Influence of Occupational Socialization on Two Preservice Teachers' Interpretation and Delivery of the Sport Education Model

The purpose of this study was to (a) examine how two preservice teachers (PTs) interpreted and delivered the sport education (SE) model during their student teaching and IF (b) discover factors that led to the their interpreting and delivering the model in the ways they did. The theoretical framework used to guide data collection and analysis was occupational socialization. Data were collected using a variety of qualitative techniques and analyzed using standard interpretive methods. Results revealed that high quality SE-Physical Education Teacher Education (PETE) facilitated both a commitment to the model and the ability to teach the full version of it for a teaching-oriented and moderately coaching-oriented PT. Key elements of SE-PETE responsible for this commitment and competence appeared to be the teaching of prescribed mini-seasons before student teaching, the conditions encountered by PTs during teaching practice, and a host of PETE faculty characteristics congruent with the general PETE occupational socialization literature.