Preparing Preservice Teachers for Life in Schools: The Role of Doctoral Education

Overview & Synopsis

Physical education teachers face considerable sociopolitical challenges that can impede quality instruction and complicate recruitment into the profession. Physical education teacher education faculty members may not be prepared to address these challenges during their doctoral education. Accordingly, the purpose of the paper was to utilize the lessons learned from occupational socialization research to propose competencies that can be integrated into doctoral education to help future faculty members integrate sociopolitical learning into physical education teacher education. These include: (a) understanding socialization literature and the implications for teacher education, (b) helping doctoral students understand their own prior socialization experiences, (c) recruiting highly qualified preservice teachers, (d) helping preservice teachers question their subjective theories, (e) developing and coordinating field experiences, and (f) preparing preservice teachers for the sociopolitical realities of schools. These competencies align with the proposed addition of a new standard for initial teacher education that addresses sociopolitical learning.