Physical Education Preservice Teachers’ Conceptions of Caring

By Lee, Okseon Ravizza, Dean

The purpose of this study was to examine prospective physical education teachers’ conceptions of caring during their student teaching experiences. This study was conducted through a qualitative research design that included semi-structured interviews, field observations, and document analysis. Four student teachers (1 male and 3 females) from physical education teacher education (PETE) programs at two universities participated in this study. A methodological triangulation among interview data and field observations allowed the data sources to be cross-checked and analyzed by constant comparative analysis for common themes. The student teachers’ conceptions of caring were categorized into pedagogical caring and interpersonal relationships. The participants commonly reported that showing pedagogical concerns by tailoring the lessons to the diverse needs of their students was an important concept of caring. They perceived that teaching and being accountable for the learning outcomes of their students were major caring roles. Establishing interpersonal relationships with students by sharing personal issues and showing respect for the students was another noted concept. However, the demonstration of pedagogical concern emerged as a salient feature of caring rather than interpersonal relationships. Lack of time, the specialist teacher status, tensions between care and control emerged as barriers to enactment of caring. Meanwhile, a sense of professionalism, caring role model, and exposure to diverse educational settings were identified as facilitators to caring. Introduction

With the changes in school contexts, today’s teachers are required to be more sensitive to diverse needs of students. Today’s teachers are faced with increasing cultural diversity, poverty issues, and risky behaviors such as drug use and violence (Martin, 2003). These changes require teacher’s heightened awareness to enact care in teaching and learning environment. The importance of caring has been emphasized as a critical component of education by many researchers (Gilligan, 1988; Kohl, 1984; Noddings, 1984, 1986). For example, Kohl (1984) highlighted the importance of caring such as “a teacher has an obligation to care about every student” (p. 66). In addition, caring was recommended as one of the essential qualities required for teacher-student relationships (Nias, 1989; Noddings, 1992; Rogers & Webb, 1991). Therefore, teacher education programs have been asked to educate prospective teachers as caring professionals (Goldstein & Lake, 2000; Noddings, 1984).

The importance of caring in teacher education has been discussed in physical education teacher education programs. Although the highly interactive and active nature of physical education provides inherent opportunities for caring behaviors (Larson, 1999), we cannot expect physical education teachers to naturally enact caring behaviors without being taught in teacher education program. In this sense, Owens and Ennis (2005) argued that the ethics of caring should be taught as pedagogical content knowledge in PETE programs.

Despite the increasing attention in professional literature on caring in teacher education, the concept of caring has not been widely investigated with empirical study in physical education settings. Since caring relationships are formed by interaction between the “carer” and the “cared-for” (Noddings, 1995), the exploration of caring should be drawn from the teaching and learning situation in which interaction and interpretations of relationships are occurring. For prospective teachers, student teaching can be a unique opportunity to practice caring in real life situations. While prospective teachers are involved in student teaching, their concept of caring will be interpreted through interaction with students, cooperating teachers, and university supervisors. The purpose of this study was to examine the prospective physical education teachers’ conceptions of caring during the student teaching period. Specific questions that guided this research are: (a) How do student teachers think tiiey enact caring behaviors in their physical education classes? and (b) What factors influenced student teachers’ concept of caring?

The investigation of physical education student teachers’ concept of caring during the student teaching placement will provide a sound starting point for developing teacher education programs for the education of caring teachers.

Review of Literature

Preservice teachers’ conceptions of caring has been explored in diverse contexts. For example, Goldstein and Lake (2000) explored preservice elementary teachers’ understanding of caring. They categorized preservice teachers’ understanding of caring as essentialism, oversimplication, and idealism. Although preservice teachers could not conceptualize caring in a sophisticated manner, they suggested that the understanding of preservice teachers’ preconceptions of caring can provide useful information about developing caring teachers.

In a subsequent study, Goldstein and Lake (2003) examined whether preservice teachers’ beliefs, understanding, and assumptions of caring is stable or changed by field experiences. Although preservice teachers agreed that their pre-constructed concept of caring was not sufficient to cope with the challenging realities of the field, the main results showed that there was no drastic changes in their beliefs about caring and teaching throughout the course of field experience. Considering the limited time period for field experience, the researchers concluded that the changing process of preservice teachers was slow and unstable. In addition, they commented that the development of caring relationships and teaching was enhanced through carefully designed field experiences and other undergraduate coursework rather than a mere assumption of natural growth as a teacher.

Another line of research explored preservice teachers’ concept of caring in relation to issues of control. McLaughlin (1991) examined one preservice teacher’s tension between care and control during the student teaching process. Even though the student teacher struggled with keeping balance between controlling and caring in the classroom, the student teacher enacted caring by being real and spontaneous, by establishing personal relationships with students in and out of class, and altering the environment and curriculum to help students engage in learning. McLaughlin (1991) suggested that teacher educators should be required to understand the tensions and connections between caring and controlling issues.

Weinstein (1998) utilized the Teacher Belief Survey in order to identify prospective teachers’ perceptions of caring and order. Results showed that prospective teachers’ notion of caring was mainly centered on establishing interpersonal relationships with students rather than focusing on pedagogical or management issues. Another interesting finding was preservice teachers perceived caring as a contradicting concept to keeping order in the classroom. The author suggested that the teacher educators need to help preservice teachers to see the enactment of caring in a more comprehensive way so they can see the care and order in a more inclusive way rather than as a dichotomous concept.

However, these studies have not explored the concept of caring in specific subject matter teaching contexts. The nature of the subject being taught or learned can produce a wide variety of conceptions about caring. For example, physical education teachers typically spend a very large portion of class time interacting with students. The qualities of these interactions can determine the perceptions students have of their teachers and participation in physical education. However, the physical education preservice teachers’ concept of caring has not been widely explored. A limited number of studies examined how students and teachers perceive caring in physical education settings. For example, Gubacs (1997) explored physical education teachers’ and students’ concept of caring in the teaching and learning process. Both teachers and students defined caring as loving, respecting, and being nice to others. In addition, teachers agreed that the ethics of caring should be taught in teacher education program as well as knowledge about how to teach subject matter.

Unlike other research, Larson (1999) investigated the role of caring played in the instruction of four veteran physical education teachers. She found that teachers most frequently exhibited caring behaviors related to fostering student growth. Other commonalities included structuring, evaluating, or modifying students’ behaviors, listening, empathizing/ sympathizing, and helping. In addition, each teacher’s caring behaviors were influenced by their relationships with their students and their knowledge of the students’ individual caring needs (Larson, 1999).

The review of literature shows that the concept of caring in physical education has not been widely explored. Although the importance of caring in physical education teacher education has been explored in theoretical perspective (e.g., Owens & Ennis, 2005), the empirical study is limited. In order to prepare caring teachers, teacher educators need to know how preservice teachers’ concept of caring is developed and challenged or modified during the student teaching experience. Method

Qualitative methodologies were used to provide a “rich, thick description” (Merriam, 1998, p.211) of the thoughts and experiences of the participants. A multisite design was established to add greater diversity to the nature of the sites and participants to aide in greater applicability to other situations (Merriam, 2002). The research questions for this study were investigated through a qualitative research design that included semi-structured interviews, field observations, and document analysis (Lincoln & Cuba, 1985; Merriam, 2002; Rossman & Rallis, 2002).

Participants

Four student teachers (1 male, 3 females) from physical education teacher preparation programs at two universities in the Southeastern United States participated in this study. The subjects ranged in age from 21-23 years and entered each of their physical education program areas at freshman status. Pseudonyms were used for both schools and each subject participating in the study. Informed consent was obtained from the participants, and appropriate human subjects procedures were followed. Because the two primary investigators were supervisors in their respective student teaching programs, subjects were informed that their participation would not affect their standing in their respective student teaching programs.

Before being selected for this study, each participant completed the course requirements according to their respective programs and was enrolled in the student teaching phase of the program. Two participants began their student teaching experience at the secondary level (middle or high school) for an eight-week period and concluded the preservice experience with an eight-week placement at an elementary school. The other two participants began their seven- week placement at an elementary site and concluded with a secondary level placement of the same duration.

Data Collection and Procedures

The researchers developed and utilized one audio-taped semi- structured interview consisting of fourteen open-ended questions to achieve descriptive responses to the research questions. Semi- structured interviews were chosen as the main data collection method to allow the reader to understand the phenomenon being studied and to draw their interpretations regarding meanings and significance (Patton, 2002).

The participants were first asked to describe their thoughts on caring: “If I say the word caring what comes to mind?” The purpose of this initial question was to determine the participants’ understanding of the concept of caring. As the interview progressed, participants were asked questions such as: “Has your concept of caring changed since you have become involved in student teaching?” and “How do you think you show caring in your teaching?” and “Did you learn about caring behaviors in your teacher education program?”

The second form of data collection was field observations. This method was chosen in order to obtain a further description of the caring behaviors described by the participants. Each investigator observed the participants during teaching situations at their school sites after the interview process and initial examination of the interview data. Field notes from these observations were used to identify caring behaviors exhibited by the participants during the teaching process. Document analysis involved the review of unit and lesson plans developed by each participant to identify caring behaviors during the teaching process.

Data Analysis

Data were analyzed by constant comparison analysis(Glaser & Strauss, 1967). The investigators sought methodological rigor by utilizing multiple data sources and multiple sites in order to make data and methodologies as public and replicable as possible (Patton, 2002). The researchers conducted a triangulation of data from the sources to strengthen the perspectives and examine evidence from the interviews with the student teachers. A methodological triangulation among interview data, document analysis and field observations allowed the data sources to be crosschecked and analyzed for common themes providing quotes and interpretations from the data sources (Merriam, 1998; Patton, 2002).

While the investigators attempted to gain data from multiple sources, class observations and analyzing lesson plans proved to provide less salient details regarding caring behaviors. The researchers noted some caring behaviors during the observation periods that clarified comments stated during the interview process. Regardless, the themes primarily emerged from the semi-structured interviews.

After completing the transcription process and initial analysis, the researchers conducted face-to-face, audiotaped member checks with each of the subjects to ask clarifying questions. It was at this point in the process that each interviewee had the opportunity to modify or clarify any aspects of the interview. The member checks were transcribed verbatim and the initial coding procedures were followed. In this way, the researchers established confirmability for this study by the triangulation of the data sources and member checks (Anfara, Mangione, & Brown, 2002).

Results

The results of this study are reported according to concept of caring and factors of caring. The themes in each category will be provided with participants’ interview data.

Concept of Caring

Pedagogical concerns

Accountability. Participants commented that caring should be enacted through their instructional process. They agreed that they could demonstrate caring through their teaching behaviors and by being accountable to students’ learning. For example, Misty’s concept of caring was centered on teaching rather than building personal relationship.

When I am in my class I try to teach the whole class. When I hit on an individual I can say, “you did this well, you did that well.” But during the class I feel like I am there to teach them I am not there to gain their personal interest. I am there to let them learn. Here I have them for 30 minutes once a week, and during those 30 minutes I am trying to get through myself. I am trying to teach them something. I really I don’t have time to go around to all of the students and say that to them. (Misty)

Misty used the term teach as an opposite meaning of personal interest. This notion of caring was similar to Roselyn’s case.

When asked how she can enact caring, Roselyn said, “You can care about students in the lessons because if don’t care about what they learn, then you don’t care about your students.” Roselyn addressed that caring should be enacted as pedagogical accountability toward students’ learning.

Sam also expressed a link between pedagogical accountability and caring.

I try to come across that I do care because you do not want to see anyone fail especially in your own classroom because then …. if you see some children fail in your classroom you feel like it is your fault. (Sam)

Providing feedback. Participants also emphasized the importance of feedback in their teaching. Participants reported that pedagogical caring can be enacted by providing feedback with students.

Giving them positive feedback and not only positive feedback but corrective [feedback] with positive. I don’t know any other ways that show it. That’s how I know when somebody cares. I think if you didn’t care, you just let them do whatever they wanted to do. You wouldn’t teach.. .they would come in and run around and do whatever they like. (Misty)

Roselyn also emphasized the importance of feedback as pedagogical caring. Her perception of caring showed the sensitivity to the needs of her students:

One of my friends told me about her cooperating teacher and asked the question, “Does she care?” She does lots of stuff; keeps posting, posting, and posting materials on the wall. She is always posting something for students. If I were a student I wouldn’t take that as caring. I know she has done all the stuff like the board on the wall and makes it really pretty. I know she is doing that for students. But I think that person should think about “Will the second graders like mat?” To me, second graders are not thinking about caring from the stuff on the wall. To me giving more concrete feedback is better. (Roselyn)

Instructional accommodation. Participants also reported that they could enact caring by providing appropriate instructional accommodations for students. For example, Sally perceived that offering choices to students depending on the individual needs of students demonstrated pedagogical caring. When asked how she can enact caring, she replied:

By giving choices, choices let the students know that the teacher has different plans of action and not tailoring the curriculum to one or two children but they are listening to everybody.

And, if a child feels listened or feels they like the activity, then they are more willing to do the activity. They feel they were given a choice and they made a decision on their own to play that activity instead of the teacher telling them what to do. (Sally)

Sally included a number of task variations in her lesson plans that allowed students to work at their current skill level. Her lessons reflected these plans as students were given a variety of tasks to complete that catered to the skill level of the individual student. She felt this to be an expression of pedagogical caring towards her students.

The different activity I can do with students, it does integrate caring. Because it is activity that would be fun and everyone is involved, but does not single out the weak…. It would enable us to care for them because then they will enjoy what they are doing. (Sally)

Teaching caring behaviors. Teaching students how to demonstrate caring in the class was another aspect of pedagogical caring. Misty extended her notion of pedagogical caring to the students’ caring behaviors in her class. She stated: Right now I try to say, if you can’t do something, do you like people to laugh at you? No, nobody likes it. Don’t do it. It makes people uncomfortable. And tiiat’s caring for others. They need to learn how to treat people as they want to be treated. Here they haven’t been taught that yet, and I don’t know if it’s backed up in the classrooms. But they need to know how to work together; they need to know how to cooperate. They need to know not to call others’ names… part of caring is to treat others like you want to be treated.

In summary, participants commonly reported that showing pedagogical concerns was a salient feature of caring. They perceived that they can enact caring by having a sense of accountability for student learning, providing specific feedback, offering instructional accommodation to make inclusive learning environment, and teaching students caring for others during physical education classes.

Establishing Interpersonal Relationships

Showing personal interest. Although participants emphasized the pedagogical dimension of caring, they also commented that establishing relationships with students was another dimension of caring. One student teacher, Sally, addressed that she can demonstrate caring by listening to students’ personal matters. She specifically mentioned that her status as a student teacher makes it easier for students to access her and share personal matters with her. She said:

Well, some of the kids like to kind of gossip with me. They tell me about their boyfriend troubles, or what their friends are doing to them. And they confide in me more about the little things that they don’t think the other teachers might not understand, but where I will because I am still a student [teacher] and going through sort of that kind stuff. (Sally)

Misty also reported that caring was to “take into consideration on home life, caring for the students like caring what’s going on their home life, what’s going on in the school. Showing them you want to know them and they know that you care.”

Respect. Roselyn stated that a way of caring for her students was to be respectful to her students.

To me, I automatically use please and thank you when I use their equipment. If I want to use the equipment they are using I have to say, “Can I use that equipment, please?” To me that is an important part of caring. It is an expression of respect for them. I guess respecting relation shows you care. So instead of yelling in front of them, I walked over and asked them. (Roselyn)

Fairness. Misty commented that fairness was an important way of caring for her students. She defined caring as to “treat all students equal.” She said, “I am real big on fairness. For me part of caring is everybody gets treated equally. And that’s caring for everybody at the same time.”

Factors of Caring

Several factors were identified as either barriers or facilitators of caring in this study. Student teachers had difficulty with enacting caring in regard to issues of lack of time, their status as specialist teachers, and keeping balance between caring and discipline. However, their notion of professionalism, caring role model, teacher preparation program, and student teaching seminar were mentioned as facilitators.

Barriers to caring

Lack of time. Participants pointed out that the limited class time was a major barrier to enact caring. They commented that if they had enough time, they could have enacted more caring behaviors in their physical education classes. The lack of time was related to a short period of class and also the length of the student teaching experience. For example, Misty explained her challenges in caring in the following way:

I have them 30 minutes once a week, and during those 30 minutes I am trying to get through myself. I really don’t have time to go around the students say to them, especially when I have 30 students in class for 30 minutes. Here I have no idea what’s going on in kids’ life and like their major issues. I just know they’re coming here 30 minutes. I don’t know much about them. Especially by the time I’ve learned that something is going on, I have a week left. I am not gonna be here. You know I am leaving. There is nothing I can do about it. (Misty)

Sam felt that time constraints affected the amount of personal interaction he could demonstrate toward his students. He said:

I think what is difficult is the amount of time I actually get to have with each student. By the time I get to learn everybody’s name, I am going to have to start at the elementary experience and start the process all over again. (Sam)

Specialist teacher status. Participants also reported that their status as specialist teachers made it more difficult for them to enact caring than classroom teachers. Compared with classroom teachers who teach the same students for an extended period, they reported that the specialist teacher’s limited access to students made it difficult to show caring.

It’s hard… to show you care. Being a specialist teacher is much harder than a classroom teacher. You can show care so much in the classroom when you have 25 students all day long, but a specialist teacher has 500 kids. They have them twice a week for 30 minutes. Classroom teachers see them all day. (Misty)

In addition to the short access time, specialist teachers were in more difficult situations than classroom teachers because they had to teach a larger number of students. Teaching a large number of students in a short period class made it difficult for them to establish interpersonal relationships.

Keeping balance between caring and discipline. The struggle of maintaining balance between caring and discipline was a major concern for some of the student teachers. This was especially true for Sally as she attempted to establish her role as a student teacher in charge of the class.

At first, I tried being nice and say “Thank you, will you go get this?” and “Will you try doing this next time?”….I started out doing that and the kids, they walked all over me; they did not respect me, and they did not listen to me. As soon as I stepped up and was strong, they started to listen to me and respect me more because they thought I could not be walked on anymore. (Sally)

Participants’ concerns about discipline in the classroom dichotomize the concepts of caring and teaching. For example, Misty commented that she did not enact caring much during class time because students can take advantage of it. She said, “When I am teaching a class, you don’t really show caring aspect much. But when I see the individual outside of the class, it’s different.” Misty’s comments showed that caring and teaching cannot be enacted at the same time.

Facilitators of caring

Professionalism. Participants reported that caring is embedded in the notion of professionalism. When asked what helped her be a caring teacher, Roselyn addressed that caring is a part of professionalism. She said:

To me it’s a part of professionalism. Being a professional is not like, “I got my degree.” That’s not professional. To me if you go to school as a teacher, caring is a part of professionalism. They are coming together… I think caring is a part of professionalism in any job. (Roselyn)

Another participant, Misty, also emphasized the importance of professionalism in teaching. Her notion of professionalism included working well with students and exhibiting caring behaviors in the teaching profession.

Caring role model. The participant also emphasized the cooperating teacher’s role model behavior as a facilitating factor to caring. For example, Misty expressed that she learned how to demonstrate caring behaviors through her cooperating teacher’s approach. She said:

My cooperating teacher shows that she cares about her students. She asks them about what’s going on their lives. When she has to call to their parents, she says, “Your son or daughter did this and this. I am really concerned about him. He is a great kid but he didn’t turn in the project. I am not sure what’s going on his life.” She is really concerned and wanted to show that she cares. This was a great approach I learned. (Misty)

Exposure to diverse educational settings. Participants reported that the exposure to diverse educational settings also helped them to be caring teachers. Misty addressed that a site visit to a school located in a lower-income housing section of the city helped her to see diverse issues related to the student’s life. She said:

I think we need to talk about not only the good schools but the schools in difficult situations. That’s important to be a caring teacher. When I was in my sophomore year, we visited Southend School and there we learned a whole lot. The teacher told us, “You need to be careful when you’re asking questions to them.” And even though we were careful when we asked some of them, “What do you worry about?” And they said like, “Gun shots at night.” We were careful, but it was their reality. One trip was good. But it was not enough. Our university students, they need to know, especially the ones who want to get a job in this county they might need to start at one of these schools. (Misty)

Discussion

The purpose of this study was to identify student teachers’ concept of caring and to examine the factors that influenced their caring behaviors during their student teaching process. Beginning with the concept of caring, the participants in this study perceived that caring can be enacted through demonstrating pedagogical concerns to students’ learning and establishing interpersonal relationships with students. Demonstration of pedagogical concerns turned out to be a salient feature of caring for student teachers.

The result is contradictory to Weinstein’s (1998) research that reported prospective teachers’ notion of caring is centered on establishing interpersonal relationship with students rather than focusing on pedagogical or management issues. The discrepancy was caused by the difference in their positions; whether they are classroom teachers or specialist teachers. Given that the research participants in this study were physical education specialist teachers who teach students only thirty minutes a week, their saliency in pedagogical caring can be explained. Physical education student teachers appeared to focus on quality instruction of subject matter rather than building relationships with students due to limited access to students. With regard to the factors that influenced caring, lack of time was a major barrier for the student teachers. The issue of time was also related to their status as specialist teachers. Compared with classroom teachers who can teach the same students every day, specialist teachers’ accessibility was limited.

The preservice teachers’ concerns about discipline was found to be another barrier to caring. The preservice teachers’ tension between care and control in the student teaching process was also examined in other research (McLaughlin, 1991). Physical education teachers’ socialization research (Templin, 1981) also suggested that student teacher’s humanistic concept often transformed into a custodial view over the course of student teaching. Although student teacher’s transformation of concept can be understandable, there is a different approach to illuminate the issues of care and control. For example, Noblit (1993) conceptualized caring as “ethical use of power” (p. 24) rather than contradicting concept of control. Noblit’s conceptualization opens a new way of reflecting on the issues of care and control. Teacher educators should encourage preservice teachers to think caring within complex educational contexts as an enactment of moral authority.

This study identified several factors that facilitate student teachers’ concept of caring. Participants’ notion of professionalism helped them establish a caring concept during their student teaching. Inclusion of caring as a part of professionalism is critically important considering the current teacher education trend. Professionalism without caring is not much different from a technocratic view of teaching. Goldstein (2004) noted the growing obsession with student outcomes on standardized testing has increased this technocratic view within teacher education programs, thus replacing humanistic concerns with a focus on accountability and standards.

This study revealed that the cooperating teachers’ role model behavior was also an important factor in caring. The cooperating teachers’ exemplary caring behaviors are critical, considering the huge amount of time spent with them throughout the student teaching process. Furthermore, Goldstein and Freedman (2003) emphasized that teacher educators should establish caring relationship throughout the teacher education program. Teacher educators need to closely examine every aspect of teacher education program including the program structure, organization, curriculum, and philosophy in light of enactment caring (Goldstein & Freedman, 2003).

Even though some research suggested the wash-out effect or reality shock (Lortie, 1975) with regard to the influence of teacher preparation programs, the participants in this study emphasized the importance of the preparation program. With regard to the practicum, one of the student teachers reported the importance of exposure to diverse educational settings. Considering the growing social problems and diverse student populations within many schools, teacher educators should expose preservice teachers to diverse educational settings in order to improve student teachers’ caring capacity.

Finally, the student teaching experience should be established as an opportunistic time to enact and enhance caring behaviors for student teachers. Because student teachers are often obsessed with teaching subject matter and effective classroom management, they tend to limit their roles to a narrowly-defined concept of teaching. Teacher educators and cooperating teachers should encourage student teachers to integrate the two dimensions of caring, interpersonal relationships and pedagogical concern, into their teaching process. Teacher educators and supervisors should provide support for student teachers with the ultimate goal being to consider teaching as “practice in caring” (Noddings, 1986, p. 504).

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OKSEON LEE, PH.D.

Department of Kinesiology

Western Illinois University

DEAN RAVTZZA, PH.D.

Department of Health, Physical Education and Human Performance

Salisbury University

Copyright Project Innovation Spring 2008

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