Physical Education teachers' perspective on the presence of foreign students at school: Opportunity or problem?

Abstract

This paper analyzes the perspective of Physical Education (PE) teachers on the effects and consequences provoked by the presence of foreign students in their regular and PE classes and in the class dynamics. Also, it aims to understand teachers' reasons about their positive (or negative) perception of classes with foreign students. A multiple case study was conducted with twelve physical education teachers who had more than five years of experience in multicultural public schools (more than 50% of foreign students). Semi-structured interviews and non-participant observations were used to obtain data, and content analysis was employed to interpret it. As a general conclusion, this study revealed that PE teachers think that the presence of foreign students has no negative consequences in PE classes, which they usually have a «romantic» vision of. However, perceptions are more negative when courses are taught in the regular classroom, especially due to the so-called «educational factors» (absence of teachers, unequal distribution of students, little support of public administrations, etc.) and to some characteristics of the «students' profile» (low previous academic level, lack of schooling, unawareness of the school official language, etc.).