The purpose of this study was to examine the inclusiveness of visually impaired youths’ experiences in integrated physical education. An experiential qualitative research approach was utilized, and 22 visually impaired youth (age 12–17 years) acted as participants. Data sources included one-on-one Zoom interviews, written responses to long-answer prompts, and reflexive interview notes. Data were analyzed using a reflexive thematic analysis approach, and three themes were constructed: (a) I’m not there, so how could I: The absent person; (b) I can’t see, so I can’t do it: The incapable person; and (c) It’d be nice to feel like everyone else: The “normal” person. Participants described that feelings of inclusion were unavailable to them and that feeling, and being viewed as, absent, incapable, and (not) “normal” highlighted this unavailability.
The purpose of this study was to explore the views of visually impaired youth about teacher-initiated activity modifications during integrated physical education. This experiential qualitative study included 18 visually impaired youth (ages 12–15 years; seven girls, 11 boys). Each participant completed two semi-structured interviews as data sources for this study. Four themes were constructed based on a reflexive thematic analysis of the interview data: (a) modifications interpreted as care; (b) “the angel and the devil”: modifications highlighting impairment; (c) the two-way street to modifications; and (d) modifications are Band-Aids over flawed activities and curriculum. These themes expand upon the current literature by describing how visually impaired youth understand their experiences with modifications in integrated physical education contexts. For many of the participants, activity modifications represented a tangible example of physical education teachers caring for them and caring about their needs. As such, some support for previously explicated benefits of modifications is provided. However, a number of concerns were also raised by our participants about modifications, such as modifications representing poorly conceptualized Band-Aids over poorly constructed activities, as well as modifications spotlighting differences and impairments. Finally, modifications that are promoted as simple and superficial ideas by the literature and executed by physical educators without communication with students appear to be unfavored by visually impaired students. This finding provides further support for the need to shift pedagogical strategies and teaching behaviors to become more flexible and student-centered.
The purpose of this article is to examine the content of previously published empirical literature utilizing self-efficacy theory with regard to physical education teachers’ perceived self-confidence to teach students with disabilities in general physical education. Keyword searches were used to identify relevant literature from electronic databases published from 2000 to 2022. Twenty-four articles, from 11 countries, met all inclusion criteria, and relevant data regarding participants, theory, measurement, research design, and dependent variables were extracted. Of the 24 studies, nine were survey validation, eight were experimental, six were cross-sectional, and one was mixed-methods design. Major findings across the examined studies indicate that teachers’ perceptions of training, amount of experience, and support from personnel significantly influence their self-efficacy toward teaching students with disabilities.
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