Primary Physical Education Specialist Teachers’ Perceptions of Role and Agency

The first 10 years of a child’s life are considered the most critical in developing their future interests and behaviours, including a commitment to being physically active. Therefore, positive experiences within primary school, where children often experience structured physical activity (PA) for the first time (and only time for some) are considered essential. As the subject uniquely tasked with corporeal development, physical education (PE) is increasingly being recognised for the role it can play in setting a foundation for lifelong engagement in PA. However, with a diversifying workforce and variable levels of quality noted, there is considerable international debate about who is best placed to deliver high-quality PE in primary schools. Since 2015 there has been the option in England to train as a primary school teacher with PE specialism, and this group of teachers now makes up a small but significant number of the workforce. Survey research during their pre-service training has identified that these teachers accumulate more hours of PE-specific tuition, observe and teach more PE lessons, and identify as more confident and willing PE teachers than their non-specialist colleagues. However, there is yet to be any research exploring the specialists’ perceptions and experiences once they are in-service. Research has previously questioned the role/s and purpose of PE specialists in the primary sector and how their expertise may be utilised in a landscape that is becoming increasingly complex, with a maze of policy and initiatives, stakeholders from within and beyond education, and increasing accountability. Therefore, this study adopted a constructivist grounded theory approach to investigate how 20 primary PE specialist teachers perceived their PE role/s. It then utilised Priestly et al.’s (2013) ecological conceptualisation of teacher agency as a theoretical framework to critically examine the factors considered to mediate the specialists’ sense that they were achieving agency in these roles. All participants qualified to teach via a one-year, full-time primary education (5-11) PE specialist post-graduate certificate in education. The sample comprised 12 males and eight females, roughly reflecting the gender cohort ratio on the pathway. Data were collected via a single interview with each teacher, either face-to-face or via video conference call and analysed in three stages. Firstly, via inductive analysis to identify the specialists’ perceived roles, then the data were sorted into categories from Priestly et al.’s (2013) ecological conceptualisation of teacher agency model, and finally, a process of open coding provided a more nuanced account of the specialists’ sense of agency. The findings reveal that the PE specialist teachers perceived they had four key roles: to teach high-quality PE, to provide PE guidance and support to colleagues, to be an advocate for PE, sport and PA, and to be an effective PE subject leader (SL). Reflecting on their extensive sporting histories and their education and training, the specialists all considered that they had the agentic capacity to be successful in their perceived roles. However, the school ecology, i.e. the structural, cultural and material contexts within which they were working, significantly shaped the specialists’ sense that they were achieving agency and consequently, their actions and aspirations. The factors influencing primary PE specialist teachers’ perceptions of agency are presented in a novel conceptual framework, which may function as a model for future empirical studies. The study concludes with a discussion around the potential for primary PE specialist teachers to meaningfully enhance PE provision, but warns of the significance of the environmental context and how it may serve to incapacitate individuals with otherwise high agentic capacity.