Advocating for Physical Education Through Visibility and Relationship Building

Abstract

Few can argue the marginalized status of physical education in today’s schools, making the advocacy skills of physical educators and preservice teachers (PSTs) increasingly important. This article will describe how visibility and relationship building can be utilized as advocacy efforts. Following this, we will provide suggestions for how to integrate these strategies into physical education teacher education (PETE) programs including: making advocacy a major component of PETE programs early and often, engaging PSTs in hands-on projects, providing PSTs with opportunities to hear from practicing physical educators about advocacy, and developing professional networking skills and dispositions.