Teacher-coach-mom: a collaborative autoethnographic exploration into the clashing cultures of physical education and school sport

ABSTRACT

Using collaborative autoethnography, critical incidents, and artefacts, one teacher/coach (T/C) role conflict is contextualized in the Canadian physical education & school sport (PESS) setting. The purpose of the project was to use CAE in conjunction with a systematic analysis to promote personal narratives as both an approach to practitioner reflection and as a form of research inquiry to forward the field of PESS and occupational socialization. Data analysis sought to answer the singular question: Was the experience educative? An educative experience required alignment with the Meaningful PE democratic principles of autonomy and inclusivity. Critical accounts of T/C role conflicts resulted in the undesired continuity of T/C role socialization. By sharing these stories to learn by educators are encouraged to reflect on, question, and consider T/C roles in their educational settings.

KEYWORDS:

• Physical education
• teacher/coach role
• autoethnography
• teaching
• school sport

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 In Alberta, assignable time is the maximum times that a teacher can be assigned to work for the school, this is over and above instructional time and may include, but is not limited to supervision, coaching, school assigned activities, etc.

2 Individual – four-part person (intellectual, spiritual, emotional and social) (Bob Cardinal, personal communication, 2018).

3 Environment – encompassing all our relations (people, places, animals and objects) (Bob Cardinal, personal communication, 2018).