Engaging Preservice Teachers in Context-based, Action-oriented Curriculum Development

Life in schools has long been considered to be a complex and emotionally exhausting enterprise. Teachers' working conditions have become further complicated due to the recent economic crisis and through educational reform initiatives that emphasize high-stakes testing, teacher and school accountability, and numeracy and literacy education across the school curriculum. The lives of educators who teach subjects such as physical education (PR) may be even more complicated, as they must deal with added pressures related to their subject being viewed as marginal, or relatively less important in schools. Most physical education teacher education (PETE) programs aim to help preservice teachers develop the content knowledge, skills and dispositions necessary for teaching PE in schools. In summary, this project contextualized curriculum development while also facilitating connections between the university and local school-based physical education programs. It provided a smooth pathway for the sharing of individual talents, resources and ideas, and also facilitated school-university partnerships.