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Novice teachers face several challenges during their first years of socialization in schools, often feeling unprepared in managing the full range of teaching duties. If teacher retention and attrition are to be improved, research on the difficulties encountered by novice teachers in diverse contexts and cultures is required. There is a lack of studies regarding physical education (PE) teachers’ induction processes, especially outside Anglophone countries. The aim of this study was, from an occupational socialization perspective, to examine how Swedish novice PE teachers experience, perceive and manage their induction process. Through a single-case study design with embedded multiple units of analysis, we interviewed eight Swedish novice PE teachers. Based on thematic analysis, the results show that Swedish novice PE teachers experience several challenges related to reality shock, marginalization and isolation during induction. We identified three approaches used by the novices as central to successfully managing challenges of induction in the Swedish context: (1) socializing into a community of colleagues, (2) performing the role of the PE teacher as health promoter and (3) maintaining a critical teaching perspective. We conclude that these novice teachers’ socialization relies heavily on the individual, and therefore we argue that the induction process could be further facilitated by formal organizational support. This paper confirms long-standing difficulties reported in other countries, and contributes with new knowledge of how the approaches used when managing challenges of induction are contextually dependent due to the social and political surroundings of education.

There are many factors and duties that novice teachers do not know about when they enter the profession. Isolation, for instance, affects physical education (PE) teachers because the position often comes with a secluded workplace adjacent to the gym and through the subject's marginalization. These challenges, among others, can send the novice teacher into shock, and there is a risk the teacher becomes disengaged from the profession. This study aimed to provide insights into PE teachers’ experiences of reality shock, isolation, and marginalization over time, as well as how they managed these challenges. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with nine Swedish PE teachers six to 10 years after graduation from PE teacher education (PETE). Qualitative content analysis was used. All participants retrospectively described a reality shock when they were novices, where non-subject-specific teacher assignments were experienced as more challenging compared to teaching PE. Further, isolation had a severe effect. However, the marginalization of PE was not that apparent as when they were novices. Over time, the participants created their own networks to mitigate, for example, isolation. In turn, marginalization seemed to be a remaining challenge to the participants despite an increased societal focus on health. Even though it is impossible for PETE to prepare teachers for every challenge they could face in the profession, PETE should inform preservice teachers of common phenomena such as isolation and marginalization, as well as how to create supporting networks. Further, we argue that perceived autonomy combined with systematic guidance could positively affect novice teachers’ development.

Scholars have highlighted that physical education teacher education (PETE) reproduce a managerial rather than educational notion of physical education (PE) teacher professionalism. Research grounded in explicit theories of learning can productively contribute to reflective discussions of teaching and learning in PE practices, for example PETE’s role in promoting professional knowledge and critical judgement. The aim of the study is to empirically explore, from a transactional approach, what happens in learning occasions when preservice teachers (PSTs) participate in a PETE subject matter course. The purposive sampling resulted in choosing a group consisting of 24 PSTs (11 female students and 13 male students) studying a course given at one Swedish PETE institution. Data consisted of field notes from participant observations during 28 lessons. A practical epistemology analysis was used to explore how knowledge is produced and reproduced in PETE lessons. Two major themes were found in the analysis: indeterminate situations connected to (a) PSTs developing movement capability and (b) PSTs developing a teacher’s perspective. The indeterminate situations the PSTs noticed, which varied between two types of staged encounters and elements in PETE characterised by a theory-practice dualism, seemed to contribute to certain processes of inquiry but not others. Within both themes, a contextualisation of the covered subject matter and the teacher educators’ use of concepts were important to the direction of the PSTs’ learning processes. An understanding of the role of inquiry, and of how individuals’ prior experience take part in learning processes, are argued to be important in PETE teaching.

Research has shown that a critical teaching perspective is at risk if preservice teachers perceive a gap between university- and field-based courses. This study explores how preservice physical education (PE) teachers make meaning out of their participation in a subject didactics course and the practicum. Interviews conducted across 1 year revealed that preservice teachers experienced PE teaching as practical skills and the advocacy of movement and health during the university-based course but not during the practicum. In both contexts, teaching as didactic and embodied knowledge was perceived as being meaningful. The study suggests that emotional learning occasions, role models, and clear purposes are supportive for a critical teaching perspective.