ABSTRACT
The histories of school physical education (PE) programs and specialized teacher education programs (PETE) need to be rendered and interpreted in relation to the history of the industrial age school. Unfortunately, conventional PE histories have not been developed in this way. Many can be viewed as narrow, selectively descriptive, advocacy-oriented, and devoid of salient social theory, particularly institutional theory. Whether by design or happenstance, these histories reinforce a tendency to assume that yesterday’s PE and PETE also are fit for purpose tomorrow. This tendency is especially apparent when the industrial age school’s enduring imprints are left out. Needs, opportunities, and imperatives for PE’s redesign are founded in part on the industrial age school’s sub-optimal influences. This model school type-casts all manner of actors (e.g., teachers, students, parents) and actions, which signals a powerful social institution. The social institutional, historical analysis offered in this chapter facilitates understanding of how and why PE and PETE develop remarkable resilience to change, including the systematic reproduction of sub-optimal ideas, policies, programs, and practices implicated in inequitable opportunities and outcomes for students and teachers. Redesign begins with analyses of institutionalized PE/PETE’s form, content, social relations, and outcomes.
