Republic of Korean middle school general physical educator's level of empowerment in an inclusive physical education environment

There were two purposes of this dissertation. The first purpose was to determine the level of physical educator empowerment who teach in an inclusive physical education environment compared to the level of physical educator empowerment who teach in a noninclusive physical education environment. The second purpose was to compare the level of physical educator empowerment to age, gender, teaching experience, and level of education.

Three hundred nine Korean general middle school physical educators participated in this study. Among the 309 physical educators, 157 had teaching experience in an inclusive physical education environment and 152 had no teaching experience with students with disabilities in their classes. All participants completed the Physical Educator Empowerment Scale (PEES) to compare the level of physical educator empowerment between the two different teaching environment groups.

Based on the analyses of the data using Spearman correlation and one-way MANOVA, the results were:

1. Strong positive correlations were determined for all six dimensions (decision making, professional growth, self-efficacy, impact, status, and autonomy) of physical educator empowerment in all three groups (p < .01).

2. The level of physical educator empowerment was significantly lower when general physical educators who taught in an inclusive physical education environment compared to the level of empowerment when the teachers taught in a noninclusive physical education environment (p < .001).

3. No significant demographic predictor was found in physical educators who taught in an inclusive physical education class and the only significant demographic predictor in physical educators who taught in a noninclusive physical education class was a level of education.

Based on the results of this study, university curriculum for the general physical educator teaching program needs to be modified to prepare physical educators at the preservice level to effectively function in inclusionary environments, and a number of inservice programs related inclusive physical education must be developed and implemented to increase the level of empowerment for general physical educators who presently or in the future teach in inclusive physical education environments.