Abstract:

This paper addresses the critical issues of retention and attrition in early-stage PE teachers through the development of communities in university-based student leadership chapters. Pre-service teacher education is an ideal setting in which to provide real world opportunities to nurture the mental health and resilience that are needed, especially by new PE teachers, or those early in their careers, given the documented isolation of PE teachers and the challenging socio-educational environments within which new PE teachers find themselves. Research indicates that attrition rates for new teachers are an issue for both administrators and policy-makers, as well as District School Boards. Several authors concur that new teachers are extremely vulnerable to leaving the profession in the first five years, and that over 40 per cent decide to quit during this important foundational segment of their careers. To counter this, the authors collaborated with the national professional organization Physical Health Education Canada to begin a voluntary PSTs student leadership program, that involved two primary Canadian university faculties of education in Ontario and Nova Scotia. Each university had a leadership chapter of 5-8 student executives that took on a voluntary role to promote healthy active participation, PE pedagogy and curriculum development for non-PE specialists. The participants all had backgrounds in undergraduate kinesiology or PE and the requisite knowledge to promote PE across learning subjects. This paper discusses the unanticipated lessons and deep learnings that were expressed by the executives. Using qualitative ethnographic methodology, through focus groups and online meetings, the authors used narrative qualitative research to document the process. Executive leaders expressed the extra preparedness they felt to begin their teaching careers and the extraordinary networks that that program created, thus providing an instant support network to prevent attrition and create retention. The success of this program has been dramatic. Over the course of four years, ten other Canadian universities developed student chapters in their faculties of education, noting that the learning involved and the communities and bonds developed had long term impact. In addition to this, graduates of this program were more likely to attain and stay employed in PE, and to pursue graduate studies in this area. In sum, the authors posit that this innovation provides one antidote to the attrition and isolation of PSTs and early-stage PE teachers.

Keywords:

Physical Education, Teacher Education, Pre-service Teachers, Resilience.