The doxa of physical education teacher education – set in stone?

Abstract

In this paper, we critically examine the potential of assessment components in physical education teacher education (PETE) to either reinforce or challenge PETE students’ conceptions of what a physical education (PE) teacher needs to know to teach this school subject. To understand the mechanisms that may contribute to the difficulty of challenging these taken-for-granted beliefs (doxa) within PETE, we draw on the theories and concepts of Pierre Bourdieu. Two different kinds of empirical material are analysed: one consists of 62 essays, written by PETE students before starting their degree programme, dealing with their conceptions of PE teachers’ competencies, while the second consists of course booklets and assessment components used within one PETE programme. The study shows that implicit prerequisites and conditions in assessment components are very similar to the conceptions of competencies in PETE students’ statements. The study also shows that taken-for-granted beliefs may be challenged, but at the same time, we argue, the use of socially critical perspectives in PE practice may also (in the name of the doxa) stigmatise those who are not physically active in their leisure time as well as those who do not look fit and sporty, and thus does not challenge the way power and social superiority or inferiority appear in PE.