Interpreting, translating, and embedding school curriculum in physical education teacher education: the need for collective action within and across the teacher education continuum

Olson, J. K. [1977. “Teacher Education and Curriculum Change: Reexamining the Relationship.” Curriculum Inquiry 7 (1): 61–66]. https://doi.org/10.1080/03626784.1977.11076205. argued how in the wave of curriculum development, the role of teachers, and therefore initial teacher education (ITE), had been neglected and as such, they provided a vision for a revised form of ITE. We contend that almost 50 years on, the ITE community is yet to fulfil this vision for ITE. We explore this argument through the recent wave of physical education curriculum policy development, particularly the introduction of Leaving Certificate Physical Education (LCPE), and the processes of interpretation, translation, and embedding curriculum into ITE. We were guided by the research question: How are physical education teacher educators embedding curriculum into their Physical Education Teacher Education (PETE) programmes to best prepare pre-service teachers (PSTs) to teach such curriculum? Seventeen physical education teacher educators across three ITE institutes were interviewed on the processes of embedding LCPE into their respective programmes. Findings discuss the necessity for PETE programme reconfiguration, the (mis)alignment between PETE and current realities of PSTs, schools, and society, and highlight the need for advocacy and sharing across PETE. This paper advocates for teacher educators to be positioned as policy actors, pedagogical possibilities in PETE, and the need for different stakeholders to work (and learn) together.