Pre-service teachers’ gendered attitudes towards role modelling in health and physical education

Abstract

Background: Health and Physical Education (HPE) teachers are in a unique position to act as role models to their students.Purpose: To explore the expectations, beliefs and attitudes towards role modelling of health behaviours by pre-service teachers who were specialising in HPE, and those who were not. Study Design: Cross-sectional, Survey Design Method: N=637 pre-service teachers (who were in the first three weeks of their undergraduate Bachelor of Education course at three universities in Australia) completed self-report questionnaires asking about attitudes and beliefs toward role modelling of health behaviours. Comparison of attitudes and beliefs between those studying Health and Physical Education (HPE) and those studying other curriculum areas (classified as Bachelor of Education or non-HPE) were made.Results: We found both gender and degree-based differences in attitudes towards role modelling. Men were found to believe more so than women that HPE teachers should maintain a slim, athletic build which makes them appear as though they are fit and healthy.Male teacher education students who were not specialising in HPE were more likely than male HPE students to believe that Health and Physical Educators should maintain a 'slim, athletic appearance' and engage in regular physical activity.Conclusion: Pressure for HPE teachers to meet appearance and role modelling expectations may be coming more from men, and more from generalist teachers, as opposed to coming from within the profession. This research contributes to the debate regarding the fitness expectations of HPE teachers and has implications for physical education teacher education programs.

Fit for the job? How corporeal expectations shape physical education teachers’ understandings of content, pedagogy, and the purposes of physical education

“…This is problematic because overweight and aging teachers are positioned as deficient by default. As in other investigations (Fisette 2015;Yager et al 2020), the question of gender emerges as highly relevant, especially since sporting competence is often valued to a greater degree in traditional male arenas and since gender affects how bodies are experienced (Johansson 2017). When gender is consideredand we are aware that we have left this issue largely untouched in this papermore questions emerge.…”

“…In this sense, the role modelling speech genre probably belongs to a common sense that school pupils learn during schooling. This contention is supported by Yager et al's (2020) observation that non-physical education pre-service teachers often claim that PE teachers need athletic-looking bodies, as well as early studies on pupils' perceptions of PE teachers (Melville and Maddalozzo 1988). The common-sense notion that teachers should 'practice what they preach' appeared in many of the teachers' comments.…”

“…For these pre-service teachers, non-appearance related conceptions of health became unthinkable (see also González-Calvo, Varea, and Martínez-Álvarez 2019). Yager et al (2020) highlighted the considerable influence of an athletic body ideal in teacher education. They identified gender differences noting, for example, that male pre-service teachers were more likely to claim that PE teachers should look athletic than female pre-service teachers.…”

“…People have long expected physical education (PE) teachers to look fit and athletic, to do lots of physical activity, and to eat well (Macdonald and Kirk 1996). For their part, physical educators often accept these expectations uncritically (González-Calvo, Varea, and Martínez-Álvarez 2019;Yager et al 2020). Many PE teachers claim that a fit, athletic-looking body is connected with pedagogical authority; without one, they do not see themselves as trustworthy (Parkinson and Burrows 2020).…”

Physical Education Teachers and Competing Obesity Discourses: An Examination of Emerging Professional Identities

“…Much research has focused on teachers' understandings of health in relation to their own bodies (Sirna et al, 2010;Webb & Quennerstedt, 2010). Several scholars have pointed out that in-service and preservice physical education teachers tend to value sporty, slim, and able bodies (González-Calvo, Varea, & Martínez-Álvarez, 2019) and are often committed to displaying these bodies during teaching (Parkinson & Burrows, 2020;Yager, Gray, Curry, & McLean, 2020). Indeed, the fit body is seen as pedagogical by nature of the work it achieves as a model to which others can aspire.…”