All In: Teachers' and College Faculty's Roles in Recruiting Future Physical Educators

Morgan flounced into the faculty lounge and sank into a chair. He love fourth hour. Those kids are exactly the reason he decided to go into physical education. None of them are that skilled, but they all work so hard. It's just thrilling to watch their excitement when they succeed. Morgan's enthusiasm parallels the joy of many neophyte educators. Teacher candidates have identified their decision to enter the profession as primarily due to a desire for personal fulfillment. Other key motivators include passion for the subject matter and an acknowledged love of children. Physical education teacher education (PETE) programs have been hit particularly hard. Once robust programs are experiencing drastically lowered enrollment numbers, contributing to the closure of several outstanding PETE programs across the nation. The purpose of this article was to discuss the roles that inservice physical education teachers and PETE faculty can play in the recruitment of students into PETE programs. The arguments presented are grounded in the body of research related to occupational socialization theory.