Perceived Mattering of K-12 Physical Education Teachers

Background/Purpose:

Perceived mattering can be viewed as the “psychological tendency to evaluate the self as significant to specific other people” (Marshall, 2001, p. 474).  Scholars agree that individuals with a strong sense of mattering perceive their actions are acknowledged and relevant in the lives of other people (Shieman & Taylor, 2001).  Given that teaching a marginalized subject has been reported to negatively impact physical educators’ feelings of importance and legitimacy (Macdonald, 1995; Sparkes, Templin, & Schempp, 1993), investigating their perceptions of mattering could provide more specific insight into their perceptions of attention, importance, and dependence.  The purpose of this study was to investigate physical educators’ perceptions of their mattering within schools.

Method:

Data sources included survey responses and individual telephone interviews.  The online survey consisted of forced choice (Likert scale, multiple choice) and open-ended questions used to obtain demographic data as well as physical educators’ perceptions of mattering.  Five questions used by Shieman and Taylor (2001) to capture perceived mattering of adults in occupational contexts was replicated with slight modifications for specificity to schools and teachers. 

Approximately 400 physical educators were contacted via email with an invitation to participate in the study using a statewide database.  112 physical educators completed the online survey.  Following initial analysis of survey data, 23 teachers volunteered and completed individual telephone interviews.  All interviews were transcribed verbatim for analysis.

Analysis/Results:

Descriptive statistics (means, SD) were calculated on demographic data and non-parametric procedures applied to forced choice (Likert scale) responses (frequencies, medians, and ranges).  Qualitative data from open-ended questions and individual telephone interviews were analyzed inductively using constant comparison (Patton, 2002) and Huberman and Miles (1994) four-stage process. 

Findings indicated physical educators in this study perceived that: (a) physical education as important to others to provide classroom teachers with planning time, (b) some to value physical education because of a recognition of the importance of physical activity, (c) physical education to be important to students but not most teachers and administrators, (d) they mattered personally to specific others.

Conclusions:

Consistent with previous literature, these findings indicate physical educators perceive others to value physical education for its ability to provide release time for classroom teachers but not as a legitimate subject matter on par with ‘core’ content areas.  Additionally, physical educators perceived personal importance to teachers and administrators due to personal relationships as well as their involvement in central school functions and leadership positions.