Angela Beale

A Collaboration for Health and Physical Education in High-Need Schools and Communities

JOPERD • Volume 80 No. 7 • September 2009 T eacher education programs have a long history of producing excellent health and physical education (HPE) teachers for suburban school districts. But graduates who found themselves teaching in high-need schools complained that their teacher education program simply did not prepare them for low-income school districts, schools, and students. Their first year was too often spent trying to survive large classes, outdated facilities, insufficient equipment, dysfunctional curricula, intimidating students, unhelpful colleagues, and unsupportive administrators. Traditional teacher education programs focusing on effective teaching for fitness and motor skill acquisition seem almost irrelevant in the context of high-need schools and the lives of low-income and minority students. This article is directed primarily to teacher educators interested in improving HPE teaching and programs for students in high-need schools, whether they are located in urban centers or in suburban areas. The purpose of this article is to describe why and how one group of HPE teacher educators is addressing this need.

Being a Protege: An Autoethnographic View of Three Teacher Education Doctoral Programs.

Those in professional and academic fields generally perceive mentoring as a positive relationship that enhances the lives of protégés. Kram (1985) posits that such relationships between dyads in organisational life are an evolutionary, developmental process. The purpose of this article is to explore protégés’ perspectives on their mentoring relationships within doctoral programs. In order to lessen the insurmountable distance between writers and readers that is often associated with a traditional research study, we employ an autoethnographic approach to research writing. We share our journey after having studied the mentoring relationships within our own doctoral programs. Qualitative data collected over a two‐year period consist of journal entries, email correspondence, and phone conversations. This research offers insight into the mentor–protégé relationship and processes, and it provides implications for practice for protégés and mentors, as well as future research directions.

Physical Education Is a Part of Public Health

This article considers the importance of the role of that physical and health education professionals play in the development and promotion of health literacy. The current physical education preservice teaching framework, with a focus on skill development and fitness, should be expanded to include areas of public health policy and the social impact on healthy lifestyles, so that students are more able to practice what they have been taught in the classroom.

Becoming a Bridge Builder

With the U.S. Census Bureau data (2012) reporting that by the year 2050 more than 50% of the United States school-age population will be students of color—predominantly Hispanic and Latino, Asian, and African American—it is necessary for preservice and inservice teachers to embrace and employ culturally inclusive and relevant pedagogies.

Daring to Create Change Agents in Physical Education: The "Sankofa" Philosophy.

This article describes how PETE teachers can develop relevance, resilience, respect, and responsibility in their PE professionals in order to help them become change agents.

Clash of Civilizations

This editorial discusses how social constructs that are high in religious or cultural contexts do not impede the creation of a “physically literate person” through relevant K–12 physical education programs. This article seeks to encourage physical education teacher education professionals to develop moral and civic perspectives that will promote universal justice within the profession.