Chapter 5: Recruitment in PETE: Survey Results and Discussion

Abstract

Background/Purpose: This aspect of this study examined physical education teacher education (PETE) program coordinators’ perspectives on their role in student recruitment, including common recruitment strategies and their effectiveness, perceived barriers to engaging in program recruitment, and commonly used marketing strategies. Method: Data were collected from 175 PETE program coordinators through the online survey described fully in Chapter 4 of this monograph. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Pearson’s correlation coefficients, and one-way analyses of variance. Results: Strategies perceived as effective in recruiting high school students were moderately associated with those most often implemented (r = .46–.50). Some limited differences by Carnegie level were found related to reported barriers to participation in recruitment activities. Discussion/Conclusion: This study reveals general consistency between PETE coordinators’ perceptions of the most effective and frequently used recruitment strategies to attract students into PETE initial licensure programs. Strategies, barriers, and suggested future directions align with much of the PETE recruitment literature.

Using Secondary Teachers for Frontline Recruitment: The Lost Link for Recruitment

“…In tandem with decreased enrollment, there is a steady decline in high school students entering the fields of teacher education (King, 2018). Similarly, following national trends, there has been a steady decline of students enrolled in Physical Education Teacher Education (PETE) programs, and several PETE programs have been eliminated or face elimination on college campuses (Woods & Ayers, 2019). There is a dire need to address recruitment and admission challenges in PETE programs, which has important implications for filling the teacher pipeline, teacher quality, and ultimately K-12 student learning (SHAPE America & National Association for Kinesiology in Higher Education [NAKHE], 2018).…”

“…In a recent Journal of Teaching Physical Education monograph, PETE recruitment and retention was explored from the lens of PETE program coordinators (Woods & Ayers, 2019). The monograph covers an exploratory study examining PETE programs recruitment and retention in the United States (Woods & Ayers, 2019). The study comes from the perspectives of PETE program coordinators via a survey and follow up interviews.…”

“…Richards and Templin (2019) argue that because of the current numbers in PETE programs this passive approach is limiting and leaves recruitment to chance. Furthermore, research examining the use of PETE coordinators as recruiters found that PETE program coordinators report major barriers to recruitment including a lack of training and no workload responsibility dedicated to the practice of recruitment in secondary schools (Ayers & Woods, 2019). However, PETE program coordinators did report a willingness to work with high school physical education teachers in recruitment practices (Ayers & Woods, 2019).…”

“…Furthermore, research examining the use of PETE coordinators as recruiters found that PETE program coordinators report major barriers to recruitment including a lack of training and no workload responsibility dedicated to the practice of recruitment in secondary schools (Ayers & Woods, 2019). However, PETE program coordinators did report a willingness to work with high school physical education teachers in recruitment practices (Ayers & Woods, 2019). This shows promise in terms of engaging more than one stakeholder (e.g., PETE program directors) into the recruitment discussion.…”

Recruitment of Future Physical Education Teachers Will Require All Hands on Deck

“…As a result, PETE programs across the United States have experienced smaller cohorts of students enrolling and graduating with an initial PE teacher license, certificate or endorsement (Ward, 2019). To counteract this trend, many PETE faculty members have been tasked with the challenging job of generating recruitment strategies to attract and retain high-quality students in their programs (Ayers & Woods, 2019;Bulger, Braga, DiGiacinto, & Jones, 2016). Recognizing the significant impact PE teachers and interscholastic coaches have on the lives and decisions of young people, it would seem incomplete to not invite teachers to consider joining us in recruiting highquality future PE teachers.…”