Physical education teachers’ perceptions and operationalisations of personal and social development goals in primary education

Personal and social development constitutes an important goal of physical education (PE) curricula worldwide. Few studies have analysed how PE teachers perceive and operationalise personal and social development goals in their lessons. This study sought to investigate the implemented curriculum of in-service PE teachers, that is, how PE teachers perceive and operationalise personal and social development goals. In sum, 12 experienced primary school PE teachers participated in semi-structured interviews. Deductive-inductive content analysis was used to analyse the data. Findings are discussed under three themes. The first theme, goal versus means, relates to personal and social development as a goal in itself or as a means to achieve other goals. This duality is discussed in relation with how teachers organise their lessons, the tasks and activities they provide, and how they divide children into groups. The second theme, the teacher's role versus children's role, relates to the struggle PE teachers face with delegating responsibilities to children. Under the third theme, (lack of) curriculum line, we discuss the structure or curriculum line that is missing in the pursuit of personal and social development goals. Future research and practice should devote time and effort to training PE teachers to realise personal and social development goals in a more structured and systematic way.