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This study examined the relationships between student emotions in elementary physical education (PE) and their self-reported personal and social behaviors. Additionally, self-reported emotion and personal and social behavior differences were tested between students receiving a traditional multiactivity and games PE curriculum and those experiencing a Teaching Personal and Social Responsibility (TPSR) model curriculum. Participants were 2nd and 3rd grade students ( n=222) from two schools in the United States. Both schools had similar student demographics, school needs, and community characteristics. For secondary comparison analysis, school one ( n=87) served as the comparative school receiving a traditional multiactivity curriculum and school two ( n=135) received the TPSR model. Results showed that enjoyment and anger were predictors of students’ behavioral engagement. Findings also disclosed a significant positive effect for enjoyment, perceived responsibility, and behavioral engagement favoring the TPSR group. The TPSR model may be positively associated with elementary students’ beliefs about responsible behaviors, student enjoyment, and training students in positive ways to deal with anger. Overall, investigating the relationship between students’ emotions and their personal and social development, as it relates to PE, may provide intervention to reduce some negative experiences students report in these environments. Likewise, positive emotional experiences may increase in-class engagement and the adoption of adaptive personal and social responsibilities within PE and potentially into other areas in and out of school.

Background: As schools become more diverse, preservice physical educators remain predominantly White from middle class backgrounds. There is a need to provide future teachers with cultural awareness and social justice training. The culturally relevant physical education framework provides three steps to follow, the tenets of which align with the teaching personal and social responsibility model. Occupational socialization theory is a useful lens for understanding preservice teachers' receptivity to new pedagogical practices based on their initial socialization into the field of physical education.Purpose: To understand the ways in which socialization experiences influenced the development of culturally relevant physical education through the teaching personal and social responsibility model while teaching in an afterschool program in a high-poverty school.Data collection and analysis: A phenomenological case study approach was utilized with twelve preservice physical education teachers (eight males, four females) serving as participants. The study occurred over the span of two semesters within methods courses and associated early field experiences. Data sources included critical incident reflections, weekly online journal responses, writing assignments, field notes, systematic observations and reflections, and semi-structured interviews. Inductive and deductive analysis occurred with constant comparison across each data source throughout open and axial coding and theme development.Findings: Qualitative data analysis resulted in the construction of three themes: (a) getting to know the public, (b) the acknowledgement of cultural distance, and (c) bridging the gap. Preservice teachers struggled initially, feeling uncomfortable in the new setting and placing blame on the students. Over time, they progressed towards getting to know more about the student's daily experiences and home lives. Ultimately, they developed relationships and value for their students and a deeper understanding of how they may be able to alter their teaching to meet their students' needs.Discussion: The themes were well aligned with the steps of culturally relevant physical education. Further, the preservice teachers made consistent reference to the teaching personal and social responsibility model as a guide in the process of reformulating their subjective theories of physical education to meet student needs. Physical education teacher education programs should consider incorporating both the culturally relevant physical education and the teaching personal and social responsibility model into their development as they promote understanding of and connections with their students. Further research should be conducted to understand how preservice teachers may further their depth of knowledge and connection to their students' lives outside of the school setting.

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Physical education teacher education enrollment numbers are declining with limited empirical understanding. Recruitment into the physical education profession has been passive, although scholars have begun to advocate for an active approach. The present study utilized occupational socialization theory to understand why undergraduate kinesiology majors select a kinesiology concentration outside of physical education. Participants ( n = 75) were kinesiology undergraduate students at a large, public university in the US Midwest. Quantitative data included forced-choice questions regarding socialization experiences ( n = 75) that were analyzed descriptively and through independent-samples t-tests to identify gender differences. Qualitative data included autobiographical essays ( n = 75) and semi-structured interviews ( n = 23), analyzed using a multi-phase process. Health and fitness was the most highly rated recruitment facilitator, and many of the facilitators were different than those noted in the physical education literature. The four qualitative themes included the following: (a) the influence of family, teachers and coaches, and medical mentors on career choice; (b) future career goals aligned with the helping professions; (c) negative experiences in physical education act as a barrier to recruitment; and (d) firsthand and active recruitment into kinesiology. Participants’ negative physical education experiences reinforces the idea that the passive recruitment process serves to socialize some students out of physical education. Future research should consider professional socialization within kinesiology-aligned fields outside of physical education. Active recruitment initiatives should be designed to increase enrollments in physical education teacher education.