Initial Validation of the Teaching Sustainability Questionnaire and Relationships of Latent Factors Predicting Physical Education Teachers Intent to Remain Working in High Poverty Schools

Two physical educators’ sense of purpose as an indicator of teaching sustainability over time in a high-poverty school setting

“…The TSQ incorporates previously validated scales that measure PF (WAAQ-II), tRES (CD-RISC 10), and SOP (LET) to gauge a teachers' IRT in their position (Kern et al, 2020). The test-retest reliability of the TSQ had previously been established using a within-subjects Pearson's r and were highly correlated r (36) ¼ .91, p < .01, the individual within-subjects' correlations were greater than .84 (Kern et al, 2020). Gary and Wayne completed the TSQ (Table 2) once (2018-2019) during the inquiry.…”

“…Teaching sustainability is the capacity to emotionally self-regulate and positively endure life's stressors by grounding decisions in personal values in alignment with long-term goals (Kern et al, 2020). Teaching sustainability includes the concepts of psychological flexibility (PF), teaching resilience (tRes), and a sense of purpose (SOP) (Kern et al, 2020).…”

“…Teaching sustainability is the capacity to emotionally self-regulate and positively endure life's stressors by grounding decisions in personal values in alignment with long-term goals (Kern et al, 2020). Teaching sustainability includes the concepts of psychological flexibility (PF), teaching resilience (tRes), and a sense of purpose (SOP) (Kern et al, 2020). PF refers to a person's ability to approach the present moment and accept what the situation offers, sustain, or alter behavior to pursue one's ambitions and beliefs (Bond et al, 2013) .tRes is simply the ability of an individual to recover during adverse situations (Sammons et al, 2007).…”

“…Teachers with a strong SOP are more resilient and can maintain high-level performance over time (Gu and Day, 2007), which is true in PE settings (Ellison and Woods, 2019b). A recent investigation of teaching sustainability in high-poverty schools demonstrated that the constructs of PF, tRes, and SOP can accurately predict PE teachers' intent to remain teaching (IRT) (Kern et al, 2020). In this inquiry, Kern et al (2020) distributed a teaching sustainability questionnaire (TSQ) to a nationally representative sample of PE teachers employed in schools that serve low-income families in the US.…”

“…A recent investigation of teaching sustainability in high-poverty schools demonstrated that the constructs of PF, tRes, and SOP can accurately predict PE teachers' intent to remain teaching (IRT) (Kern et al, 2020). In this inquiry, Kern et al (2020) distributed a teaching sustainability questionnaire (TSQ) to a nationally representative sample of PE teachers employed in schools that serve low-income families in the US. The TSQ applied previously validated scales that measured PF, tRes, and SOP to investigate teachers' IRT in their current position.…”