The Social Context as a Determinant of Teacher Motivational Strategies in Physical Education

THE SOCIAL CONTEXT AS 16

myself with the older kids. I keep calling them kids, I’m not meant to. Pupils.

I’d get slated if my tutor was listening. Social interaction. A fine line.

Interviewer: What do you mean fine line?

Karen: You don’t want to be over friendly with them. Or I personally don’t
want to be over friendly with them. You always want to keep a little bit of
yourself back I think. You don’t want them to see the real you, the whole you.
Interviewer: Why do you think you should keep a little bit back?

Karen: Well it’s a job, it’s the act at the end of the day. You’re your own
person as well. I don’t want them to know, do you know what I mean? I’ve
got a private life as well. I don’t want them to know what I was getting up to
at the weekend or last night.

Interviewer: So how important is that then regarding their motivation?

Karen: I wouldn’t say it has that much importance.

The excerpts of Karen and Hayley provide an interesting contrast in teaching beliefs
and further emphasize the need to consider the individual teacher when exploring teaching
contexts. The above passages also emphasize how the younger teachers interviewed in the
present study seem to perceive the teacher-student relationship very differently compared to
the more experienced teachers interviewed.

Another example of how the teacher-student relationship may have changed over
time seems to benefit students by stopping verbal abuse by teachers. Bruce, a 44 year-old
teacher in a state-funded school provided an example:

The school system has changed. It has altered the way PE teachers approach
(teaching). There are a certain amount of PE teachers who are bully boys; they
bullied you in to doing stuff. One of my PE teachers was a bit of a bully in
some ways, not physically but verbally. So I think obviously the system has

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