A descriptive analysis of the roles, responsibilities, and concerns of adapted physical education teachers in an urban school district.

摘要

Over the years, scholars have identified specific roles and responsibilities of adapted physical education (APE) teachers. In such capacities providing direct and indirect service to students with disabilities, APE teachers are expected to be effective. Some adapted and general physical education teachers have voiced concerns linked to their teaching and consulting. The purpose of this study was to determine and describe the job roles and responsibilities of APE teachers in service delivery at urban city schools. A second purpose was to determine whether or not these APE teachers had job-related concerns. If so, what were their concerns?; Participants were six experienced itinerant APE teachers (all women) from the same urban school district in the Midwestern USA. The theoretical framework for this study was concerns theory as originally conceptualized by Fuller (1969) and later modified for applicability to physical education contexts by McBride (1993). Concerns theory posits that teachers have concerns and the level of concerns depend on: (a) their experiences; (b) individual differences; and (c) type of innovations (Fuller et al., 1969; Hall et al., 1973).; A collective case study methodology based on an interpretive paradigm was used (Stake, 2000). Data were collected from two face-to-face interviews and field notes taken during nonparticipant observations, pre/post lesson conferences, and stimulated recall sessions. One interview was conducted starting data collection, followed by ten nonparticipant observations of each teacher's teaching behaviors, and ending with another interview. Data were analyzed using the constant comparative approach (Goetz & LeCompte, 1981). Findings were presented descriptively and in narrative as recurring themes. These APE teachers: (a) described their primary roles and responsibilities as teaching students with disabilities; (b) viewed themselves as effective; (c) viewed coursework and hands-on experiences as beneficial to their practice; (d) felt that professional interactions and relationships with other professionals were individually contrived and contextually driven---some interactions were collaborative and supportive while at other times teachers felt disrespected, disregarded or marginalized); (e) had concerns characteristic of the self, task, and impact stages of Fuller's (1969) concerns theory; and (f) expressed high levels of job satisfaction.