Abstract
The present study was conducted to investigate the factors that led a physical education teacher (Mr. A) to adopt an interactive and collaborative approach, which was not common at a time when special education was the mainstream for children with disabilities. Adopting an autobiographical approach focusing on his life history during the period of teacher training at university and when he was assigned to a public elementary school, the KJ method and SCAT were used to analyze interviews and records of articles and other documents written by Mr. A. The results revealed the following.
Mr. A’s cross-cultural experience of studying abroad under the guidance and recommendation of his undergraduate thesis advisor was a factor in shaping his identity as a teacher involved in the education of children with disabilities at an elementary school upon graduation.
After being assigned to an elementary school, he initially conducted research on interactive physical education as a special class teacher. However, after being transferred to a school in a remote area, he began to conduct research on interactive physical education as a strategy for utilizing his expertise as a regular classroom teacher. His consistent practice of interactive and collaborative learning in physical education and the presentation of his research stemmed directly from his identity as a teacher involved in the education of elementary children with disabilities, which had formed at the time of his graduation.
Mr. A’s self-belief in the type of teacher he would be during the teacher training stage was an important factor influencing his practice and research into an interactive and collaborative approach to physical education after beginning his teaching career.
As a future issue, it will be necessary to clarify how Mr. A’s self-belief in his identity as a physical education teacher influenced his approach to interactive and collaborative learning in the second and third phases of his career.
