physical activity, fitness and sport shape the subjective experiences of pre-service teachers as well as how different theoretical frameworks can be used to provide particular readings and deeper understandings of the stories told. Pre-service teachers were asked to respond to a series of open-ended questions regarding their personal experiences of physical education, sport and teacher preparation as well as the implications of these experiences for notions of themselves as an emerging teacher in the learning area. In the process of analysis attempt was made to identify the meanings students made in these contexts and their influence on the construction of a teaching identity. The findings give evidence of the complex and multiple ways that teaching identities are constructed as well as the processes whereby particular pedagogical practices are adopted.